The LA Coliseum is spending the offseason going through a makeover. The renovations will continue for the next year as the home of the USC Trojans (and temporary home for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams) has work done to expand aisles, replace seats, and add those all-important revenue-generating luxury boxes and club seats. A new press box is also part of the renovations, but nobody other than the media will care about that.
If you want to get a look from above to see how the progress is looking, you can do that thanks to a video captured using a drone. USC shared the drone footage on Twitter on Friday. In the video, you can see the one side of the stadium has essentially been torn down to begin work on the new club boxes and press box.
The Coliseum renovation is progressing every day. Take a flight over the action. #FightOn pic.twitter.com/7BzEVHUvH6
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) June 1, 2018
The renovations to the historic venue are scheduled to be done in 2019, before the start of the 2019 football season. The 2019 season should be the final season the Coliseum has to serve as host to both USC and the Rams. The NFL franchise is expected to move into its brand new state-of-the-art stadium with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2020. USC has a lease to the stadium and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the stadium. Part of the lease agreement with USC required the university to invest $100 million in physical repairs to the facility. The renovation project already underway to the Coliseum is part of a $300 million project. The project was originally budgeted to be $270 million but quickly ran roughly $30 million over budget.
They spared no expense. Perhaps the selling of the naming rights to the Coliseum helped compensate for that.