The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum holds 77,500 for USC football, a figure set by a $315 million renovation completed in 2019 that cut nearly 16,000 seats from the old bowl. The record football crowd is 104,953 for Notre Dame in December 1947, a number the current building cannot approach. It hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, will host them again in 2028, and is the only stadium in the world that has staged the Games, a Super Bowl and a World Series.
| Official capacity | 77,500, since 2019 |
| Record football attendance | 104,953 vs Notre Dame, December 6, 1947 |
| All time record, any event | 134,254, a Billy Graham crusade in 1963 |
| First USC game | October 6, 1923, USC 23 to 7 over Pomona, 12,836 present |
| 2025 average | 67,783, 22nd in the country |
| Owner and operator | Publicly owned; USC holds the master lease and runs it |
| Olympics | 1932, 1984 and 2028, the only three time host |
The 1947 Crowd
On December 6, 1947, top ranked Notre Dame beat third ranked USC 38 to 7 in front of 104,953, the largest crowd ever to see a football game at the Coliseum. Two weeks earlier, 102,050 had watched USC beat UCLA 6 to 0. The stadium’s capacity then was above 100,000, a legacy of the expansion for the 1932 Olympics, and crowds of that size for the Notre Dame and UCLA games were routine into the 1950s. The largest for any other opponent was 96,130 for Stanford in 1951.
How the Capacity Changed
| Year | Capacity | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 1923 | 75,144 | Opened as a memorial to First World War veterans |
| 1930 | 101,574 | Upper tier added for the 1932 Olympics |
| 1964 | About 93,000 | Reduced as bench seating was widened |
| 1995 | 92,516 | Repairs after the Northridge earthquake |
| 2008 | 93,607 | Listed capacity through the Carroll era |
| 2019 | 77,500 | $315 million renovation, new press box tower and club seats |
Intermediate figures are approximate; the Coliseum’s listed capacity shifted several times between 93,000 and 94,000 from the 1960s through 2017.
The 2019 Renovation
USC, which took over the master lease from the public owners in 2013, rebuilt the seating bowl over two seasons while continuing to play in it. The project replaced benches with individual seats, added a seven storey tower on the south side with suites, loge boxes and a new press box, widened aisles and added handrails, and cut capacity by about 16,000 in the process. It was the same trade Ohio Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium and Oklahoma’s stadium made in the same years. The peristyle and Olympic torch at the east end were preserved.
What Else Happened Here
The Coliseum hosted the first Super Bowl in January 1967 and the seventh in 1973, the 1959 World Series when the Dodgers played there before Dodger Stadium was built, the Rams from 1946 to 1979 and again from 2016 to 2019, the Raiders from 1982 to 1994, and both Los Angeles Olympics. It was declared a National Historic Landmark the day before the 1984 opening ceremony. UCLA played its home games there from 1928 until moving to the Rose Bowl in 1982, which is why USC and UCLA once played their rivalry game in the same building every year.
The USC Home Record
USC has played every home season at the Coliseum since 1923, and the 55 to 24 comeback against Notre Dame in 1974, the 21 to 20 win over UCLA in 1967 that decided the Heisman and the national title, and the 2022 win over Notre Dame in Lincoln Riley’s first season are the games most often cited. Attendance fell to about 30,000 for a Rutgers game during a three game losing streak in 2024 and recovered to an average above 67,000 in 2025. Our USC vs Notre Dame page covers the rivalry that produced the record crowd.
The Bottom Line
The Coliseum holds 77,500 after a 2019 renovation that removed about 16,000 seats, and its record football crowd of 104,953 came against Notre Dame in 1947 when the capacity exceeded 100,000. It has hosted two Olympics with a third due in 2028, the first Super Bowl and a World Series, and every USC home game for more than a century. Our USC all time record page covers what has happened on the field.