USC will spend $270 million on Coliseum ‘modernizations’ for Olympic Games that haven’t even been confirmed for Los Angeles
And by ‘modernization’ we mean removing 16,000 seats
Never mind that the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has become the home of the Los Angeles Rams or that the 2024 Summer Olympic Games’ location has not even been voted upon yet. USC is determined to sink $270 million into the publicly owned Coliseum for renovations beginning this fall and ending in August of 2019, according to a press release yesterday announcing that the Coliseum Commission has approved USC’s $270M “modernization” plan.
The Coliseum remains under the jurisdiction of a uniquely Los Angeles-level of a terrible combination of public and private ownership, with the state, city and county of Los Angeles owning the Coliseum while USC operates it and foots the bill. While taxpayers should not be obliged to pay for a stadium that is not by any means a public good (name the last time you stepped foot in the Coliseum without a USC ID or a ticket), please explain to me how these “renovations” will benefit the students, donors or brand of USC in any way. Go on, I’m waiting.
The so-called “renovations” confirmed in yesterday’s press release will actually decrease the seating capacity by over 17 percent, from 93,607 to 77,500. The renovations, which USC began publicly discussing in 2015, will update all of the amenities which has made our football program one of the best in the world: “brand new hospitality suites, lounges, press facilities, concessions and lighting systems.” Oh good. I was so worried that the failing ESPN was not comfortable enough in their press boxes.
Still, President C. L. Max Nikias, everyone’s favorite meme enthusiast and $1.4 million annual salary recipient, said in the 2015 announcement, “We believe these renovations will strengthen the Coliseum’s reputation as one of the world’s great venues, and also will enhance our world-class athletic programs that utilize the Coliseum.”
If, the past two years these plans have been proposed, the university could provide even one decent rationale for how these renovations would increase that quality of our football program or our brand, it would make sense for USC to pay for “modernization” as an investment. However, the only tangible justification the university has thus provided is to enable the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Considering that then President Obama could not even secure the games for his hometown of Chicago back in 2009, it seems beyond irresponsible to assume that LA is a shoe in to host the 2024 Games.
Once the Olympics-thirsty LA City Council approves the plan, the renovations will be fully green lit. No word on what they will do with regards to the rapidly growing homeless population finding refuge on the immediate perimeter of the Coliseum. You see, to the school, that wouldn’t “strengthen the Coliseum’s reputation.