Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
Olympic boxing venue and former home to Lakers and Kings.
Last updated
Where it is
Coordinates: 34°00′47″N 118°17′06″W (34.0130, -118.2850) · Open in OpenStreetMap
Connected teams and clubs
Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.
The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was a multi-purpose arena in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, adjacent to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and south of the University of Southern California campus. It hosted the boxing competitions during the 1984 Summer Olympics. The arena closed in April 2016 and was demolished that September, replaced by BMO Stadium.
History
Vice President Richard Nixon opened the arena on July 4, 1959, and its first event was a bantamweight title fight between José Becerra and Alphonse Halimi four days later. It served as a companion to the adjacent Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA played there from October 1960 to December 1967, the Los Angeles Clippers from 1984 to 1999, and the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL during their inaugural 1967–68 season from October to December 1967.
College basketball teams USC Trojans (1959–2006) and UCLA Bruins (1959–1965 and again in 2011–2012) also called it home. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's National Finals Rodeo was held there from 1962 to 1964. Other tenants included the Los Angeles Aztecs (indoor soccer, 1980–81), Los Angeles Blades (Western Hockey League, 1961–1967), Los Angeles Sharks (WHA, 1972–1974), Los Angeles Cobras (AFL, 1988), and original Los Angeles Stars (ABA, 1968–1970).
The annual Los Angeles Invitational indoor track meet, often called the Sunkist Invitational, took place from 1960 until 2004. The arena hosted the 1968 and 1972 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four, the 1992 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four, the 1963 NBA All-Star Game, Game 6 of the 1970 ABA Finals, and the boxing competitions during the 1984 Summer Olympics. It also hosted WrestleMania 2 (final portion) in 1986, WrestleMania VII in 1991, and the 1994 joint card When Worlds Collide between AAA and WCW.
The arena
Major renovations brought the arena up to 21st century seismic standards. It had four fully equipped team rooms, two smaller rooms for officials, two private dressing rooms for individual performers, and two additional meeting rooms. A 40 ft wide load-in ramp was on the west side. Five permanent TV locations were on the concourse level, and a 6 ft catwalk suspended from the ceiling circled the arena for cameras or spotlights.
Spectators reached seating via a circulatory ramp on the southwest side, a stairway near the north doors, or escalators at the southwest and northeast sides. The Sports Arena was the first NBA arena to feature a rotating billboard at courtside that also acted as the scorer's table. Amenities included a full-service main ticket office, a secondary box office, two portable booths, six permanent concession stands, a first-aid station, and a club and restaurant.
Accessibility improvements included 14 additional handicapped parking stalls, hand rails on the pedestrian ramp, accessible drinking fountains, an Assistive Listening System, and converted restrooms and dressing rooms. A four-sided overhead scoreboard with auxiliary boards augmented event presentation.
Concerts
Pink Floyd performed five shows during their Wish You Were Here tour in April 1975, opened The Wall Tour at the venue in February 1980, and played three more nights in November 1987 on the A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour. Jethro Tull performed numerous times between 1972 and 1987, closing the North American leg of their 1980 A Tour there in November 1980; a live broadcast from that show was released in 2021 on the A (The A La Mode) box set. U2 played five shows during The Joshua Tree Tour in April 1987.
Prince performed two sold-out shows during his Lovesexy Tour in November 1988. Michael Jackson performed six sold-out shows during his Bad World Tour in November 1988 and January 1989. Madonna performed five sold-out shows during her Blond Ambition World Tour in May 1990. The Grateful Dead performed in December 1993 and December 1994.
Bruce Springsteen played 35 times between 1980 and 2016, calling the arena 'the dump that jumps'. My Chemical Romance performed in September 2005. Daft Punk played a sold-out show in July 2007, their only LA-area show of the Alive 2006/2007 tour besides Coachella. The Philippine variety show ASAP held an out-of-town show titled 'ASAP Live in LA' in October 2014.
Other events
The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held at the arena from July 11–15, where John F. Kennedy received the party's nomination. Over 25,000 people heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak at a Freedom Rally on June 18, 1961, introduced by Governor Pat Brown. WrestleMania VII took place in March 1991. Guns N' Roses rehearsed there in 2009 for their Chinese Democracy world tour.
Bernie Sanders hosted a campaign rally in August 2015 attended by over 27,500 people. A memorial ceremony honored Gerardo Hernandez, the TSA officer killed in the 2013 Los Angeles International Airport shooting. The arena was used as a stand-in for the Spectrum in Philadelphia for the heavyweight championship fight scenes in Rocky and Rocky II. It appeared in episodes of Charlie's Angels, Simon & Simon, and The Fugitive, and in the films Fantastic Voyage, Soylent Green, and Space Jam (as Madison Square Garden).
The arena was used for concert footage in Straight Outta Compton and portrayed the Miami Blades ice rink in Dexter season 1. NBC's American Gladiators and the syndicated Battle Dome were filmed there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena?
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is located in 3939 South Figueroa Street; Los Angeles, California 90037.
Who designed Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena?
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was designed by Welton Becket.
Who owns Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena?
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is owned by State of California, County of Los Angeles and City of Los Angeles.
More in Olympic Boxing Venues
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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