Sports in Los Angeles

The media market of Los Angeles, California consists of many sports teams.

It is known internationally as the "City of Champions".

Professional franchises

Baseball

Dodger Stadium (in Chávez Ravine) is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Angel Stadium (in Anaheim, California) is the home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The Staples Center in Los Angeles hosts the Los Angeles Lakers (NBA), Los Angeles Clippers (NBA), Los Angeles Kings (NHL), and Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA).

The Home Depot Center (in Carson, California) is the home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA, and the Los Angeles Sol.

The Los Angeles area is one of four metropolitan areas to host two Major League Baseball teams, namely the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League.

Basketball

Los Angeles boasts two NBA teams, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers, both of which share Staples Center. Lakers owner Jerry Buss also owns the city's WNBA franchise, the Los Angeles Sparks; that team also plays at Staples Center. The area also has two teams in the NBA D-League, the Los Angeles D-Fenders and the Anaheim Arsenal.

Football

The NFL has not had a team in the Los Angeles area since the 1994 season. Immediately after that season, the Los Angeles Rams moved from Anaheim to St. Louis, and the Los Angeles Raiders returned to their historic home of Oakland. Since then, many attempts have been made to return the NFL to Los Angeles, though none have yet succeeded.

Before the AFL collapsed after the 2008 season, the league included the Los Angeles Avengers. The upcoming UFL may schedule a neutral site game of its Las Vegas team in the city during the first season.

Hockey

The region has two NHL teams—the Los Angeles Kings, which entered the league when it doubled in size in 1967, and the Anaheim Ducks, which joined in 1993 as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Lacrosse

Major League Lacrosse was represented with the Los Angeles Riptide.

Rugby League

Los Angeles will have a rugby league team in the new professional NRLUS rugby league competition starting March 2010.^[1]

Rugby Union

Competing continuously for over 50 years, The Los Angeles Rugby Club is the second oldest club in the Southern California Rugby Football Union (SCRFU). The Club was founded in 1958 as the Universities Rugby Club. Founding members included Al Williams and Dick Hyland, members of the Gold Medal winning 1924 USA Olympic Rugby Team.

Soccer

The Los Angeles area hosts three top-level professional teams. Two of them, the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA, compete in Major League Soccer. The third is the Los Angeles Sol, a charter member of Women's Professional Soccer.

Mexican teams enjoy huge support from the area's Hispanic community. The most popular Mexican squads are Chivas and América, who have developed a bitter sports rivalry known as El Clásico, similar to the Dodgers-Giants Rivalry.

College

The metropolitan area boasts eight NCAA Division I athletic programs. The best-known are the two whose football teams compete in the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision, both of which are in the city of Los Angeles proper:

• UCLA Bruins — Winners of more national team championships than any other college program.
• USC Trojans — Second only to UCLA in national team titles.

Both schools are noted for their football programs, although USC has more national titles in that sport to its credit. In men's basketball, UCLA has won more titles than any other school.

The area's other Division I programs are:

• Also in Los Angeles proper:
  • Cal State Northridge Matadors, in the San Fernando Valley
  • Loyola Marymount Lions, on the Westside
• In Malibu:
  • Pepperdine Waves
• In Long Beach:
  • Long Beach State 49ers
• In Orange County:
  • Cal State Fullerton Titans
• In the Inland Empire:
  • UC Riverside Highlanders

Sports Venues

Former franchises

The NFL had a great presence with the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Raiders being in Los Angeles. The American Football League also had a presence with the Chargers, now part of the NFL. Los Angeles currently is looking for a new stadium to attract the NFL back to the City of Angels.

Former Sports Venues

*NFL Championship (Before the Super Bowl)

Former soccer franchises

The Los Angeles Wolves were a member of the United Soccer Association, starting its first season in 1967. The Los Angeles Toros of the National Professional Soccer League also started its first season in 1967. When both leagues merged to form the North American Soccer League, the Wolves remained in Los Angeles while the Toros relocated and became the San Diego Toros in 1968. When the first season ended, both teams folded. Later, the NASL returned a team in Los Angeles by establishing the Los Angeles Aztecs in 1974. Once more, the Aztecs folded in 1981. In 1990, the A-League was established thus two teams were joined the league in Los Angeles, Los Angeles Heat and California Emperors. By the end of the season, both team folded. Later, the Los Angeles Salsa of the A-League was established in 1993, but folded in 1994. Los Angeles Lazers was owned by Jerry Buss the Lazers played in the MISL from 1982–1988. Buss again own the Los Angeles United in the CISL but after one season (1993) sold the team. The United relocated to Anaheim and became Anaheim Splash.

See also

• Los Angeles
• Anaheim
• Los Angeles Rams
• Los Angeles Raiders
• Los Angeles Soccer History
• History of the National Football League in Los Angeles

Notes and references

v • d • e Sports teams based in and around San Diego Baseball MLB: San Diego Padres Basketball ABA: San Diego Surf Football NFL: San Diego Chargers - WFA: San Diego Sting Soccer NPSL: San Diego United - WPSL: San Diego WFC SeaLions • SD United - Professional Arena Soccer League San Diego Sockers Rugby RSL: OMBAC College athletics San Diego State Aztecs • San Diego Toreros • UCSD Tritons • Point Loma Nazarene Sea Lions • CSU San Marcos Cougars • San Diego Christian Hawks Related San Diego sports curse • The San Diego Chicken • Los Angeles Sports