Sports in Los Angeles: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit Next edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 12:51, 18 July 2020

File:LA Dons & Baltimore Colts Herman Wedemeyer.jpg

Native Hawaiian Herman Wedemeyer was a fan favorite of the Los Angeles Dons before being traded to Baltimore.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to several professional and collegiate sports teams. The Greater Los Angeles Area has eleven major league professional teams: the Anaheim Ducks, the Los Angeles Angels, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles FC, LA Galaxy, the Los Angeles Kings, the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Sparks, and the Los Angeles Rams. USC Trojans football, UCLA Bruins men's basketball, USC Trojans baseball, USC Trojans track & field, and Cal State Fullerton Titans baseball are all historically premier organizations in college sports. Other major sports teams include UCLA Bruins Football, Pepperdine Waves baseball, and formerly the Los Angeles Raiders and Los Angeles Aztecs. Between them, these Los Angeles area sports teams have won a combined 105 championship titles. Los Angeles area colleges have produced upwards of 200 national championship teams, primarily from USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins of the Pac-12 Conference.

Los Angeles is home to a variety of sporting venues including the two National Historic Landmarks, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Bowl, the multi-purpose arena , Staples Center, and the roof-covered SoFi stadium. Los Angeles has hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics. In 2028, the city will host the Olympics for a third time. Los Angeles also hosted games of the 1994 FIFA World Cup including the final match.^[1] It is scheduled to host matches in 2026 World Cup. LA will host both the MLB All-Star Game and the MLS All-Star Game in 2020.^[2] The College Football Playoff National Championship in 2023. It will also host the Super Bowl for an eighth time when they host Super Bowl LVI in 2022.^[3] The USGA has also decided to bring the Golf US Open back to Los Angeles in 2023 and will be hosted in the L.A. Country Club.^[4] The geography and weather of Los Angeles also make Los Angeles a hub for surfing, and beach volleyball.

Major league professional teams

Current teams

Angels

Dodgers

Galaxy

Lakers Sparks Clippers Kings

Location of major league teams in Greater Los Angeles area

Los Angeles is home to major league sports teams from all five major leagues — MLB, MLS, the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL — as well as one team in the WNBA, a top level women's league. The following are the major professional teams in the Los Angeles area.

Club	League	Venue	Attendance	Founded	Established in L.A.	Titles in L.A.
Los Angeles Angels	Major League Baseball	Angel Stadium	37,277	1961	1961	1
Los Angeles Dodgers	Major League Baseball	Dodger Stadium	46,216	1883	1958	5^{[a 1]}
Anaheim Ducks	National Hockey League	Honda Center	15,887	1993	1993	1
Los Angeles Kings	National Hockey League	Staples Center	18,178	1967	1967	2
Los Angeles Clippers	National Basketball Association		19,226	1970	1984	0
Los Angeles Lakers	National Basketball Association		18,997	1947	1960	11^{[a 2]}
Los Angeles Sparks	Women's National Basketball Association		10,998	1997	1997	3
Los Angeles FC	Major League Soccer	Banc of California Stadium	22,000	2018	2018	0
LA Galaxy	Major League Soccer	Dignity Health Sports Park	23,136	1996	1996	5
Los Angeles Chargers	National Football League	SoFi Stadium	70,240	1960	1960, 2017	0^{[a 3]}
Los Angeles Rams	National Football League	SoFi Stadium	70,240	1936	1946, 2016	1^{[a 4]}

^ Does not include 1955 World Series won in Brooklyn.
^ Does not include five championships won in Minneapolis.
^ Does not include 1963 AFL Championship Game won in San Diego
^ Does not include 1945 NFL Championship Game won in Cleveland or Super Bowl XXXIV won in St. Louis.

Former teams

Club	League	Last Venue	Years in L.A.	Championships
Los Angeles Dons	All-America Football Conference	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	1946–1949	0
Los Angeles Raiders	National Football League	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	1982–1994	1 (1983: Super Bowl XVIII)
Chivas USA	Major League Soccer	StubHub Center	2005–2014	0

Baseball

The Los Angeles area is one of four metropolitan areas to host two Major League Baseball teams—the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League and the Los Angeles Angels in the American League.

The Dodgers were founded in Brooklyn, New York in 1883; they officially adopted the name Dodgers in 1932. The team moved to Los Angeles before the 1958 season and played four consecutive seasons at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before they moved to their current home stadium, Dodger Stadium, in 1962. The Dodgers are one of the most valuable franchises in MLB. They have won six World Series championships and twenty four National League pennants.^[5] Eleven NL MVP award winners have played for the Dodgers, winning a total of thirteen MVP Awards; eight Cy Young Award winners have also pitched for the Dodgers, winning a total of twelve Cy Young Awards. The team has even had eighteen Rookie of the Year Award winners, twice as many as the next closest team, including four consecutive from 1979 to 1982 and five consecutive from 1992 to 1996.^[6] Los Angeles and the Dodgers are set to host the MLB All-Star Game in the summer of 2022.^[2]

The Los Angeles Angels were established as one of the league's first two expansion teams in 1961 by Gene Autry. The Los Angeles Angels played their home games at Los Angeles Wrigley Field and moved in 1962 to newly built Dodger Stadium, which the Angels referred to as Chavez Ravine, where they were tenants of the Dodgers through 1965. In 1966, they moved to current home, Angel Stadium in Anaheim. In 2002, the Angels won their first and only American League pennant and World Series when they defeated the San Francisco Giants 4–3.^[5] The Angels have had many award winners including five AL MVP award winners by three players, two Cy Young Award winners and three Rookie of the Year Award winners.^[7]

Basketball

Los Angeles boasts two NBA teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. Both share the Staples Center. The Lakers are one of the most valuable franchises in the NBA and have gained a considerable fanbase over the years. They have the most titles of all Los Angeles franchises, having gained 11 titles in LA and 16 overall. Their title count is second only to the Boston Celtics, who have 17 titles. The LA Lakers were founded as the Minneapolis Lakers, having moved to Southern California in 1960.^{[citation needed]}

The LA Clippers were founded as the Buffalo Braves in 1970; in 1978, the team moved to San Diego and changed the nickname to Clippers; the team re-located from San Diego in 1984. They were one of three expansion teams to join the NBA that year, along with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers. The Braves saw some success and reached the playoffs three times, led by league Most Valuable Player (MVP) Bob McAdoo. Conflicts with the Canisius Golden Griffins over the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and the sale of the franchise led to them relocating from Buffalo, New York, to San Diego, California.

When he died in 2013, Lakers owner Jerry Buss also owned the city's WNBA franchise, the Los Angeles Sparks, which also plays at Staples Center. His family still owns the Lakers, but has since sold the Sparks to Guggenheim Partners, the current owners of the Dodgers. One year later, longtime Clippers owner Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA after derogatory statements he made became public, and was subsequently forced to sell the team. The franchise was purchased by former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer in August 2014. The Clippers plan to build a new arena in Inglewood, across from SoFi Stadium, by 2024 when their lease with Staples Center expires.^{[citation needed]}

Football

Los Angeles Chargers Text Logo

The region has two National Football League (NFL) teams: the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams. The Rams originally played in LA from 1946 to 1994, while the Chargers shared LA with them for only one season in 1960. Los Angeles did not have an NFL team in between the 1994 season and the 2016 season. Immediately after the 1994 season, the Los Angeles Rams moved from suburban Anaheim, California, to St. Louis, Missouri, and the Los Angeles Raiders returned to Oakland, California. Over the years between 1995 and 2016 there were multiple failed stadium proposals to bring back the NFL to Los Angeles and teams threatening to move in. On January 12, 2016, NFL owners voted 30–2 to allow the then St. Louis Rams to move back to Los Angeles and allow for the construction of the stadium proposed by Rams owner Stan Kroenke over a plan proposed by the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers would still follow through with a move to Carson a year later in 2017 and plan on sharing the Rams' new stadium in Los Angeles.^[8]^[9] The Rams and Chargers will play their home games at their new 70,240-seat SoFi Stadium in Inglewood starting in 2020. 2017 marked the first time since 1960 that the Rams and Chargers shared the same market and the first time since 1994 that the market had two NFL teams.

Prior to the NFL, Los Angeles had multiple teams in the American Football League. The Los Angeles Wildcats, also called "Wilson Wildcats", were a traveling team for the first AFL in 1926. The Los Angeles Bulldogs were members of AFL II (1937) and a minor AFL (1939) before joining the Pacific Coast Professional Football League. The original Los Angeles Chargers were a charter member of AFL IV, becoming the San Diego Chargers in 1961. The Los Angeles Mustangs were members of the short-lived American Football League in 1944. From 1983–1985 the Los Angeles Express was a team in the United States Football League.

Hockey

The region has two NHL teams — the Los Angeles Kings, which entered the league when it doubled in size in 1967, and the Anaheim Ducks, which joined in 1993 as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

The Kings were founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent Cooke was awarded an NHL expansion franchise for Los Angeles on February 9, 1966, becoming one of the six teams that began play as part of the 1967 NHL expansion. Prior to the Kings arrival in the Los Angeles area, both the Pacific Coast Hockey League (PCHL) and the Western Hockey League (WHL) had several teams in California, including the PCHL's Los Angeles Monarchs of the 1930s and the WHL's Los Angeles Blades of the 1960s.^[10] The Kings have won two Stanley Cup titles in 2012 and 2014.

The Ducks were founded in 1993 by The Walt Disney Company with an entrance fee of $50 million, half of which Disney paid to the Los Angeles Kings as compensation for sharing the Southern California NHL market.^[11] On March 1, 1993, at the brand-new Anaheim Arena – located a short distance east of Disneyland and across the Orange Freeway from Angel Stadium – the team received its name, inspired by the 1992 Disney movie The Mighty Ducks.^[12] As a result of the name adoption, the arena was named "The Pond",^[12] and Disney subsequently made an animated series called Mighty Ducks, featuring a fictional Mighty Ducks of Anaheim team consisting of anthropomorphized ducks led by the Mighty Ducks' mascot, Wildwing.^[13] The Ducks have won the Stanley Cup once in 2007.

Soccer

Dignity Health Sports Park serves as home to the Galaxy

The Los Angeles area hosts two teams in Major League Soccer (MLS), the top flight of the men's sport in the United States: the LA Galaxy, a charter member of the league, and Los Angeles FC, which began play in 2018. The Galaxy have five MLS championships, more than any other MLS team as of 2019^[update]. The two teams play in "El Tráfico", the cross-town derby. Chivas USA was a member of Major League Soccer starting in 2005, but was shut down by the league in 2014.

Before the MLS was created, the Los Angeles Wolves of the United Soccer Association and the Los Angeles Toros of the National Professional Soccer League both had its first season in 1967. When both leagues merged to form the North American Soccer League, the Wolves remained in Los Angeles while the Toros relocated and became the San Diego Toros in 1968. When the first season ended, both teams folded. Later, the NASL returned a team to Los Angeles by establishing the Los Angeles Aztecs in 1974, but folded in 1981. The Los Angeles Lazers was owned by Jerry Buss and played in the MISL from 1982 to 1988. Buss again owned the Los Angeles United in the CISL but after one season (1993) sold the team. The United relocated to Anaheim and became Anaheim Splash playing from 1993 - 1997 then folding as well.

The Los Angeles Sol played one season (2009) of Women's Professional Soccer before folding.

Other sports in Los Angeles

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

The sport of Mixed Martial Arts (in the U.S.) was first conceived of and created in the Los Angeles area. Rorion Gracie and Art Davie co-created the MMA promotion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (the UFC), in 1993 out of Torrance, CA, under the War of the Worlds (W.O.W.) promotion company. The sport of Mixed Martial Arts slowly developed in its first decade. By the year 2005, the UFC had grown into a viable fight promotion company and the sport of MMA was on its way to becoming a mainstream sport in the U.S. and around the world.

In its relatively brief history, the sport of MMA has been well represented by fighters natives of Los Angeles and of California. From Frank Shamrock (Los Angeles) and Tito Oritz (Huntington Beach) in the early era of the sport, to Gilbert Melendez (Santa Ana) and Dan Henderson (Downey) throughout the mid-era of the sport, to Ronda Rousey (Riverside), Henry Cejudo (Los Angeles), Tony Ferguson (Oxnard) as of late.

Running

The Los Angeles Marathon is a running event held in the spring of each calendar year. it is a foot race run over a 26.2 mi (42.2 km) course takes the runners from Dodger Stadium across the City of Los Angeles to a scenic finish just steps from the Santa Monica Pier. Ever since it was first launched after the summer Olympics 1984, it has been an attracted place for professional as well as amateurs athletics from all over the world with a capacity of 24000 making it the fifth-largest-running event in the United States.^[14]^[15]

Surfing

The warm mediterranean climate as well as the miles of a scenic coastline with a variety of wave types from Malibu to the South Bay, Los Angeles is one of the favorite destinations to both amateurs and professional surfers across the world. Every summer of each year, Huntington Beach hosts the US Open of Surfing, the largest surfing competition in the world.^[16] Many other surfing events including the International Surf Festival, Surfing Dog Contests, and Ventura's Surf Rodeo are held annually in several Los Angeles County beach cities.

Beach Volleyball

Santa Monica is believed to be the birthplace of beach volleyball in the early 1920's.^[17] The weather, the vast sand area and the abundant permanent courts make Los Angeles one of the hotspots for beach volleyball. The first official Beach Volleyball World Championships was held in Los Angeles in from 10 to 13, 1997.^[18] Beach Volleyball has been an official Olympic sport since 1996, and during the 2028 Olympics, beach volleyball will be played as an Olympic sport for the first time in the city of Los Angeles.^[19] Additionally, many other local beach volleyball tournaments for players of all skill levels are held by multiple entities in various beaches across the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 2017, CBVA, California Beach Volleyball Association, hosted nearly 1,000 tournaments at 23 beaches in 11 skill or age divisions. There are approximately 8,000 members from California and beyond.^[20]

Minor league and semi-professional teams

American football

The Los Angeles Wildcats are an XFL team that began play in the league's inaugural 2020 season at Dignity Health Sports Park. The Los Angeles Xtreme were a member of the original XFL begun by Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment and by NBC, a major television network in the United States. The team played its home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the spring of 2001 and won the only championship in XFL history as the league folded after only one season.

Before the Arena Football League collapsed after the 2008 season, the league included the Los Angeles Cobras and the Los Angeles Avengers. The Cobras played one season at the Los Angeles Sports Arena before folding, mostly due to lack of attendance. The Avengers played their home games at the Staples Center until they folded as well. The AFL was revived in 2010 and returned to the Los Angeles area in 2014 with a new team, the Los Angeles Kiss. The team, owned by a group that included Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, members of the rock band KISS, played in Anaheim at the Honda Center until folding in 2016.^[21]