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Field & Track
Co-Commissioners: William J. Bedford, H. D. Thoreau.
Site: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles.
Venue: The site of Athletics in the 1932 Olympic Games, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will again host track and field in 1984, as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Now seating 92,604, it remains one of the world's great stadia. The rental agreement between the LACOOC and the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission was signed on 9 November 1980. 
Groundbreaking was on 21 December 1921 and the original stadium was finished on 1 May 1932, with a seating capacity of 75,000. The cost of construction was $954,872.98. Enlargement to 101,574 took place between 24 February 1930 and 11 May 1931 and cost $950,293.88. Conversion of seats to theater-type reduced the capacity to 92,604 with 74,017 permanent chairs now in place and only 18,587 covered bench seats remaining. There are 90 entrances and 74 turnstiles. 
A giant Olympic Torch sits 150 feet (45.72 meters) above ground level on the Peristyle (East) end, above a $1.6 million electronic score installed in late 1972. The largest crowd to ever see an athletics meeting in the Coliseum in 101,022 on 30 June 1932, during the Games of the Xth Olympiad. The last athletics meeting to be held in the Coliseum was the Pacific-8 Conference Collegiate Track & Field Championships on 17-18 May 1974.
Extensivere furnishments are planned for the Coliseum, including a new world class synthetic track. These improvements will be funded by the Atlantic-Richfield Company, ARCO will also build training tracks at six sites.
Co-Commissioners of Athletics are H. D. Thoreau and Bill Bedford. Thoreau was Managing Director of the Vil Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Ca. from 1956-60. A lifetime athletics fan, he was formerly Sports Information Director at the University of Southern Californis, and now manages the Irvine Technology Fund. He is also a member of the Association of Track & Field Statisticians (ATFS). Bedford is an avid runner and golfer, and played competitive golf at the University of Southern California. He ran in, and finished, the 1981 New York Marathon. In 1973, he created Hillside Association, Inc., an investment counseling company.
SEATING CAPACITY COMPARISON: 1972 - Olympiastadion, 80,000; 1976 - Olympic Stadium, 70,000; 1980 - Lenin Central Stadium, 100,000; 1984 - L.A. Memorial Coliseum, 92,604.
Distances: From USC to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, .5mi/,8km. From UCLA to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, 16mi/26km. From the Press Center to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, 2mi/3km.

Edwin Moses is a graduate of Morehouse College

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