Added to the National Register of Historic Places (and designated as a National Historic Landmark) on July 27, 1984

I’ve never been one for public spectacles. Sports aren’t my thing, parades even less so, and I’d rather watch the sweat dripping off my favorite band from 10 feet away than on a jumbotron from the nosebleeds. As much as I love the idea of 75,000 people congregating in one place to experience something together, I’ve got no interest in being one of them. That’s why my tour of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Memorial Day, 2025 (seemed like the appropriate way to spend the day) was the first time I had ever walked through its imposing peristyle. Who knows? It could be the last. 

And yet, the history dork part of me is inexorably drawn to the Coliseum. It plays a big role in the collective memory of our city, as the venue for so many milestone moments in sports, politics, music, religion, civic life and…whatever you call Evel Knievel jumping over a bunch of cars on a motorcycle. And as the world’s only stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies at two Olympics (in 1932 and 1984), with a third to be added in 2028, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s stature is truly international in scope.

But the stories behind the building itself – its evolving architecture, governance and the strategic goals behind its construction – are every bit as important as what’s happened inside it. We’ll get to all that. But first, let’s take a victory lap through the many events that have shaped the Coliseum’s legacy. 

The People’s Playground

Let’s roll the sports highlight reel first: In addition to its 100+ years as the home of USC Trojans football, the Coliseum was home turf for the UCLA Bruins for 48 years, and the NFL’s Rams and Raiders franchises played here for long stretches too. The Coliseum hosted the first-ever Super Bowl in 1967, and then again in 1973, where the Miami Dolphins completed the only perfect season in modern NFL history by beating the Washington Redskins. 

From 1958-1960, the field was awkwardly reconfigured as the home diamond of the Dodgers, after their relocation from Brooklyn. In just their second season in LA, the Dodgers won the World Series against the White Sox in front of a hometown crowd at the Coliseum; games 3-5 are still the three most-attended games in World Series history, with more than 92,000 spectators per game. And the all-time attendance record for any pro baseball game? That was set at the Coliseum too, at a 2008 pre-season exhibition game between the Dodgers and the Red Sox seen by 115,000 fans. The Coliseum has witnessed historic moments across countless sports, from soccer to NASCAR, ice skating to track and field, boxing to ski jumping, motocross to MMA. 

In the realm of politics, Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped by in 1932 while campaigning for his first presidential bid; and Republican presidential hopefuls Wendell Willkie, Thomas Dewey and Dwight Eisenhower held rallies here to support their campaigns. This was also where, in 1960, John F. Kennedy delivered his acceptance speech as presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention. Nixon attended a Rams vs. Chiefs game here in ‘69, and President Reagan kicked off the 1984 Olympics with a brief speech from a skybox above the Coliseum. 

The Coliseum has also welcomed many of the world’s most impactful thought leaders. Aviation superstar Charles Lindbergh gave a speech here in 1927 about the importance of municipal airports, which helped spur the development of LAX. Martin Luther King, Jr. was here in 1964, and spoke passionately in favor of the Civil Rights Act; four years later 16,000 spectators (including labor activist Cesar Chavez) joined at the Coliseum to mourn King after his assassination. Evangelist Rev. Billy Graham preached to 927,000 people at the Coliseum during a three-week Crusade in 1963. Pope John Paul II led mass there in 1987, and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela spoke at a rally there in 1990, just months after his release from a South African prison. 

It’s no surprise that a stadium built for 75,000 spectators would attract only the biggest musical acts and events, but still, this is a hell of a legacy for a single venue: the Rolling Stones with Prince (!) opening, The Who with The Clash (!) opening, U2 on The Joshua Tree tour, Guns N’ Roses and Metallica co-headlining, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath (on a bill with Journey, Cheap Trick and Molly Hatchet), Los Bukis, a benefit concert featuring Kanye West and Drake, and massive festivals like Wattstax ‘72 (Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers & Carla Thomas), the Music Sound Funk Festival (Parliament Funkadelic, Rick James & Rufus with Chaka Khan), the CaliFFornia World Music Festival (Aerosmith, AC/DC & Van Halen) and so many more. Bruce Springsteen closed out his Born in the USA tour in 1985 with four sold-out nights at the Coliseum, in front of a cumulative crowd of 322,900.

When we think of the Coliseum, we have to think of Los Angeles’s desire to invent itself.

-Kevin Starr, quoted in Stephen Gee’s Iconic Vision: John Parkinson Architect of Los Angeles

We Built This City

Los Angeles of the early 1920s was in the middle of a remarkable growth spurt. The population of LA County had ballooned by 85% in the decade between 1910 and 1920 to a total of 936,455; by 1930 it would increase another 135%, to more than 2.2 million souls. Much of that growth was spurred by the twin engines of the film and oil industries. Hollywood attracted both skilled behind-the-scenes workers and many thousands of hopefuls, looking for acting jobs. The discovery of oil in Long Beach, Santa Fe Springs and Inglewood in the early 1920s added to the highly productive Los Angeles City Oil Field, first tapped in 1890. By the ‘20s, Los Angeles was producing nearly a quarter of the world’s oil. Experienced workers from Oklahoma, Texas and beyond streamed into LA to help extract all that black gold, and build the infrastructure to support it. 

These boom years for movies and oil spilled over into other sectors as well. Real estate deals and construction skyrocketed throughout LA County, to house all the new people and businesses moving in. Ocean trade picked up at the Port of LA in San Pedro, as it expanded to accommodate all the petroleum shipments heading abroad. 

The early 1900s had already brought audacious infrastructure projects that set the stage for LA’s growth – think the Pacific Electric Railway, and the Los Angeles Aqueduct. But as Los Angeles exploded in the 1920s, its boosters sought to transform the city into an international metropolis, worthy of the world’s attention. As historian Kevin Starr put it in his book Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s, “…the Coliseum, like the great hotels, prefigured and boosted the very growth it promised to serve.”

The First Bid

The idea of the Coliseum was conceived in 1908, when William M. Bowen – considered the “Father of Exposition Park” – convinced USC President George F. Bovard to support the idea of a recreation center in the Park. Bovard promised Bowen that the USC Trojans football team would play their home games there, if ever such a center existed. 

In 1919, LA mayor Meredith Snyder convened the California Fiesta Association, a group of influential Angelenos charged with bringing back the “Old Spanish Atmosphere of Los Angeles” to try and boost tourism. The Association included many heavy hitters, like Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, former US senator Frank Flint, developer William May Garland, CalTech physicist Robert Millikan (a future Nobel Prize winner) and Manchester Boddy, who would later found Descanso Gardens. By the end of the year the Association had reconfigured as the non-profit Community Development Association, and set its sights on a more ambitious goal: bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles in 1924. 

Central to their objective was the construction of a sports stadium in Exposition Park, with an adjoining auditorium. They would function both as a tribute to all those who served during World War I, and magnets for large conventions and tourists. 

In the summer of 1920 William May Garland, President of the Community Development Association, traveled to Antwerp for a meeting of the International Olympic Committee. He pitched them on bringing the Games to Los Angeles in 1924. As late as February 1921, the LA Evening Express was reporting that the Coliseum “will be completed in ample time for the 1924 Olympic Games, for which Mr. Garland…was given encouragement to believe would be held here if the city could provide proper facilities for handling it.” Ultimately, Paris was selected to host the 1924 Games, and the 1928 edition was promised to Amsterdam. 

The Architects

When he departed Antwerp for home, Garland left the IOC with a set of blueprints for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, drawn up by the great architect John Parkinson. Parkinson was an old friend of William M. Bowen’s, dating back to their time in Napa in the 1880s, when both were ambitious young men still finding their way in the world. That relationship certainly helped Parkinson get the Coliseum gig, but he would’ve been a top contender even without the inside access.

By 1920, Parkinson was well established as LA’s defining architect, responsible for its first reinforced concrete building (the Homer Laughlin Building), its first skyscraper (Braly Block), and glamorous hotels like the Alexandria, the Rosslyn and the King Edward. Later on he’d receive commissions for architectural icons like Bullock’s Wilshire, LA City Hall and Union Station, all three designed in partnership with his son Donald Parkinson. Donald helped to carry out his dad’s plans for the Coliseum after returning from his honeymoon in Europe in 1922 – it was one of their first projects together.

An Englishman by birth, John Parkinson viewed his work on the Coliseum as his civic duty to the city that had defined his career since he moved here in 1894. He drafted the plans free of charge in early 1920, even without a guarantee that the funds would ever be available to build it, and he promised that his firm would work at cost if ever they got the green light. For a while, it didn’t look promising. The City put two bond measures on a 1920 ballot, to raise $1 million in public funds for the Coliseum’s construction, and $4 million for the auditorium. Both measures failed, despite exhortations from the Los Angeles Times and Mayor Snyder. Plans for the auditorium were dropped, and eventually, Times chief Harry Chandler secured an $800,000 private loan from a group of 14 bankers. They were reportedly swayed by Parkinson’s plans, and the assured income from USC football games.

With the financing ironed out, groundbreaking ceremonies took place in late 1920, Parkinson’s final plans were approved by the Municipal Arts Commission in the fall of 1921, and by December of that year, work had begun in earnest. Contractors Edwards, Wildey & Dixon Co. knocked down their original quote to $772,000 so that the city could pay back John Parkinson for $28,000 of out-of-pocket expenses, and still make its $800,000 budget.

Construction was completed in May of 1923, right on time, for a final cost of $954,873. It was an auspicious time – just a month earlier, the International Olympic Committee had met in Rome, and unanimously chosen Los Angeles as the site of the 1932 summer Olympics. 

The debut event at the Coliseum wasn’t a sports game, but rather a month-long expo called The American Historical Review and Motion Picture Industrial Exposition. Ostensibly, the event was a celebration of the centennial of the Monroe Doctrine, but mostly it was a celebration of (and advertisement for) the burgeoning film industry. The first official game at the Coliseum was held on October 6, 1923, between the USC and Pomona-Pitzer football teams. USC won the day, 23-7. 

What You’d See at the Coliseum

The Coliseum was built on the banks of an old sand and gravel pit, part of a racetrack that had existed on the site for years. Parkinson studied stadium design for months before he drew up the plans, and settled on an elliptical shape similar to the Yale Bowl, the first bowl-style stadium in America. 

The field sits more than 30 feet below ground level, and the bottom section of seats sits below grade too. As originally designed, the second ring of seats (built on compacted soil, excavated from the hole below) was the stadium’s uppermost section, rising to about 27 feet above grade. The curve of the bowl offered visitors an unobstructed view of the entire field from every one of its 75,000 seats. The tiers were wooden in the original design, a welcome upgrade for spectators used to bruising their butts on concrete seating. 

Surrounding the bowl on the north, south and west sides is an unbroken series of pilasters and rectangular holes, a modernist callback to the Roman Colosseum. Parkinson would later remark that his design placed tunnels and exits at such regular intervals that a sold-out Coliseum could empty out in under 10 minutes. 

On the eastern edge is the famous peristyle, with its triumphal central gateway, flanked by 14 smaller arches. It’s an impressive flex of an entryway, simple and massive, and wide open for the public to walk through even when it’s not game day. I’ve seen references to the Egyptian, Spanish and Mediterranean stylings of the Coliseum, and while you can certainly link the peristyle’s arched arcade to Moorish architecture, my guess is that the Parkinsons’ working drawings included more ornamentation that had to be rolled back as a cost-saving measure. 

Originally, there was no torch or lettering atop the peristyle, and the entire structure was pure reinforced concrete, unadorned by the travertine veneer that covers it today. In early pictures, from before the Court of Honor and statuary were added in front, you can see a circle of grass out front with a raised star and the word “Coliseum” fashioned out of flowers and topiary.

The 1932 Olympics and the Coliseum

The first major expansion of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum took place during the leadup to the 1932 Olympics. In late 1929, a contract was signed between the Community Development Association, the City and the County of LA to extend the CDA’s 10-year operation of the Coliseum through January 1, 1933, to permit them to expand the Coliseum and operate it during the Olympics. The City and County agreed to share the cost of upgrades, estimated at about $800,000 at the time.

John and Donald Parkinson were asked to increase the seating capacity to 101,000, which necessitated a massive third tier at the rim of the bowl, supported by concrete fin brackets extending from the outer walls. They added a special seating area for press and visiting dignitaries, and an expanded scoreboard. Also added in time for the summer Olympics: the Olympic rings on the peristyle, and the huge concrete torch atop it, surmounted by a bronze fixture. It stayed lit throughout the entire Olympiad. 

The Coliseum was the site of the opening and closing Olympics ceremonies in 1932, and hosted events in track and field, gymnastics, equestrian jumping, field hockey and the marathon. A number of records were set at the Coliseum that year, including Eddie Tolan’s double gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters – both in Olympic record times, at 10.3 seconds and 21.2 seconds, respectively. Bill Carr won the 400 meter dash in a world record 46.20 seconds, and Babe Didrikson set a new world record in the 80-meter hurdles (11.7 seconds) and an Olympic record with her javelin throw of 43.69m. Didrikson also tied the women’s world record in the high jump, with a leap of 1.657 meters.

In addition to the competitions themselves, the 1932 Olympics introduced a number of innovations that have stuck with the Games. The tradition of the three-tier victory podium, with the flags of each Olympic champion unfurling as their national anthem is played, debuted here. The stadium press box on the south side of the Coliseum featured a first-of-its-kind teletype system so journalists could transmit reports to their outlets in real time, and insulated radio rooms and photographer rooms were installed for the first time. 

While this didn’t involve the Coliseum itself, the very first temporary Olympic Village was created in 1932 in Baldwin Hills, for the visiting male athletes participating in the Games (the women stayed at the Chapman Park Hotel). This made a huge difference – we have to remember that 1932 was the depths of the Great Depression, which had impacted the entire world. Having a space where foreign athletes could stay for just a couple dollars a day meant that countries had an easier time sending their delegations to Los Angeles. Most of the temporary bungalows from the Olympic Village were sold off or torn down after the Games were over, to be replaced with permanent housing, but one was donated to Olvera Street in 1933, and is still in use today as a merchant’s shop.

The Olympics returned to Los Angeles in 1984, and the Coliseum’s peristyle was decked out in bright pastels to welcome them (plus a couple uggo black screens). Carl Lewis earned four gold medals in the 100 meter, 200 meter, 4 × 100 meter relay and long jump, all in front of a Coliseum crowd. Aside from the sports spectacle, LA’s experience with the 1984 Olympics proved that we have a lot to gain from making use of our existing infrastructure, and keeping our old venues’ stories alive. All of the venues we used in ‘84, aside from the Olympic Swim Stadium (now the Uytengsu Aquatics Center), predated the 1984 Games, so construction costs were much lower than they could have been. Combined with a reliance on corporate sponsorship for funding, the Games ended up generating $250 million in profits.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

The Los Angeles Coliseum has undergone plenty of changes over the past century-plus, some cosmetic, some very much more involved. A visitor from the 1930s, timewarped to today, wouldn’t recognize the field lighting, the digital scoreboards, and the two-story office structures to the left and right of the peristyle. They’d be gobsmacked by the massive “Olympic Gateway” sculptures of two nude, headless athletes, sculpted by Robert Graham in time for the 1984 Olympics, right outside the front entrance. They’d nod their head in appreciation at the permanent concession stands, and marvel at the neat rows of folding maroon seats, re-painted and re-installed several times over the years; maybe they’d wonder why there are 25,000 fewer of them now than during the 1932 Olympics. 

A spin around the Court of Honor would reveal the names and bas relief bronze likenesses of 60+ people who have made important contributions to the history of the Coliseum. Your Depression-era friend might recognize football great Knut Rockne or track star Charley Paddock, but you’ll have to explain the plaques honoring JFK, Jesse Owens and Bruce Springsteen. 

If you took them down underground, your time-traveling visitor would “ooooh” and “aaaah” at the 1990s-era locker rooms. There’s one quite lovely one for the home team, with dark wood cubbies and plenty of space in the center for team huddles. While this won’t mean much to someone from the 1930s, I heard that Kanye West literally moved into that locker room for two weeks before his Free Larry Hoover Benefit Concert with Drake in 2021. Just down the hall is the totally drab locker room for the visiting team, done up in monochrome grey like an unfinished Ikea display. According to my tour guide, it’s unofficially known as the ugliest locker room in the PAC 12.

No doubt the most dramatic change to the Coliseum over the past few decades is the seven-story Scholarship Club Tower, completed in 2019 to the tune of $315 million, all private donations (including a large naming gift from United Airlines). This is the hyper-modern high roller wing of the Coliseum, where you can watch the game from a luxury suite or loge box, head inside for a drink between plays in the plush, two-level Founders Club, or take in 360-degree views of the city from the rooftop hospitality deck. If you’re really lucky, you’ll score an invite to the President’s Suite, where USC executives entertain donors and sponsors. Down at the end you’ll find two coffee tables built out of miniature models of the Coliseum – they’re just darling!

In addition to the Scholarship Club Tower, the 2019 renovations by DLR Group upgraded the wi-fi system, installed new seats with cupholders and added more legroom in several sections. They put handrails and anti-slip coating to the aisles, installed 100 automated ticket scanners, and over 600 TV screens throughout the public areas, broadcasting sports from all over the country. All these amenities were focused on modernizing the stadium, and making it more enjoyable for patrons.

But the 2019 work also included a historic preservation component. Workers removed all the signage, screens and ads from the peristyle that had been rigged up over the years. They repaired or replaced cracked travertine tiles, and restored the mural of the golden sun from the main archway, painted by Heinz Rosien in 1969 in preparation for LA’s bid for the 1976 Olympics. 

Preserving the Coliseum

This delicate balance between modernization and preservation is a challenge that every historic building faces as it gets older, and as the needs of its patrons evolve. The peristyle’s restoration in 2019 was the result of a years-long consultation between USC and the LA Conservancy, during which the Conservancy advocated for “a project that ultimately minimizes physical impacts and maintains the continued eligibility of the Coliseum as an historic resource.”

This wasn’t the first time that preservation advocates stepped in to influence decisions about the Coliseum’s future. In early 1990, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission (successor to the Community Development Association, and led at the time by future LA mayor Richard Riordan) voted to essentially replace the stadium with something slicker, to try and convince Raiders owner Al Davis not to move his team up north. Thankfully the public outcry, abetted by a letter from the National Park Service’s Stanley T. Albright, convinced the Commission to pull back on the plans.

Then in the mid-2000s, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission proposed a raft of changes that would have removed the large majority of the original seating, extended additional seating tiers some 50 feet above the existing walls, and added a tensile fabric canopy above the north and south sides of the stadium. In 2006 a rep from the National Park Service wrote to Patrick Lynch, GM of the Coliseum, that “…the cumulative effect of the proposed undertaking would result in an adverse effect and would threaten the National Historic Landmark status of the LA Coliseum.” Thankfully that effort was postponed, and they spent $6 million on video board upgrades instead. 

Managing Up

Many of the decisions that shaped the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s story were driven by its unique governance setup. The organization that technically owns it, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, includes a mix of local politicians representing the City of Los Angeles, LA County and California – as it has since the early days, when it was known as the Community Development Association. But when it comes to the Coliseum, the Commission works within a different funding model than other nominally public groups. Ever since that original $800,000 private loan that paid for the Coliseum’s construction, the Commission has bankrolled the venue’s upkeep with revenues generated from leasing it out. Commissioners would often boast to the press that no taxpayer dollars are used to manage it.

On one hand, it’s impressive to consider that this world-class venue, the pride of Los Angeles, could be essentially self-sustaining. On the other hand, the unique arrangement has led to some friction over the years between the Commission and its lessors and benefactors, who have more leverage if they’re the main source of income for the Coliseum. As we saw in the aborted attempt to gut the Coliseum to appease Raiders owner Al Davis in 1990, that dependence on private funds can have dangerous consequences. Historian Frank Andre Guridy points to the growing power wielded by professional sports teams after the 1970s. It’s telling that the Rams and Chargers, both former Coliseum tenants, left LA for decades and ended up at the brand new SoFi Stadium after returning to Los Angeles in 2016/2017 (though the Rams did play at the Coliseum from 2016-2019, while SoFi was being completed). 

But the tenant that’s had the biggest impact on the Coliseum’s governance is also the one that’s stayed there the longest: USC. Like any long-term relationship, the one between USC and the Commission has had its ups and downs. In late 1932, UCLA protested to the LA County Board of Supervisors after USC petitioned for preferential use of the Coliseum for football games. USC threatened to move to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena at one point, if not granted the 10-year lease they’d requested. UCLA dismissed their threat, arguing that “California [aka UC Berkeley], Stanford and other institutions do not look with favor on the use of the Rose Bowl because of its location and because of possible smaller gate receipts” (OUCH). Eventually, the County denied USC’s petition, and both schools got an equal number of Coliseum dates per year.

After 80+ years of short-term lease agreements, USC proposed buying the Coliseum outright in 2006. The Commission demurred, but after another few years of shrinking coffers and scandals, without an NFL team in sight, they agreed to a 98-year “master lease” agreement.  

As of 2013, USC has operated the Coliseum (and the LA Sports Arena next door) by itself. The University’s responsible for upkeep and new construction, plus $1 million in annual rent on the state-owned land, and they also agreed to spend up to $100 million on renovations. In exchange, USC gets to keep the gross receipts from tickets, ads and concessions sold at the Coliseum, even for lease events. USC also retains naming rights, and keeps 95% of the proceeds from selling the name, with the other 5% going back to the public coffers. That can be a very lucrative revenue source, as we found out when United Airlines agreed to pay $69 million to rename the Coliseum’s field for 10 years. It’s now officially the “United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.” An additional $7.5 million gift from the Otis Booth Foundation got the late newspaper executive’s name on the press box that looms over the south seats.

The current “USC era” hasn’t been without its controversies. Some local politicians argued that taxpayers were getting very little out of the new master lease agreement; Janice Hahn, a member of the LA County Board of Supervisors who is also on the Coliseum Commission, wrote an op-ed for the Times in 2019, critiquing USC and United’s original plan to rename the entire stadium as “United Airlines Memorial Coliseum.” 

But you gotta hand it to USC for making good on their promises to treat the Coliseum with the spending and the reverence that it deserves, when it came to the 2019 renovation and preservation efforts. The University couldn’t have known that a global pandemic was heading our way a year after the renovations were done, which would have slowed down construction and messed with global supply chains. So…good timing.

The End Zone

And speaking of timing, I have to imagine that USC had the very real possibility of hosting the 2028 Olympics in mind when they committed to the renovations. LA was chosen as America’s official selection for an Olympics bid as of 2015, more than two years before construction started. I’m relieved to see that so many of our current venues, both historic and modern, will have a role to play in the 2028 Olympics in LA. The Coliseum itself will host athletics and para-athletics competitions in 2028, though it’ll require installing a temporary new floor 11 feet above the current one, to accommodate a regulation-size track without the need to dislodge existing seating. 

Sportscaster Dick Enberg described the awe-inspiring experience of entering the Coliseum in his 2004 memoir Oh My!

I couldn’t get to the game soon enough. I’d arrive at the press box early and have a grilled hot dog with mustard and onions and a cup of coffee before most of the media had arrived…Coming back into that stadium as the fans started filling the seats remains one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had as an announcer. Like the players, I was hit with an adrenaline rush as I turned the blind corner in the tunnel and saw the massive stadium spread out in full view ready for the three-hour drama to come.

-Dick Enberg, Oh My! (quoted in this article by Frank Andre Guridy)

At the 2028 Olympics, hundreds of thousands of sports fans will have that experience of walking into the stadium, and being overwhelmed by the bigness of it all, the history that courses through the place. 

Thanks to Stephen Gee, my go-to guru for all things John Parkinson-related, for clarifying Donald Parkinson’s involvement with the design of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Resources & Recommended Reading/Watching

+ “Arches for the Ages: Don’t Feed the Coliseum to the Development Lions” (Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1990)

+ Barragan, Bianca: “USC Wants to Give the Coliseum a $270-Million Restoration” (Curbed LA, October 30, 2015)

+ “Big Coliseum for Exposition Park in Los Angeles Assured” (Long Beach Press-Telegram, February 24, 1921 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Boyarsky, Bill: “The Effort to Destroy Coliseum” (Los Angeles Times, February 16, 1990)

+ Charleton, James, National Park Service: LA Memorial Coliseum’s NHL nomination form

+ Chiotakis, Steve: “‘People’s playground’: 100-year-old Coliseum shows LA history and future” (KCRW.com)

+ “Coliseum Contract Is Approved By County” (Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, November 21, 1929 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Coliseum History” (lacoliseum.com)

+ “Coliseum’s Lease Question Is Taken Under Advisement” (Pasadena Star-News, December 14, 1932 – via Newspapers.com)

+ DLR Group: “Renovation Unveiled at Iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum” (DLRGroup.com, August 14, 2019)

+ Farmer, Sam: “Coliseum Officials Weigh Options” (Los Angeles Times, October 5, 2006)

+ “Full Coverage: L.A. Coliseum scandal” (Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2012)

+ Gates, Jim: “Clicking Turnstiles” (baseballhall.org)

+ Gee, Stephen: Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles (Angel City Press, 2013)

+ Guridy, Frank Andre: “‘Bringing the World to Los Angeles’: The Los Angeles Memorial  Coliseum and the Rise of a Global City” (PDF – ICOMOS, Journals of the German National Committee vol. 76, The Modern Heritage of the Olympic Games, 2021)

+ Hahn, Janice: “Don’t change the name of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum” (Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2019)

+ “Historical Timeline” (lacoliseum.com)

+ “History: Controversy Sparks Leadership” (alumni.ucla.edu)

+ “Inside LA’s Massive Olympic Stadium Overhaul” (VIDEO – @BuildCore on YouTube, Feb 14, 2025)

+ “Introducing United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum” (lacoliseum.com, August 15, 2019)

+ “LA Memorial Coliseum Exposition Park Zone” (LA28.org)

+ “Last Rite Held for Parkinson, L.A. Architect” (Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, December 11, 1935 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Levin, Rachel B.: “Cats and the L.A. Memorial Coliseum: A purr-fect fit” (USC Today, November 16, 2023)

+ Levin, Rachel B.: “Music and culture at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum” (USC Today, April 16, 2024)

+ Lin II, Rong-Gong: “L.A. Coliseum officials tell USC they can’t afford $60 million in renovations” (Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2011)

+ “Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum” (laconservancy.org)

+ “Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: The Story of an LA Icon” (DiscoverLosAngeles.com, August 15, 2025)

+ Marathon Communications Inc & RTKL Associates Inc: “The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Renovation: Summary Report for the Cultural Heritage Commission” (PDF – expositionpark.ca.gov, September 21, 2005)

+ McCollough, J. Brady: “USC and United Airlines reach deal on Coliseum field naming rights” (Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2019)

+ McWilliams, Carey: Southern California: An Island on the Land (Gibbs-Smith Publisher, 1973)

+ Meares, Hadley: “The People’s Playground: How the Memorial Coliseum put Los Angeles on the map” (Curbed LA, July 21, 2016)

+ Medzerian, David: “USC, L.A. leaders reintroduce the renovated Coliseum” (USC.edu, August 15, 2019)

+ “Memorial Coliseum Assured” (Los Angeles Evening Express, April 29, 1921 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Ewan, Morgan: “How the Gleeful Aesthetic of L.A.’s 1984 Olympics Unified a Sprawling City” (PBSSoCal.org, July 27, 2021)

+ Morgan, Ewan: “The Olympic Village: A Los Angeles Innovation” (PBSSocal.org, July 22, 2021)

+ “Pass Coliseum Building Plan” (Pomona Progress-Bulletin, November 21, 1929 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Pringle, Paul & Rong-Gong Lin II: “Coliseum deal: USC to cash in on turnover” (Los Angeles Times, May 31, 2013)

+ Schnalzer, Rachel: “‘A parallel Hollywood story’: How L.A.’s oil boom shaped the city we know today” (Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2021)

+ Sell, Ted: “Nixon Delays Pullout Decision Because of Increased Fighting” (Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1969 – via ProQuest)

+ Spitzzeri, Paul R.: ““The Greatest Attraction in the Southwest This Year”: The Opening of the American Historical Review and Motion Picture Industrial Exposition, Los Angeles, 2 July 1923” (The Homestead Blog, July 2, 2022)

+ Starr, Kevin: Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s (Oxford University Press, 1990 – via Google Books)

+ Starr, Kevin: The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s (Oxford University Press, 1997 – via Google Books)

+ “The Los Angeles Coliseum History” (LA County website)

+ Turnbull, Martin: “Night shot of the Motion Picture Electrical Parade at the Los Angeles Coliseum, September 25, 1932” (MartinTurnbull.com, January 7, 2025)

+ Wharton, David: “Coliseum turns 100: Timeless Los Angeles cultural centerpiece endures as an icon” (Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2023)

+ Wharton, David: “Transformative Coliseum: Multitude of sports, war shows, concerts, racing … all fit in” (Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2023)

+ “Work on Huge $950,000 L.A. Coliseum to Be Rushed” (Los Angeles Evening Express, February 24, 1921 – via Newspapers.com)