NCAA Basketball


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Seasons	Conferences	Arenas	All Tournaments	NCAA Tournament	Admin

L.A. Sports Arena

3939 South Figueroa St

Los Angeles, CA 90037

Opened: July 4, 1959

Closed: September 1, 2016

The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was a multi-purpose arena at Exposition Park, in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and just south of the campus of the University of Southern California, which managed and operated both venues under a master lease agreement with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission. The arena was closed in April 2016, and was demolished in September of that same year. It was replaced with Banc of California Stadium, home of Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC, which opened in 2018.

The arena was opened by Vice President Richard Nixon on July 4, 1959, and its first event followed four days later, a bantamweight title fight between Jose Becerra and Alphonse Halimi on July 8. It became a companion facility to the adjacent Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

It was the home for college basketball for the USC Trojans from 1959 to 2006 and the UCLA Bruins from 1959 to 1965 and again as a temporary home in the 2011-2012 season. The arena hosted the 1968 and 1972 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four.

From March 15 to 19, 2016, Bruce Springsteen performed a series of three sold-out concerts, the last events held in the arena. When he introduced his song "Wrecking Ball" during the last concert, he opened by saying "We gotta play this one for the old building... We're gonna miss this place, it's a great place to play rock 'n' roll." The arena closed after the last concert. Demolition began in September 2016 for the new stadium development.

The Sports Arena was demolished in order to replace it with a more in-demand facility - a soccer-specific stadium that would house an MLS team. On May 18, 2015, Los Angeles Football Club announced its intentions to build a privately funded 22,000 seat soccer-specific stadium at the site for $250 million. The stadium would be completed by 2018.

Last 10 Games
Date	Opponents	Result

Mar 3, 2012	Washington @ UCLA	69 - 75
Mar 1, 2012	Washington State @ UCLA	46 - 78
Feb 15, 2012	USC @ UCLA	54 - 64
Feb 11, 2012	Cal @ UCLA	73 - 63
Feb 9, 2012	Stanford @ UCLA	61 - 72
Jan 28, 2012	Colorado @ UCLA	60 - 77
Jan 26, 2012	Utah @ UCLA	49 - 76
Dec 23, 2011	Richmond @ UCLA	63 - 71
Dec 20, 2011	UC Irvine @ UCLA	60 - 89
Dec 14, 2011	Eastern Washington @ UCLA	47 - 60