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EXPRESS
TRIVIA |
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| "Get
On It!" was the slogan used by the LA
Express marketing department in its efforts to
sell season tickets for the 1983 season. |
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| The
Los Angeles Coliseum, home of the Express, was
the site of the inaugural Super Bowl, as well as
Super Bowl VII. |
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| The
Coliseum last hosted an NFL game in 1994, when
the Los Angeles Raiders called the facility
home. After 12 years there, the Raiders
returned to Oakland for their 1995 season. |
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| The
Coliseum had also once served as home of the Los
Angeles Rams, but in 1980 citing the stadium's
age, the team relocated to nearby Anaheim, where
they remained for 15 years. |
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| Today
the NFL allegedly is active in attempting to
bring pro football back to Los Angeles, and a
restorated Coliseum is seen by some as a
potential home facility for such a team. |
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| Many
however cite the area of Los Angeles in which
the stadium is located as a deterrent to placing
any NFL franchise at the Coliseum. |
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| It
seems unlikely that pro football will return to
Los Angeles anytime soon, as NFL Commissioner
Roger Goodell has placed nowhere near the amount
of emphasis on the subject as had his
predecessor, Paul Tagliabue. |
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| LOS
ANGELES COLISEUM |
| The
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has a
tremendous history as the chief venue of
the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games.
But as a site for professional football
games, it is among the worst there is.
Nevertheless, countless people wishing to
crack the fickle L.A. football market have
used the Coliseum as their home - only to
regret doing so for one reason or another.
The
reason is that the facility, for all its
grandeur, is simply too large. At a
seating capacity of over 92,000 (and over
100,000 during its USFL days), even a
respectable crowd of 50,000 attending a
game would look bad on television - the
place would only be half-full. While
the site of the most-attended Super Bowl
in the history of the NFL (Super Bowl XI),
it is also the site of the least-attended.
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LOS
ANGELES COLISEUM |
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Los
Angeles, California |
|
(picture
above is of an L.A.
Express-Denver Gold game
in May 1985, which drew an
official attendance
of slightly over 3,000). |
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In the case of the USFL's Los Angeles
Express, the team undoubtedly would have
been better suited had it secured use of
Pasadena's Rose Bowl, or better still,
Anaheim Stadium, for its games.
Instead owners Alan Harmon (and later, J.
William Oldenburg) inexplicably tried to
do what they could to fill as many of the
Coliseum's seats as possible - and failed,
miserably.
They aren't the only ones to have made the
mistake of using the Coliseum however, as
at one point or another teams such as the
AAFC Dons, the AFL's Chargers, the NFL's
Rams and Raiders, and the XFL's Xtreme
each tried, futily, to fill the bowl with
paying spectators. |
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PIERCE
COLLEGE |
| The
Los Angeles Express were organized with
the idea that the team would be a keynote
franchise in the United States Football
League. Two and a half years and
nearly $30 million later, and the team had
become a laughingstock even by the USFL's
rapidly deteriorating standards.
Being
taken over by the league prior to the 1985
season after owner J. William Oldenburg
gave up the ghost, the 1985 Express were
for all intent and purpose operated by
Commissioner Harry Usher. Usher, who
rarely attended his own league's games,
grew tired of seeing the Express draw
miniscule crowds to the cavernous Los
Angeles Coliseum, and at the end of the
season he decided to experiment - by
placing a game at the home field of tiny
Pierce College in Woodland Hills,
California. If nothing else, Harry
Usher would be the first to bring pro
football to California's San Fernando
Valley.
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PIERCE
COLLEGE |
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Woodland
Hills, California |
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The facility was so small that it didn't
even have a name - it was simply
referred to as
"the football field." The
Express took on the Arizona Outlaws before
an announced crowd of 5,500 - and promptly
lost, 21-10. A week later, the
Express would play their final game,
another loss, on the road in Portland. |
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