july2017

34 35 type, but 77,000 becomes more realistic for large scale concerts, sporting events, and things of that nature. And it puts us in a nice realm for the Olympics, as L.A. looks to finish off the proposal for its 2024 Olympics bid. All of those things work better for us with capacity in the 70,000 range than they do in the 90 and 100 thousand range.” Finally, Grant touts the importance of a mar- riage between an historic building and a con- temporary renovation. “We’re tying modern ele- ments into a national landmark,” he avers. “The ability to do that is fairly unprecedented in our environment. Doing that type of work is once in a lifetime in terms of how something like this happens. So, it’s a pretty big deal for everybody out here and it will be a nice moment if L.A. is awarded the 2024 Olympics.We’ll have a nice new Coliseum to show off.” LOS ANGELES MEMORIAL COLISEUM nologies and screens that a building of this age would be hard-pressed to find,” says Grant. “By the time we’re done installing this, we’ll have one of the most visually appealing and impact- ful board setups in the country.We may not nec- essarily have the biggest board, but we’ve got a lot of content throughout the building that can integrate the entirety of the building all at the same time.” “Once we finish that construction, our capac- ity will go from 94,000, where it is now, to just over 77,000 in its final configuration,” Grant adds. “One of the oth- er nice things we’re going to be able to do in this renovation is: all of the seats in the seating bowl are going to be changed out. So of the 77,000 that will remain in our ca- pacity, every single one of those will be a brand new seat. So, imagine our seats from the 1960s and ‘70s finally being replaced with brand new material. It will be a nice, comfortable environ- ment for everybody who comes to the Coliseum, whether they’re in the tower or not.” While some may question the elimination of 17,000 seats from one of America’s iconic stadiums, Grant maintains that the diminution is in the venue’s best long-term interest. “Hun- dred thousand person events, nowadays, are very, very hard to sell and market,” he explains. “Putting us in that 77,000 range still keeps us on the high end of capaci- ty for venues of our PREFERRED VENDORS n Terraplas USA www.terraplas.com Terraplas USA, a division of the Checkers Safety Group, manufactures natural and artificial turf and area protection products for stadiums, arenas, and other venues, allowing them to be used for many different events, while protecting the underlying grass or turf. n BearCom www.bearcom.com / 800-527-1670 Bear Communications began operations in 1981. Today, the company is headquartered in the Dallas, Texas area and has 29 branches across the United States. BearCom provides a broad line of high-performance wireless communications products, services, and complete mobility solutions. Its part- ners include major manufacturers and industry innovators such as Motorola, Icom, Vertex Standard, Sprint Nextel, Sony, Firetide, BridgeWave, and more. BearCom sells, rents, and ser- vices two-way radios, two-way team communication systems, phones and mobile broadband cards, radio interoperability systems, WLAN systems, IP video surveillance cameras, mesh broadband networks, point-to-point bridges, remote call box- es, and mobile command centers. n AAA Flag and Banner www.aaaflag.com At AAA Flag & Banner, our passion is bringing your event to life. From designing and printing to installing and main- taining, we go the extra mile to make your vision a reality. Whatever message you want to say we help you “say it big.”