Times are a’changing in Los Angeles. The city is gearing up for a run at the 2024 Summer Olympics and, as such, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is getting renovated. A $270 million renovation is now underway, which will improve the 93-year-old building’s concourses with new seating and a new press box.
We’re at the @lacoliseum groundbreaking ceremony. Big crowd! Follow us on Instagram for more: pic.twitter.com/6xVQH7ZzgO
— USCFootball.com (@ThePeristyle) January 29, 2018
And as such, the Coliseum is getting a new name.
USC President Max Nikias announces the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will be renamed the United Airlines Memorial Coliseum under a new naming rights agreement.
— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) January 29, 2018
The deal is the richest naming rights agreement on record in college sports, paying the Trojans $69 million over 15 years. However, after 93 years as “The Coliseum,” the colloquial name isn’t changing at his point -- at least not among people who aren’t contractually obligated to call it the United Airlines Memorial Coliseum. For further evidence, consult your personal rolodex for all of the times people in your every day life didn’t refer to the home of the Sugar Bowl and the New Orleans Saints as the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, despite that being its official name.
The new name is... not going over well with USC’s constituents.
USC’s marching band began playing right after Nikias announced the naming-rights deal. One booster in the back: “I’m not clapping for that.”
— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) January 29, 2018
The name won’t go into effect until USC’s 2019 season, which is when the renovations are scheduled to be completed.