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LOS ANGELES, July 12, (Agencies): As he walks down the curved, red tunnel that leads to the playing field, Joe Furin is recalling some of the historic grandeur of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
“The ‘32 Olympics, Sandy Koufax, Jackie Robinson, the Fearsome Foursome — Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen — everyone went down this tunnel,” he says.
But where the tunnel opens to reveal the 93-year-old stadium’s wide expanse, there is a slow but steady drip from the ceiling. Furin, the venue’s general manager, has been working hard to patch leaks like this one. “Knock on wood, we think we’ve identified them,” he says. But it’s still a work in progress.
In just six weeks, the Los Angeles Rams will take the field at the Coliseum. It will mark the end of the NFL’s 21-year, self-imposed exile from Los Angeles. It will also be the first time the Rams play a game at the venue since 1979 — the year they went all the way to the Super Bowl before decamping for Anaheim.
The Rams’ owner, Stan Kroenke, has announced plans for a $2.6 billion stadium complex at the Hollywood Park site in Inglewood, but it’s not slated to open until 2019. So for the first three seasons back in L.A, the Rams will be playing at the Coliseum, which was state of the art in 1923.
The facility is in such a state of decrepitude that it’s hard to believe it can house an NFL team, even for a few years. The paint is fading and chipped. The concourse is narrow and cramped. The bathrooms