Thursday, November 29, 2007

Coliseum, cont.

A former college classmate and fellow DT-er sends me this:

From Bill Plaschke's column in the LA TIMES:

The most amazing part of this story is that UCLA has given USC
permission to negotiate with the Rose Bowl.

That's UCLA, as in, a university owned by the state of California.

Which is the same entity that owns the Coliseum.

Has everyone here lost their minds?

The day that the Coliseum allows USC to leave is the day they fire up
the bulldozers and tear that sucker down.

The day that Carroll has to drive a recruit through rush-hour traffic to
Pasadena to show him his new field is the day that Carroll joins the San
Diego Chargers.

This is a lose-lose proposition that needs to be fixed, and fast.

As smoke bombs go, this one really stinks.


Yes, precisely, but more to the point, without the Trojans in the Coliseum, why exactly would the Coliseum--and, by extension, the Commission--even exist? The Rams, Raiders and UCLA have vacated the Coliseum; the Lakers, Kings, Clippers and USC basketball have all fled the Sports Center. (One need only look a few miles north on Figueroa, to the Staples Center, home of both the Lakers and Clippers, to see what the CC could have accomplished with with just a little imagination.)

Furthermore:

The Coliseum, as presently constituted, will never host an NFL game, not even on a temporary basis if LA ever got a team (which it doesn't want).

The Coliseum, as presently constituted, will never host another Olympic Opening Ceremony. It would be lucky to host soccer.

So, if the Trojans leave, precisely what would the Commission do? Concern itself with Monster Truck Rallies and renting out the place for the filming of The Last Boy Scout II?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As a Sun Devil fan I approve of the move. Why? Well Autzen is a tough place to play. The toughest in the Pac-10 perhaps. Because it's tight confines and fans right on top of you.

The Rose Bowl? Hardly a home-field advantage. Large spacious and spread out.