Plan Unveiled for Renovated L.A. Coliseum

An official proposal for renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum--maintaining many historic features and traditional sight lines while adding state-of-the-art luxury suites, club seating and a 19-row upper deck--was unveiled Tuesday by the stadium’s private managers.

The plan, still subject to an environmental impact report and final design approval by the Coliseum Commission, represents an agreement worked out in months of talks with the architects, major tenants such as the Los Angeles Raiders and USC and preservationists from the Los Angeles Conservancy.

The stadium capacity, now about 92,500, would be reduced to about 70,000 for Raiders games and 85,000 for USC’s most popular football games against UCLA and Notre Dame. The number of seats between the goal posts at all football games would increase to 40,000 from 22,000.

Project managers of the Spectacor business partnership, which includes ARA Services and the Pritzker family, owners of the Hyatt Hotel chain, said construction would begin immediately after the Raiders finish their 1992 season. They hope it will take no longer than 18 months.

If that schedule can be met, the project managers said, the Raiders and USC would only need to vacate the Coliseum for one season.

Raiders owner Al Davis said Tuesday that he is considering the Rose Bowl, Anaheim Stadium and Dodger Stadium as temporary playing sites for his National Football League team in 1993. USC Athletic Director Mike McGee said the school is primarily talking with Anaheim Stadium.

Terry Miller of the Kansas City architectural firm of HNTB called the 16-to-18-month construction schedule “aggressive but not inconceivable.” He said HuntCor, a Phoenix construction firm retained as consultants, had assured the developers the schedule was feasible.

Only last year, designers had estimated construction time at 27 months, which would have necessitated the Raiders and USC playing two seasons outside the Coliseum.

Nonetheless, even the faster schedule probably rules out use of the stadium for the 1994 World Cup tournament, because no timely guarantee could be given that work would be finished in time for the World Cup opening on June 17, 1994.

Insiders in the Los Angeles area’s bid for World Cup games said Tuesday that the Rose Bowl in Pasadena now is “in the driver’s seat” to secure any World Cup soccer, including finals and semifinals, awarded to the area. Initial selections will be made in February and sites for the final matches chosen in June.

At the Coliseum news conference at which a model and schematic drawings were unveiled, Davis, USC President Steven B. Sample and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley all hailed the renovation.

Davis said he will be proud to play in a Coliseum that “keeps the historic elements of the old stadium, keeps the continuity, but as we go into the 1990s, becomes state of the art.”

Sample said USC, the Coliseum’s oldest tenant, will “urge everyone to rally around and support” the renovation.

Bradley said he could say with confidence that the new plan “is going to please everybody,” and Coliseum Commission President N. Matthew Grossman said he felt commission approval eventually is assured.

Ed Snider, the head of Spectacor, said that despite the current business recession, the developers feel confident they will be able to obtain necessary private financing to allow the Coliseum project to proceed on schedule.

The project’s chief executive officer, Richard Schulze, said that seismic tests, as well as a study of the water table, indicate there will be no special impediments to the work, which will be facilitated by using the stadium field as a repository for equipment and material and as a staging area.

The $175-to-$200-million plan would maintain the historic peristyle, exterior walls and broad sweep of the 68-year-old Coliseum, while incorporating as many as 282 luxury suites, at least 10,000 special club seats, subterranean service concourses, a new press box and new lighting.

The field would be lowered 11 feet and seats added that would bring many spectators closer to the field of play. The Olympic track will be removed, but seats at the lowest levels could be taken out so that a track could be installed in case the Coliseum ever hosts a third Olympic Games.

The aim, developers said at a news conference Tuesday, is to make the Coliseum a much more intimate facility in which to view football, soccer and concerts. Even the furthest seat from the playing field would be 40 feet closer to the action than it is now, the architects have promised.

Distances from the football sidelines to the first seat would be reduced from 92 feet to under 50, and end zone lines would be 20 to 70 feet from the nearest seats rather than the present 100 to 215 feet, the stadium’s managers said.

By recessing the luxury suites into the superstructure between the club seats and the new upper deck, the developers said they are seeking to make sure the Coliseum “doesn’t become a corporate-dominated stadium.”

The suites will seat 12 to 16 people each. Marketing details will be released in a few weeks, the developers said, but the suites are expected to be taken by corporate or individual purchasers for all events, with the possible exception of such special events as a Super Bowl or the Olympics.

By constructing mainly subterranean service concourses next to the various seating levels, spectators will be required to walk only 50 to 100 feet to buy food and drinks rather than the 300 feet many must go now. Essentially, the concessions will be moved inside the stadium.

More than 10,000 people would be employed in the new facility compared to 8,000 now, Spectacor regional Vice President Peter Luucko estimated Tuesday.

As the only stadium in the world to host two of the modern Olympic Games, in 1932 and 1984, a World Series in 1959 and two Super Bowls, the Coliseum is a national historic landmark.

From the time the Raiders agreed last September to remain in Los Angeles, partly on condition that the Coliseum be modernized, major efforts have been made to placate preservationists who insisted that the historic values of the stadium be maintained. Public officials and representatives from the nearby community were also consulted.

Last December, a four-day design workshop that included some of the nation’s leading preservationist architects and engineers was held in the Los Angeles Sports Arena, adjacent to the Coliseum.

Five alternative plans were developed at the workshop and many of the favored concepts, including preservation of all the traditional entry tunnels, became a foundation of the HNTB architects’ later design work.

In the meantime, Bradley obtained a written commitment from Spectacor and the Coliseum Commission that the new Coliseum would retain both the eastern peristyle and the exterior walls.

Bill Delvac, chairman of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Coliseum task force, said this week that while the conservancy has not endorsed the plan presented Tuesday--pending release of a draft environmental impact report by the end of this year--the group is highly pleased by the consultations undertaken thus far.

“We believe that the interactive design process between Spectacor and the conservancy is a model for how private interests should deal with public landmarks, and that the rehabilitation of the Coliseum will be better for all the work we have done,” Delvac said.

Some changes in the plan reflected direct input by the conservancy representatives. For example, the architects at first proposed an eight-foot separation between the lower-level general admission seating and the club seating.

After the preservationist representatives pleaded against such an interruption of the “oneness of inner space” they saw as one of the Coliseum’s greatest merits, HNTB reduced the separation to about five feet. The architects also agreed to retain all the present tunnel entrances.

Confidence was expressed Tuesday that there will be little if any environmentalist opposition to the renovations, clearing the way for early approval of the environmental impact report.

TEAMS UPROOTED: USC and Raiders will need alternative sites in 1993. C1

Highlights of Coliseum Renovation

Here is a look at key elements of the proposed plan for renovating the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The estimated $175 - to $200 - million project awaits approval of an environmental impact report, financing arrangements and building permits. Construction would begin in January, 1993.

Preserving Peristyle: The historic eastern end of the 68-year-old stadium, location of the Olympic torch, will be retained under an agreement with preservationists.

New Stage Seating: During football games, approximately 3,500 pavilion-style seats will be placed in this section adjoining the east end zone. During concerts, the stage would be here.

Better Lighting: Thin bands of high-intensity, state-of-the-art lighting will replace the current lights.

New Press Box: Present cramped quarters for the press on the south side of the stadium will be replaced with a roomier press box. Details remain to be worked out.

Top Deck: Nineteen rows of general admission seating will be constructed on top of the luxury suites, with their own concourse service areas on each side of the stadium.

Existing Profile: The exterior walls of the present stadium, along with some of the old seats, will be retained under and in back of the luxury suites and top deck.

Field Seat Distance: The field will be lowered 11 feet, and new general admission seats will be within 50 feet of the sidelines rather than the present 92 feet. End zone seating will be 20 to 70 feet from endlines.

General Seating: About 35 rows of general admission seats will be just above the field seats. Altogether, there will be 40,000 seats between the goal posts for football rather than the present 22,000.

Club Seating: About 25 rows of club seats, at least 10,000 seats in all, will be installed above the general admission seats and just below the luxury suites.

Luxury Suites: Between 200 and 282 suites, with room for 12 to 16 persons each, will be built between the club seats and the upper deck, recessed slightly so as not to be obtrusive.

This is a profile view of the proposed renovated Coliseum in the area between the end zones. Behind the various types of seating, not visible from the outside, will be separate service concourses. This will bring concessions much closer to spectators. The number of men’s toilets will be increased from 250 to 550 and the number of women’s from 150 to 650.

Seating Capacity Present football configuration: 92,500 New configuration for Raider games: 70,000 New configuration for major USC games: 85,000