Building the track will take 3-4 months

The USC Trojans may need to find a place to play its home football games when Olympic track and field comes to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2028, as the stadium will undergo the installation of a track after the original was removed decades ago.

Coliseum General Manager Joe Furin said hosting the Olympics will be a huge milestone for a facility that’s seen plenty of them in its 100-year history, which includes the 1932 summer games of the tenth Olympiad.

The Coliseum will host USC football in 2027, but that will be the last event before the facility is turned over to the Olympics, Furin said.

“The Olympics’ crew will come in and work with the Coliseum’s team to start building the track, which is anticipated to take 3-4 months,” he said. “There may be some sort of pre-competition event held at the Coliseum before the actual Olympic Games to break in the track and stuff, though the details are not finalized yet.”

The Coliseum will also the Paralympics after the main event.

“After the Olympics and Paralympics, all of the track and field equipment and infrastructure will need to be removed,” Furin said. “There is still uncertainty around whether USC football will be able to host any games at the Coliseum in 2028 during the Olympic preparation and event timeline.”

The process will likely take the entirety of 2028.

The Coliseum celebrated its centennial in 2023. The building was constructed in 1921 and completed in 2023. It hosted the first USC football game in October 1923.

“The centennial celebration was extended beyond a year, bridging past achievements to future milestones, such as the 2028 Olympics,” Furin said.

“The Coliseum is fortunate to still be in business, the century old, with an incredible legacy,” Furin said. “The university made a nearly 100-year commitment to keep managing it, so it’s going to be around for another century, and we hope to keep that legacy of great events going.”

Managing a 100-year-old building, however, comes with its own set of challenges.

Furin acknowledged the lack of storage, infrastructure issues, and the challenges in adopting new technologies like Wi-Fi and internet capabilities, but he takes pride in the Coliseum’s resilience, unlike other historic venues that have fallen victim to the wrecking ball.

“Los Angeles is fortunate to have a building like the Coliseum,” he said. “And me, personally, I’m humbled to be a steward at this moment in time of this building, to see it from one generation going on to the next.”

The seven-story Scholarship Club Tower, with its luxury suites and club seats, complements the Coliseum’s timeless grandeur.

The concourse outside the stadium walls serves as circular food court. The stadium and its concessions and catering partner Legends recently launched a “Battle of the Burgers” promotion featuring burgers based on each visiting Big 10 school, as USC is a freshman member of the mega conference of 18 teams across the country.

The Coliseum hosts a variety of concerts and large-scale events beyond just USC football games, Teresa Guy, vice president of booking, who remarked that the Coliseum has a “huge and very healthy private event business,” hosting around 300 events a year.

The stadium’s peristyle area can be configured in various capacities, but “anytime the Coliseum transforms from a football stadium into a full concert venue, it is a marvel to see,” she said.

There are multiple shows in the books, including plans for “big rock concerts and big hip hop shows and big EDM concerts.”

The Torch, a smaller venue within the Coliseum has grown to host around 25 events per year. Sophie Tucker is booked to play the space.

Originally published in Venues Now by by James Zoltak

The Pac-12 Network recently highlighted the Coliseum’s centennial anthem in their game day broadcast. Watch the interview with songwriters Ella Collier and Sam Venig and Marina Fote of the Coliseum below and pre-save “WE CAME TO BRING THE FIRE.”