Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena

Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena

Location	3939 S. Figueroa Street Los Angeles, California 90037
Owner	Los Angeles Coliseum Commission (City of Los Angeles)
Operator	Los Angeles Coliseum Commission
Capacity	Basketball: 16,161 Hockey: 14,546 Boxing/Wrestling: 16,740
Construction
Broke ground	April 7, 1958
Opened	July 4, 1959
Construction cost	$8.5 million USD
Architect	Welton Becket (City of Los Angeles)
Tenants
USC Trojans Men's Basketball (NCAA) (1959-2006) USC Trojans Women's Basketball (NCAA) (1983-2006) Los Angeles Lakers (NBA) (1960-1967) Los Angeles Clippers (NBA) (1985-1999) Los Angeles Kings (NHL) (1967)

The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is a multipurpose sports arena in Downtown Los Angeles, California at Exposition Park. It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum adjacent to the campus of the University of Southern California.

History

The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena opened on July 4, 1959 by then U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon, followed by its first event held four days later, the Bantamweight title fight between Jose Becerra and Alphonse Halimi on July 8, 1959. The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena became a sister facility to the adjacent Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and quickly became the city's top arena. It became the home court to the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA from 1960-1967, the Los Angeles Clippers also of the NBA from 1985-1999, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL for their innagural 1967 season, and the USC Trojans Men's Basketball Team of the NCAA from 1959-2006, as well as the USC Trojans Women's Basketball Team of the NCAA from 1983-2006.

The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was the city's premier venue for high-profile sports and entertainment events as well as events of national and international distinction. Since its opening day, it has hosted the 1960 Democratic National Convention, the 1968 and 1972 NCAA men's basketball Final Four, the 1992 NCAA women's Final Four, the 1963 NBA All-Star Game. and the boxing competitions during the 1984 Olympic Games. In addition to hosting the final portion of WrestleMania 2 in 1986, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena also hosted WrestleMania VII in 1991 as well as other WWE events. Currently, however, high school basketball championships, concerts, and conventions are held in the facility. Also, it is currently home to the Hollywood Fame, an expansion team of the American Basketball Association comprised of several celebrity owners and scheduled to begin play in the fall of 2006.

The arena

Though it has recently undergone a major renovation to bring it up to 21st century seismic standards, the arena is well maintained and doesn't show its age. 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

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 struture, a series steel braced frames (x-braces) 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 x-braces, portions of the arena floor had to be excavated, then reinforced to provide extra strength. Once the x-braces were fitted and encorporated 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 comprised of countless small ceramic tiles, each measuring no more than a square inch in width. The crown was loosening a multitude of the tiles and had many others discoloring. In order to remedy this, a new crown was designed, this time using individual sections of EFIS (Exterior Finish Insulation 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 a new terrazo floor on the concourse level.

Notes

• Located in Hollywood's "backyard", the Coliseum and Sports Arena are frequently used as locations for commercials for numerous national and international companies, television series and major motion pictures including the 2001 film Ali, and multiple editions of the Rocky series.
• The floor area comprises a 144 by 262 foot space (38,000 sq.ft.), affording the largest standing floor capacity of any arena in the area.
• There is a 75-foot vertical clearance.
• The arena has a unique, expansive floor-level footprint of nearly 130,000 square feet and 101,557 square feet 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 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 six-foot wide 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.
• Pink Floyd performed The Wall at this venue from February 7 to 13, 1980. On the first performance, the show stopped briefly as a pyrotechnic mishap caused curtains to catch fire. Then the band had to do an extended reading of The Last Few Bricks so the wall builders could catch up.

See also

• Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

External links

• Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena official website
• Los Angeles Sports Council