USC and United Airlines reach deal on naming rights

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will not bear a new name that includes a corporate sponsor, but its field will.

The University of Southern California and United Airlines announced a new agreement Friday that names the field at the historic landmark “United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.” The deal will go into effect in August.

Under the terms of a previous agreement announced in 2018, United would pay USC $69 million over 16 years to have the Coliseum named United Airlines Memorial Coliseum. But that deal came under scrutiny this spring when Janice Hahn, president of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, started a campaign to preserve the name out of respect for the building’s history as a war memorial.

“Unlike other modern sports venues, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is not just a stadium — it is a war memorial,” Hahn wrote in a March 25 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. “Removing ‘Los Angeles’ and replacing it with a corporate sponsor insults the memories of those the Coliseum was intended to honor.”

Days after Hahn’s op-ed, Janet Lamkin, president of United in California, reportedly offered to step away from its partnership with USC and end the agreement, which was vital to the school’s financing of a $315 million renovation of the nearly century-old landmark.

USC and United did not disclose revised financial terms of the agreement but announced this deal will be for 10 years instead of 16.