No winners at the Coliseum

Re “USC considers leaving Coliseum for Rose Bowl,� Nov. 28

As a former track-and-field athlete who competed in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the 1950s, I have seen one of California’s great historical landmarks continue to deteriorate over the last half-century. It is time to put an end to this wasting of our heritage. It is my impression that the financial package that has been proposed by USC is reasonable and achieves an objective that is shared by the community without placing a burden on local taxpayers.

Unless the Coliseum commissioners have a better option that is financially viable and results in multiple economic benefits to the community, they are committing professional dereliction of their fiduciary relationship to the people of Southern California if they fail to support the university and allow it to move its home venue to Pasadena.

Theodore R. Smith

Alpine, Wyo.

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Have these people rejecting USC’s proposal actually attended a game in the conditions we have endured for many years -- limited parking, uneven walkways, cracked seats, dirty restrooms, long lines for concessions, etc.? Or do they arrive in limos and sit in the press box with restrooms sparkling clean and food delivered to their seats?

I have a message for the powers that be: Come down and sit with us and get a real perspective of what it’s like to support the best team on the L.A. sports scene in a dump.

George Pobedinsky

West Covina

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest examples of government negotiating ineptitude in the history of American sports: The loss by New York of both its National League baseball teams -- the Dodgers and Giants -- to California in 1958. And yet, this loss pales in comparison with the record of negotiating futility rung up by our own Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission over virtually the same time frame:

The Los Angeles Chargers: gone.

The Los Angeles Rams: gone.

The Los Angeles Raiders: gone.

The Los Angeles Lakers: gone.

The Los Angeles Kings: gone.

UCLA football: gone.

USC basketball: gone.

USC football: one foot out the door.

The Coliseum Commission said that none of the foregoing teams would leave either the Coliseum or the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena, accusing each of bluffing. None were. All left. Send in the clowns.

Jonathan Kotler

Calabasas

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Can someone please clue in Matt Szabo, press secretary to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, that USC is located in downtown Los Angeles and not “South L.A.�? (“USC football is one of the most important economic engines in South L.A.�) I know where USC is located, having spent the best years of my life getting my undergraduate and graduate degrees in downtown L.A.

Howard Cohen

North Hills