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The Life and Times of the Sports Arena
  
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The Exposition Park Building Quietly Turns 50, and Keeps Up an Active Schedule
by Jay Berman
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - It’s been a long while since the Rolling Stones, The Who or Pink Floyd played the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Exposition Park, but Bruce Springsteen had two sold-out concerts there early this year, and you can’t do much better than that.
The space age-styled landmark at Figueroa Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard marks its 50th year in business in 2009, but, like a film star reluctant to disclose his or her age, is observing the anniversary in quiet fashion.
When asked if anything special is on the agenda to commemorate the half-century that has passed since then-Vice President Richard Nixon dedicated the building on July 4, 1959, Jonathan Lee, marketing director for the Sports Arena and the neighboring Coliseum, said, “Not really.” The only indicator of that ceremony is a painting of Nixon and a plaque in the structure’s south foyer.
Not that there hasn’t been plenty of celebrating along the way. The Sports Arena was the site of the 1960 Democratic National Convention at which Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.
It also was home to the Los Angeles Lakers from 1960 to 1967 — long before Kobe Bryant was born.
Hockey’s Los Angeles Kings played 14 games at the Sports Arena in their initial season in 1967, before joining the Lakers at the Forum, owner Jack Kent Cooke’s new arena in Inglewood.
The NBA’s San Diego Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984 and played their first game at the Sports Arena on Dec. 1. They remained there until May 5, 1999, when they joined the Lakers and Kings at Staples Center.
The tenant with the longest tenure was the basketball team from nearby USC, which played at the arena from 1959 until moving into its own facility, the Galen Center, in 2006.
The Trojans’ rival, the UCLA Bruins, divided their time between the Sports Arena and an on-campus gym from 1959 until Pauley Pavilion was completed in 1965. Both schools’ women’s teams also played there.
Good Sight Lines
Like the rest of Exposition Park, the Sports Arena is owned and overseen by a partnership of the state, county and city. When it debuted, it was the largest arena in Los Angeles, eclipsing the Fairfax area’s Pan-Pacific Auditorium, which had a capacity of 6,000. The Sports Arena, in contrast, can seat 16,000 for basketball, a few hundred more for boxing.
Aside from sports, the venue may be best known for its association with Springsteen — one 1984 concert in support of his Born in the U.S.A. album lasted four hours — and the British band, Pink Floyd, which had a five-night stand there in 1975.
According to one source, the building, designed by Welton Becket and Associates, could have had a significantly different appearance. Greg Nelson, the retired head of the Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, was chief of staff to former Second District City Councilman Joel Wachs when Staples Center was proposed.
“That got us looking back at how the Sports Arena was built,” Nelson said recently. “One early proposal called for it to be built entirely underground, with nothing but parking visible at ground level. I gather that idea didn’t go.”
Nelson said he has heard rumblings about how the arena “is antiquated,” but notes, “There’s almost no real discussion about getting rid of it because it’s still a money maker. It’s not old enough or unique enough to be considered quaint and there are no luxury boxes, but it still works.”
He believes other factors contributed to a desire to build what later became Staples Center.
“These days, naming rights are vital,” Nelson said. “And you have this in places like Staples Center and the Nokia Theatre, plus there’s revenue sharing and greater exposure from being in a central location, something you can see from the [Harbor] freeway.”
Margaret Farnum, the retired chief administrative officer of the Coliseum Commission, calls the arena “completely viable.”
“It’s old,” she said, “and that’s the biggest thing against it. But it offers the best sight lines of any arena I know. A few years ago, I read about a drive to get Seattle a new sports arena. One city official asked, ‘Where is it guaranteed that a city will get a new arena every 30 years at the city’s cost?’ And I had to agree. It’s still comfortable. It was built to last this long and longer.”
Arena Digest, a trade publication, featured the Sports Arena in a 2008 report, calling it “endangered,” along with about 25 other arenas. It said “there’s not a lot of passion either way” about the Exposition Park facility, and that many critics have regarded it as “bland.”
Welcome Rockalifornia
The Lakers, Clippers and Kings play home games three miles north on Figueroa. Pink Floyd has disbanded, and The Who and Rolling Stones exist only as nostalgia acts.
But the Sports Arena, following a major seismic and cosmetic renovation seven years ago, survives with a mix of religious conventions, Latino cultural and sports events, reggae festivals, high school graduation ceremonies and prep basketball tournaments. Lee said the arena is booked “about 150 to 160 dates per year.”
Movie studios have taken advantage of the arena, from the 1973 classic Soylent Green, Edward G. Robinson’s final film, to Will Ferrell’s 2007 skating satire Blades of Glory.
Want something more exotic? It also was the site of the 2008 Grand Sumo Tournament.
It will be the location of “Monster Massive,” an Oct. 31 electronic music festival, and the Nov. 29 Rockalifornia Fest ’09, a Spanish-language heavy metal concert bringing together such bands as Hazel, Anabantha, Interpuesto and the impossible-to-pronounce Lvzbel.
Lee agrees with Farnum that the arena remains viable because of its “great sight lines.” A lack of major concert bookings in the future has more to do, he said, with trends in the industry than any dissatisfaction with the venue: “They just don’t book months or years in advance any more.”
One other example shows how the venerable arena has kept up with the times. It regularly hosts naturalization ceremonies for new citizens. Entry for the newest Americans and their families is free, but parking adjacent to the building costs $20.
page 1, 11/2/2009
©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
The space age-styled landmark at Figueroa Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard marks its 50th year in business in 2009, but, like a film star reluctant to disclose his or her age, is observing the anniversary in quiet fashion.
When asked if anything special is on the agenda to commemorate the half-century that has passed since then-Vice President Richard Nixon dedicated the building on July 4, 1959, Jonathan Lee, marketing director for the Sports Arena and the neighboring Coliseum, said, “Not really.” The only indicator of that ceremony is a painting of Nixon and a plaque in the structure’s south foyer.
Not that there hasn’t been plenty of celebrating along the way. The Sports Arena was the site of the 1960 Democratic National Convention at which Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.
It also was home to the Los Angeles Lakers from 1960 to 1967 — long before Kobe Bryant was born.
Hockey’s Los Angeles Kings played 14 games at the Sports Arena in their initial season in 1967, before joining the Lakers at the Forum, owner Jack Kent Cooke’s new arena in Inglewood.
The NBA’s San Diego Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984 and played their first game at the Sports Arena on Dec. 1. They remained there until May 5, 1999, when they joined the Lakers and Kings at Staples Center.
The tenant with the longest tenure was the basketball team from nearby USC, which played at the arena from 1959 until moving into its own facility, the Galen Center, in 2006.
The Trojans’ rival, the UCLA Bruins, divided their time between the Sports Arena and an on-campus gym from 1959 until Pauley Pavilion was completed in 1965. Both schools’ women’s teams also played there.
Like the rest of Exposition Park, the Sports Arena is owned and overseen by a partnership of the state, county and city. When it debuted, it was the largest arena in Los Angeles, eclipsing the Fairfax area’s Pan-Pacific Auditorium, which had a capacity of 6,000. The Sports Arena, in contrast, can seat 16,000 for basketball, a few hundred more for boxing.
Aside from sports, the venue may be best known for its association with Springsteen — one 1984 concert in support of his Born in the U.S.A. album lasted four hours — and the British band, Pink Floyd, which had a five-night stand there in 1975.
According to one source, the building, designed by Welton Becket and Associates, could have had a significantly different appearance. Greg Nelson, the retired head of the Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, was chief of staff to former Second District City Councilman Joel Wachs when Staples Center was proposed.
“That got us looking back at how the Sports Arena was built,” Nelson said recently. “One early proposal called for it to be built entirely underground, with nothing but parking visible at ground level. I gather that idea didn’t go.”
Nelson said he has heard rumblings about how the arena “is antiquated,” but notes, “There’s almost no real discussion about getting rid of it because it’s still a money maker. It’s not old enough or unique enough to be considered quaint and there are no luxury boxes, but it still works.”
He believes other factors contributed to a desire to build what later became Staples Center.
“These days, naming rights are vital,” Nelson said. “And you have this in places like Staples Center and the Nokia Theatre, plus there’s revenue sharing and greater exposure from being in a central location, something you can see from the [Harbor] freeway.”
Margaret Farnum, the retired chief administrative officer of the Coliseum Commission, calls the arena “completely viable.”
“It’s old,” she said, “and that’s the biggest thing against it. But it offers the best sight lines of any arena I know. A few years ago, I read about a drive to get Seattle a new sports arena. One city official asked, ‘Where is it guaranteed that a city will get a new arena every 30 years at the city’s cost?’ And I had to agree. It’s still comfortable. It was built to last this long and longer.”
Arena Digest, a trade publication, featured the Sports Arena in a 2008 report, calling it “endangered,” along with about 25 other arenas. It said “there’s not a lot of passion either way” about the Exposition Park facility, and that many critics have regarded it as “bland.”
The Lakers, Clippers and Kings play home games three miles north on Figueroa. Pink Floyd has disbanded, and The Who and Rolling Stones exist only as nostalgia acts.
But the Sports Arena, following a major seismic and cosmetic renovation seven years ago, survives with a mix of religious conventions, Latino cultural and sports events, reggae festivals, high school graduation ceremonies and prep basketball tournaments. Lee said the arena is booked “about 150 to 160 dates per year.”
Movie studios have taken advantage of the arena, from the 1973 classic Soylent Green, Edward G. Robinson’s final film, to Will Ferrell’s 2007 skating satire Blades of Glory.
Want something more exotic? It also was the site of the 2008 Grand Sumo Tournament.
It will be the location of “Monster Massive,” an Oct. 31 electronic music festival, and the Nov. 29 Rockalifornia Fest ’09, a Spanish-language heavy metal concert bringing together such bands as Hazel, Anabantha, Interpuesto and the impossible-to-pronounce Lvzbel.
Lee agrees with Farnum that the arena remains viable because of its “great sight lines.” A lack of major concert bookings in the future has more to do, he said, with trends in the industry than any dissatisfaction with the venue: “They just don’t book months or years in advance any more.”
One other example shows how the venerable arena has kept up with the times. It regularly hosts naturalization ceremonies for new citizens. Entry for the newest Americans and their families is free, but parking adjacent to the building costs $20.
page 1, 11/2/2009
©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of ladowntownnews.com.
Bob Heber wrote on Nov 2, 2009 1:11 PM:
" You forgot to mention how the Sports Arena was the home of the Los Angeles Blades hockey team in the Westen Hockey League from 1961 (?) until the Kings arrived, and also, the original home of the Ice Dogs, who moved to Long Beach before they disbanded a few years ago.
The Sports Arena was never the home of UCLA women's basketball teams. They always played in Pauley Pavilion. "
The Sports Arena was never the home of UCLA women's basketball teams. They always played in Pauley Pavilion. "
Jack Hawn wrote on Nov 2, 2009 2:36 PM:
" Good rememberances but overlooked was the first sports event staged at the Sports Arena, where French Algerian boxing champion Alphonse Halimi was defeated by Mexico’s Jose Becerra July 9, 1959--five days after Nixon dedicted the building. Also it might have been noted that the Sports Arena was the boxing venue for the 1984 Olympic Games. "
Paul Olden wrote on Nov 2, 2009 3:29 PM:
" I have fond memories of the Sports Arena. I recall going to see the Lakers and - as a child - being riveted to the count-clock of the attendance as people came into the buiilding. You could actually hear the clicking sound from the old electronic counter. In later years, I often went to the Sports Arena for USC basketball games during the Bob Boyd - Gus Williams - John Block years. I sat in the vacant press box at the top of the arena and practiced my basketball radio play by play which led to announcing jobs after I grew up with UCLA, the Rams and others. I'm glad to know the Sports Arena is still being used. But do they have to use the green glowing lights to illuminate the place? "
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