Grand Olympic Auditorium

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The Grand Olympic Auditorium is a sports venue in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located at 1801 S. Grand Avenue, the venue was built in 1924 specifically for the 1932 Summer Olympic Games, which saw the boxing, weightlifting, and wrestling events held there. At the time it was the largest indoor venue in the U.S., originally seating 10,500. The grand opening of the Olympic Auditorium was on August 5, 1925, and was a major media event, attended by such celebrities as Jack Dempsey and Rudolph Valentino.

Throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s it was home to some of the biggest boxing, wrestling and roller derby events and has become somewhat of a landmark for boxing history.

The 1960s and 1970s were a major boom period for the Olympic, as major wrestling events were held at the arena every other Friday night, as well as being the home to the roller-derby's Los Angeles T-Birds.

Some scenes in the 1976 film Rocky were filmed at the venue.

In 1980, The Grand Olympic Auditorium once again became a musical venue. This period in music performances began with a concert by the band Public Image Ltd. which was produced by Punk Rock impresario David Ferguson and his independent CD Presents production company. This was the fist concert held at the auditorium since the early 1970s and is credited with beginning the Olympic's reputation for being a notorious Punk Rock venue.

The arena closed its doors in the mid 1980s when promoter Mike Le Bell discontinued his weekly wrestling shows due to low attendance figures when the boom of the professional wrestling era began. This was when the wresting scene shifted from Los Angeles to Dallas' World Class, and later Minneapolis' AWA and Stamford's WWF, now known as the WWE. It reopened in 1993. Currently the Auditorium seats 7,030 for boxing and wrestling, 4,514 for seated concerts, and 7,007 for general admission concerts. Up to 773 seats can be put on the arena floor, which measures 12,100 square feet (110' by 110').

On July 16, 2000, ECW held its Heatwave pay-per-view at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. It was ECW's first, and only West Coast appearance.

Wrestling legends such as Freddie Blassie, John Tolos, Buddy Roberts (as Dale Valentine), The Sheik, Fritz Von Erich, Gorgeous George, The Great Goliath, Black Gordman, Bobo Brazil, Buddy Rogers, Roddy Piper and Chris Adams competed in the arena at one point in their careers, along with the legendary Mil Mascaras and Andre the Giant. Adams was one of the last big draws at the Olympic before promoters Gene LeBell and Mike LeBell ended its wrestling cards in 1982. Adams eventually went to Portland and eventually to Dallas to join Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling, and eventually the sport's top wrestling city shifted from Los Angeles to Dallas before Vince McMahon's WWF reached national prominence.

Until 2005, the Olympic Auditorium was host to many music concerts and shows, as well as boxing and wrestling. The arena is famous for its box office number RI-9-5171 which is no longer in use. The arena is one of the last known major boxing and wrestling arenas of its respective golden eras still in existence today.

In June 2005, the Glory Church of Jesus Christ, a Korean-American Christian church purchased the entire property. In 2007, the arena was given a new facelift back to its original brown coat of paint that was abandoned in 1993 when the arena reopened.

[edit] Physical features

32 by 40-foot portable stage.
55-foot ceiling height
2 large loading docks
13 dressing rooms
8 concession stands
5 ticket windows
2.8 kilowatt-per-channel stereo PA system with CD and cassette tape player, 2 wireless microphones and 1 wired microphone.
7 restrooms, all renovated (3 are handicap accessible)
10 C.M. Loadstar motors (4 for flying sound, 4 for stage lighting, 2 for additional lighting) plus 2 aluminum trusses (20.5 inches by 20.5 inches by 40 feet).
200 telephone lines, installed by SBC
Parking lot with 550 spaces; another 2,300 spaces at nearby garage.
Fully-equipped VIP (seating up to 40) and press rooms.
2 merchandising stands.
Three 200 ampere 480/277 volt 3-phase, 4-wire transformers, including an isolated transformer.
One 400 ampere 480/277 volt 3-phase, 4-wire transformer.
40 kW Caterpillar generator for "back-up" emergency lighting.
8-zone (dual control) dimming system for house lights by Lutron.
50' x 50' aluminum lighting truss with 72 par fixtures, permanently installed.

[edit] Trivia

Rage Against the Machine played their final show in September 2000 at the Olympic Auditorium before their break-up a month later. The concert was filmed and later released in 2003 as a DVD and CD Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.