page_title: History of the National Football League in Los Angeles
section_title: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
hierarchical_section_title: History of the National Football League in Los Angeles / Football stadiums in the Los Angeles area / Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
caption_attribution_description: English: University of Arizona Symphonic Marching Band &amp; Grambling State University Marching Band, Al Hirt, Anaheim High School Drill Team and Flag Girls
context_page_description: Professional American football, especially its established top level, the National Football League, has had a long and complicated history in Los Angeles, which is the center of the second-largest media market in the United States. Los Angeles was the first city on the West Coast of the United States to host an NFL team of its own, when the former Cleveland Rams relocated to Los Angeles in 1946 and played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 1946 until 1979. The Rams, after moving to suburban Anaheim, California in 1980, were joined in the Los Angeles metropolitan area by the Los Angeles Raiders when that team moved into the Coliseum in 1982. A combination of a split fan base and earthquake damage to the Coliseum prompted both teams to leave Los Angeles simultaneously prior to the 1995 season. The Raiders returned to their original home of Oakland, California, while the Rams began a 21-year tenure in St. Louis, Missouri and a twenty year span began where Los Angeles was the largest media market in the counrty without a NFL team.
context_section_description: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was built in 1923, and is both the largest stadium in California and the ninth largest in the United States. It has been home of the NCAA's USC Trojans since its inauguration, and also hosted the UCLA Bruins from 1928 to 1981. All NFL franchises from Southern California have used the Coliseum: the Rams held home games from their arrival in 1946 to their move to Anaheim, California in 1980 and returned in 2016 playing there through the 2019 season using the stadium as an interim home while their permanent home of SoFi Stadium was under construction; the Raiders were headquartered there during their Los Angeles years, from 1982 to 1994; and the Chargers played the 1960 AFL season at the Coliseum, moving to San Diego the following year. The Coliseum also hosted the 1967 AFL-NFL Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I.
  The Coliseum was problematic as an NFL venue. At various times in its history, it was either the largest or one of the largest stadiums in the NFL, making it difficult to sell out. Since the NFL's blackout rule barred games from being televised locally unless they were sold out 72 hours before kickoff, this meant Rams (and later Raiders) games were often blacked out in Southern California.
  Prior to 1993, the Coliseum Commission approved multiple changes to enhance the stadium as a football facility: Capacity was reduced to around 68,000, the field was lowered, the surrounding running track was removed, bleachers were replaced by single seats, and locker rooms and fan restrooms were upgraded. Proposals were raised for Coliseum renovations, where the refurbished stadium would have seated 63,300 for most major events, expanding to about 80,000 for Super Bowls and University of Southern California (USC) home games. The Coliseum would have retained the peristyle section and columns that are part of the current stadium, in a design similar to Soldier Field in Chicago, which is the home of the NFL's Chicago Bears. This stadium was supported by then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Los Angeles City Council approved a preliminary financing plan and environmental impact report in 2006. But the Exposition Park area still carries safety concerns among some fans.
  In October 2006, a new doubt was cast over the Coliseum's future as a possible venue, as reports surfaced that the Coliseum Commission was negotiating to hand over control of the stadium to USC, which could preclude any plans to renovate the stadium for the NFL. Pat Lynch, the Coliseum's general manager, claimed in a panel discussion in December 2006 that the true cost of a new Coliseum would be closer to $650 million.
caption: Super Bowl I – Los Angeles Coliseum
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D700", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2012:01:18 16:50:13", "Image Artist": "", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "332", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "848", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "962", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "23687", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "2500", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:09:26 12:48:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:09:26 12:48:16", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1120723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "40", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "6000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4800", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "40", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}