LA’s The Place

The name "Los Angeles" has been synonymous with sports excellence for nearly a century.

With two Olympic Games, two FIFA World Cup finals, five Super Bowls and nearly 200 league, national and world championships to its credit, Los Angeles's reputation as a sports mecca and a desirable venue for future events is assured.

In this section, you'll find more details of why Los Angeles is such an outstanding venue for the finest in sports entertainment for both organizers and visitors.

Why LA?

Combine the Pacific Ocean, perfect weather, the creative energy of Hollywood and the diversity of a metropolitan area of more than 15 million people and you have the magical elixir that is Los Angeles.

The same magnificent climate, scenery and talented population that attracted the movie industry has also attracted the world's most important sporting events including two Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984, five Super Bowls, the men's (1994) and women's (1999) FIFA World Cup championships and some of the most storied sports franchises anywhere, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Southern California offers the complete package for sports organizers as well as the sports fan, with hundreds of facilities from giant football stadia like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Bowl to state-of-the-art arenas like Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim and Staples Center to intimate facilities like the Bren Center at UC Irvine or the Lyon Center at USC. The variety and quality of facilities in the area is so outstanding that the area's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games noted that construction was needed only for a permanent canoeing and rowing channel and a shooting range to meet all Olympic requirements.

In addition, a vast array of quality accommodations are available in major clusters including downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, the Los Angeles International Airport area, the L.A. westside, Anaheim and Long Beach. More than 100,000 hotel rooms are available in Los Angeles County alone and more than 150,000 in the greater Los Angeles area, all connected by the area's famous freeway system and an emerging rapid transit system using both buses and rail.

Of course, there's plenty to do once you get here, including the area's legendary beaches and attractions, including Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, the Queen Mary, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Center and many, many more.

It's all here!

For more information about area attractions and accommodations, please visit the web site of the area convention and visitors organizations:

And, prospective organizers can coordinate their bid requirements through the Los Angeles Sports Council, a one-stop point of contact for access to the area's facilities and support services.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Sports in Southern California is the engine for a stunning $4 billion in annual economic impact according to the seventh survey of the area's sports industry by the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

The survey, commissioned by the Sports Council and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, reviewed the revenue, employment and attendance impact of area sports franchises (including major annual events), sports venues and major colleges and universities for the calendar year 2009 and calculated both the direct and indirect economic impact of sports in Los Angeles. All of the information was collected on a confidential basis and showed the continuing expansion of L.A. sports (all amounts in millions of dollars):

 Survey
 Direct Impact
 Induced Impact
   Total Impact



 1: 1993
$ 762	
 $ 640	 
   $ 1,402
	 

 2: 1996	
$ 800	
 $ 652	 
   $ 1,452
	 

 3: 2000		
$ 1,047		
 $ 907	 
   $ 1,954
	 

 4: 2003*
$ 1,453
 $ 2,111 
   $ 3,564	 

 5: 2005*
$ 1,659
 $ 2,422 
   $ 4,081 

 6: 2007
$ 2,109	
 $ 3,015 
   $ 5,124 

 7: 2009
$ 1,726	
 $ 2,468 
   $ 4,194 

* Use of updated BEA multipliers result in higher induced impact.

The 2009 study showed that sports activity in the Southern California area generated over 9,500 full- and part-time jobs. Attendance at all levels of sporting events reached a remarkable 20.8 million in 2009 as well.

Community Support

Community events

Special fund-raising events to support our U.S. Olympic teams have been held in recent Olympic years in conjunction with the United States Olympic Committee. For example, a special "Welcome Home" event honored members of the 2000 team returning from Sydney, Australia. In 2004, the world premiere of The Walt Disney Studios' "National Treasure" was the backdrop for an unforgettable event that paid tribute to U.S. Olympians who competed at the Athens Games.

Publications

The Sports Council’s highly respected Community Report, a compilation of Sports Council achievements and programs, is published every other year and is distributed to Board members and civic leaders.

Touchdown for Youth

As a part of its commitment to the communities of Los Angeles, the Sports Council has created programs which bring sports to people who might not otherwise be able to enjoy it.

Principal among these is the Sports Council Foundation’s "Touchdown for Youth" program. Created for the 1993 Super Bowl by Host Committee Chairman Shell Ausman, Touchdown for Youth collects funds from corporate contributors and then uses that money to provide tickets, transportation, drinks and hot dogs for economically disadvantaged youngsters to attend a USC football game at the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Over the life of the program, which began with the 1993 USC season, more than 40,000 young people have attended games and enjoyed a glimpse of what sports and university life can offer.