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Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium
in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at
Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University
of Southern California Trojans football team.
It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena adjacent
to the campus of the University of Southern California (USC). The
stadium is jointly owned by the State of California, Los Angeles County,
and the City of Los Angeles; it is currently managed by the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum Commission, which has board members drawn from the
three ownership interests.
The Coliseum is the only stadium to have hosted the Olympic Games
twice, in 1932 and 1984. It is also the only Olympic stadium to have
also hosted Super Bowls and World Series. It was declared a National
Historic Landmark on July 27, 1984, the day before the opening ceremony
of the 1984 Summer Olympics.
Present useThe Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojan
football team. During the recent stretch of its success in football,
most of USC's regular home games, especially the alternating games with
rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, attract a capacity 92,000 person crowd,
although they regularly drew far less during the 1990s. The current
official capacity of the Coliseum is 93,607. The Coliseum Commission
also rents the Coliseum to various events, including international
soccer games, musical concerts and other large outdoor events.
Celebrating their 50th anniversary in Los Angeles, the Dodgers and
Boston Red Sox played an exhibition game here on March 29, 2008; a Los
Angeles and MLB record for attendance was broken, where 115,300 people
attended the game.
On June 17, 2009, the Coliseum played host to the 2009 NBA Champion
Los Angeles Lakers as the end point of the championship parade. Player
and coach speeches were given at the Coliseum following a procession
that began at the Staples Center.
The 2003 and 2010 editions of the X Games were partially held at the
Coliseum.
[edit] Olympic CauldronThe Olympic Cauldron (also known as the
Olympic Torch) was built for the stadium's two Olympic games. It is
still lit during the fourth quarter of USC football games, and other
special occasions (e.g., when the Olympics are being held in another
city).
It was lit for several days following the Space Shuttle Challenger
disaster in 1986. The torch was also lit for over a week following the
September 11 attacks in 2001. In 2004, the cauldron was lit non-stop for
seven days in tribute to President Ronald Reagan, who had died. It was
lit again in April 2005 following the death of Pope John Paul II, who
had celebrated Mass at the Coliseum during his visit to Los Angeles in
1987. At the Los Angeles Dodgers Fiftieth Anniversary Game on March 29,
2008, the torch was lit for the ThinkCure! charity ceremony, while Neil
Diamond's "Heartlight" was played and the majority of the attendees
turned on their complimentary souvenir keychain flashlights.
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