USC Unveils Plans For Renovations At L.A. Coliseum; Capacity To Shrink By Nearly 17,000

USC's upcoming renovation of L.A. Coliseum will "place luxury boxes atop a large swath of seats near midfield, add aisles and concourses and shrink the stadium’s capacity from 94,000 to 77,500," according to Zach Helfand of the L.A. TIMES. The alterations mean many season-ticket holders "will be forced to move." USC unveiled plans for the upgrades yesterday, and AD Lynn Swann said that USC staffers "would contact every season-ticket holder or member of the Trojan Athletic Fund individually, over 15 months, to work through the process." One-third of the seats would require an extra fee, what Swann called a "one-time Coliseum restoration gift." The $270M renovation is "scheduled to begin" after the '17 football season and be completed in time for the start of '19. The renovation also will "replace every seat in the stadium, restore the peristyle and improve infrastructure" (L.A. TIMES, 4/25). USC this past football season averaged 68,459 fans per game, the school's lowest attendance since '02 (THE DAILY).