The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is a multi-purpose arena at Exposition Park, in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States of America. It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, just south of the campus of the University of Southern California.
History [edit]
The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was opened on July 4, 1959 by then U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Its first event followed four days later, a Bantamweight title fight between Jose Becerra and Alphonse Halimi on July 8, 1959. The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena became a companion facility to the adjacent Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and home court to the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA from October 1960 to December 1967, the Los Angeles Clippers also of the NBA from 1984–1999, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL from October to December 1967 during their inaugural 1967-68 season, the USC Trojans basketball team of the NCAA from 1959–2006, the UCLA Bruins Basketball team of the NCAA from 1959–1965 and again as a temporary home in 2011-2012, the Los Angeles Blades of the Western Hockey League from 1961 to 1967, the Los Angeles Sharks of the WHA from 1972–1974, the Los Angeles Cobras of the AFL in 1988, and the original Los Angeles Stars of the ABA from 1968–1970. The arena played host to the top indoor track meet on the West Coast, the annual Los Angeles Invitational track meet (frequently called the "Sunkist Invitational", with title sponsorship by Sunkist Growers, Incorporated), from 1960 until the event's demise in 2004. Since the Trojans left, the arena has taken on a lower profile. The arena still holds high school basketball championships, as well as concerts and conventions. The UCLA men's basketball team played a majority of their home games at the Sports Arena during the 2011-12 season while Pauley Pavilion underwent renovation.
Since its opening day, the arena has hosted the 1960 Democratic National Convention, the 1968 and 1972 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four, the 1992 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four, the 1963 NBA All-Star Game, and the boxing competitions during the 1984 Summer Olympics.[4] In addition to hosting the final portion of WrestleMania 2 in 1986, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena has also hosted WrestleMania VII in 1991 as well as other WWE events, although Staples Center is now WWE's primary Los Angeles home. The arena also hosted When Worlds Collide, a 1994 joint card between the Mexican lucha libre promotion AAA and World Championship Wrestling (which normally called the Great Western Forum home until they, too, moved to Staples Center) that is credited with introducing the lucha style to English-speaking audiences in the U.S. NBC's renewed version of American Gladiators was filmed from the arena.
The arena [edit]
The arena has recently undergone a major renovation to bring it up to 21st century seismic standards and is well maintained. There are 4 fully equipped team rooms, 2 smaller rooms for officials, and 2 private dressing rooms for individual performers. There are two additional meeting rooms on site which can be used for administrative or hospitality functions.
Spectator amenities include a full-service main ticket office, a secondary box office and 2 portable booths, 6 permanent concession stands, and a first-aid station. A club and restaurant are located on the arena level of the facility. A number of operational improvements have also been made to enhance accessibility for the handicapped. These include the installation of 14 additional handicapped parking stalls, hand rails on both sides of the pedestrian ramp leading to the floor level seating, handicapped accessible drinking fountains, an Assistive Listening System to aid the hearing impaired, conversion of restroom facilities, dressing rooms and bathroom fixtures for the handicapped, and increased informational signage. Event presentation is augmented by a four-sided overhead scoreboard with several auxiliary boards.
The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena seats up to 16,740 for boxing/wrestling, 16,161 for basketball, and 14,546 for hockey. There are 12,389 fixed upper-level, theatre-type seats and arena-level seating which varies by sport.
Recent developments [edit]
UCLA vs.
Richmond, Los Angeles Sports Arena, December 23, 2011
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission embarked on a seismic retrofit, designed to bring the Sports Arena up to 21st century seismic standards. In order to reinforce the existing 316,700-square-foot (29,420 m2) structure, a series of steel braced frames were connected to the existing concrete structural system at both the arena and loge levels of the building. To provide a solid footing for these steel frames, portions of the arena floor had to be excavated, then reinforced to provide extra strength. Once the steel frames were fitted and incorporated into the existing structure between existing support columns, concrete was then re-poured into the area. The original crown of the arena, one of its most distinguishing characteristics, was the countless small ceramic tiles, each measuring no more than a square inch in width. A multitude of the crown's tiles were loosening and many others were discolored. In order to remedy this, a new crown was designed, this time using individual sections of EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finishing System), which offered the decided advantages of better durability, easier maintenance and improved thermal characteristics. A foundation surface was applied directly over the existing tiles, in order to seal the crown and give the new surface something to adhere to. Once the structural work was finished, the walls, ceilings, doors, floors and other areas involved in the modification had to be put back together. Throughout the entire project, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena remained open for business. The resulting arena now features a brand-new crown around the exterior of the building, as well as a new terrazzo floor on the concourse level.
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in January 2011
- The floor area comprises a 144 by 262-foot (80 m) space (38,000 sq ft.), affording the largest standing floor capacity of any arena in the area.
- There is a 75-foot (23 m) vertical clearance.
- The arena has a unique, expansive floor-level footprint of nearly 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2) and 101,557 square feet (9,435.0 m2) on the concourse level, allowing the installation of any needed display, food or other programming requirements.
- There is an enormous load-in ramp at the west side of the arena with a 40-foot (12 m) wide entry.
- Print, radio and television media may be serviced on each side of the arena by installation of any kind of portable facilities.
- Five permanent TV locations are located on the concourse level. In addition, a 6-foot-wide (1.8 m) catwalk is suspended from the ceiling and circles the arena for cameras or spotlights.
- Spectators can reach arena level seating area either by circulatory ramp on the southwest side of the building or by a stairway located next to the north doors. There are also escalators located at the southwest and northeast sides of the building.
- The Sports Arena was the first NBA arena to feature a rotating billboard at courtside. Rotating billboards eventually became standard at all NBA arenas.
- In 1975, from April 23–27, Pink Floyd performed a series of five concerts at the arena, where approximately 500 concert goers were arrested, mostly on charges involving possession of marijuana.[6][7] This venue was only one of five places where they performed their album The Wall live on The Wall Tour in 1980. They later recorded, with some help from the arena's PA system and acoustics, a guitar part for the introduction of the track "Sorrow" for their studio album A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
- Michael Jackson performed six sold-out shows on November 13, 1988 and January 16, 17, 18 and 26, 27, 1989 at Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, attended by 108,000 people in total, as part of his Bad World Tour. The January 27 concert, which brought the Bad Tour to a close, proved to be Jackson's final full concert on the U.S. mainland.
- During an April 15, 2009 performance, Bruce Springsteen called the arena "the joint that don't disappoint." Also during the performance on April 16, he referred to the Sports Arena as "the dump that jumps".
- In December 1968 a large musical festival was held at the arena, the Los Angeles Pop Festival, featuring twelve rock and pop bands. It was also called "A Christmas Happening".
See also [edit]
References [edit]
External links [edit]
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