
Los
Angeles Coliseum
The Super Bowl has a long storied past and in 1967 the Los Angeles
Coliseum was the host of the first Super Bowl. However, the
history of the stadium stretches four decades before that game.
Construction of a football stadium for the Los Angeles area began
in the early 1920s. Completed in under three years, the first
football game at the coliseum was on October 6, 1923. Nearly
76,000 bleachers circled the entire field. By 1930, the City of
Los Angeles was awarded the 1932 Olympics. Over $950,000 was spent
to enlarge the stadium to seat nearly 101,000 fans for the
Olympics. Professional football at the Coliseum was first played
in 1946, when owner of the Cleveland Rams, Dan Reeves moved his
team to Los Angeles. The Rams became the first NFL team to move to
the west coast. The first Rams game at the coliseum was on
September 29, 1946 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
In April 1958, the Los Angeles
Dodgers (MLB) moved into the coliseum while Dodger Stadium was
being constructed. In 1959, a football game between USC and Ohio
State was played at the coliseum, and a hour after completion, the
first World Series game in California was played. The Dodgers
moved out of the coliseum after the 1961 season. The Los Angeles
Rams spent more than three decades at the coliseum before moving
to Anaheim Stadium after the 1979 season. The Rams played their
final game at the Los Angeles Coliseum on December 16, 1979
against the New Orleans Saints. After the 1981 season, the Oakland
Raiders decided to move to the coliseum. They played their first
game at the L.A. Coliseum on November 22, 1982. Two years later
the Coliseum hosted the 1984 Olympics.
After its addition in the
1930s, the Los Angeles Coliseum changed very little until the
1990s. In February 1993, $15 million in renovations
were completed at the coliseum. Actual seats were installed replacing
the bleachers, and fourteen rows of seats were added, bring the
capacity to 92,000 after the field was lowered 14 feet. A
massive earthquake in 1994, required over $93 million in repairs. The Raiders decided to move back to the Oakland Coliseum
after the 1994 season, playing their last game at the Los Angeles
Coliseum on December 24, 1994.
Today, the Los Angeles Coliseum
continues to serve as the home of the University of Southern
California football team. The Coliseum has been the home of many
great sporting events from the 1932 and 1984 Olympics to World
Series and Super Bowl games.
Get Tickets Here:
Chiefs-Broncos-Raiders-Chargers