Now Playing at the Coliseum: Profits

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Patrick Lynch has racked up one of the worst losing streaks in the world of sports. He’s 0 for 13 years, the Los Angeles Times reports.


That’s how long Lynch has tried — and failed — to lure an NFL franchise back to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the beloved but benighted venue that he runs as general manager.


Lynch has been told “No” so often that the word seems to echo in his wake, like his own footsteps. In their hunt for professional football, Lynch and his employer, the Coliseum Commission, have been outfoxed by lower-tiered locales such as Houston, and have taken more hits than a blocking dummy from team owners, fans, media commentators and politicians.


But there’s another side of the story, which many Coliseum-bashers might find surprising. Despite all the rejected NFL plans and all the talk that the 85-year-old property at Exposition Park is unmarketable, the yawning stadium and its companion Sports Arena actually make money.


“We’re doing very well,” Lynch said while standing at the Coliseum’s peristyle, its iconic columns lined with plaques commemorating past triumphs. “Nobody could ever say that we’re not fiscally aggressive.”


Plenty of less flattering things have been said. It’s gotten so ugly that two state legislators from Irvine and Merced have proposed selling the land out from under the Coliseum, the site of two Olympiads.


Even the Coliseum’s sole remaining tenant, USC football, threatened to bolt to Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, never mind that the school is just across the street.

“I have the toughest skin,” said Lynch, 50.



Read the full L.A. Times story

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