The team shifted the field toward the peristyle end the year I took these two pictures, so they could sell seats in that end zone. However, even under Chuck Knox with several winning seasons, they never could fill up the 90,000 seat-plus Coliseum.
Eventually, the field was moved back toward the West end of the Coliseum. Even temporary stands were added at the other end, just inside the outside track.
The first Super Bowl I ever got a ticket for was the Dolfins vs the Redskins, Super Bowl VII in 1973. Considering how expensive Super Bowl tickets have gotten in the past couple of decades, I believe I paid $25 for my first ticket in the peristyle end, to the right as you look toward that structure.
That was the last time the Super Bowl was played in the Coliseum. After that, it would move to the Rose Bowl with its higher seating capacity.
I spent many hours on Sunday afternoons in the Coliseum, even after I joined the Air Force. Those first two years of 1971 and 1972, when I was still a civilian, I invited several different friends to use the second ticket. In 1971, I recall that each ticket was $5.50 that first year. For 1972 and 1973, a single game ticket from my seating area was $6.00. When I bought a season ticket in 1973, the season was only 14 games long. The price stayed at that level until the team moved to Anaheim in 1980, and the Rams then raised the prices to $10.00 per ticket.
Mom used my unused ticket whenever I could not be there after I was stationed in Minot. She could catch a bus in San Pedro and directly head to the Coliseum. But with the team's move to Anaheim, she could not easily get there so, with the price increase, I allowed my season ticket to lapse.
I used to park on the other side of the USC campus where free street parking was plentiful. I'd then walk across the campus to the Coliseum. By the time I returned to my car, most traffic had dissipated and it was easy to drive back to South Gate.
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