Sports

Los Angeles is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League, the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Riptide of Major League Lacrosse, and the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League.

Los Angeles is also home to the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA, both of which are Division I teams in the Pacific 10 Conference.

UCLA has more NCAA national championships, all sports combined, than any other university in America.
USC has the third most NCAA national championships, all sports combined, in the United States.

Several more teams are in the greater Los Angeles media market: the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Anaheim Ducks are both based in nearby Anaheim; and the Los Angeles Galaxy and Club Deportivo Chivas USA of Major League Soccer are both based in neighboring Carson. Dodger Stadium is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dodger Stadium is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

There was a time when the Los Angeles media market boasted two NFL teams, the Rams and the Raiders.
Both left the media market in the same year (1995), with the Rams moving to Anaheim in 1980 before St. Louis and the Raiders heading back to Oakland. Through the 2007-8 season there is no NFL franchise in the Los Angeles market, which is the second-largest city and television market in the United States.

Prior to 1995, the Rams called Memorial Coliseum (1946-1979) and Anaheim Stadium (1980-1994) home; and the Raiders played their home games at Memorial Coliseum from 1982 to 1994.

Since the franchise's departures the NFL as an organization, and individual NFL owners, have attempted to relocate a team to the city.
Immediately following the 1995 NFL season, Seattle Seahawks owner Ken Behring went as far as packing up moving vans to start play in the Rose Bowl under a new team name and logo for the 1996 season. The State of Washington filed a law suit to successfully prevent the move.
In 2003, then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue indicated L.A. would get a new expansion team, a thirty-third franchise, after the choice of Houston over L.A. in the 2002 league expansion round.

When the New Orleans Saints were displaced from the Superdome by Hurricane Katrina media outlets reported the NFL was planning to move the team to Los Angeles permanently.

Despite these efforts, and the failure to build a new stadium for an NFL team, L.A. is still expected to return to the league through expansion or relocation. Los Angeles has twice played host to the summer Olympic Games, in 1932 and in 1984.

When the tenth Olympic Games were hosted in 1932, the former 10th Street was renamed Olympic Blvd. The 1984 Summer Olympics inspired the creation of the Los Angeles Marathon, which has been held every year in March since 1986.

Super Bowls I and VII were also held in the city as well as soccer's international World Cup in 1994.

Los Angeles applied to represent the USOC in international bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but lost to Chicago. Beach volleyball and windsurfing were both invented in the area (though predecessors of both were invented in some form by Duke Kahanamoku in Hawaii). Venice, also known as Dogtown, is credited with being the birthplace of skateboarding and the place where Rollerblading first became popular.

Area beaches are popular with parties, sunbathers, surfers, swimmers and barefooters, who have created their own subcultures. Staples Center, a premier venue for sports and entertainment, is home to five professional sports teams.

Staples Center, a premier venue for sports and entertainment, is home to five professional sports teams. The Los Angeles area contains varied topography, notably the hills and mountains rising around the metropolis, making Los Angeles the only major city in the United States bisected by a mountain range; four mountain ranges extend into city boundaries.

Thousands of miles of trails crisscross the city and neighboring areas, providing opportunities for exercise and wilderness access on foot, bike, or horse. Across the county a great variety of outdoor activities are available, such as skiing, rock climbing, gold panning, hang gliding, and windsurfing.

Numerous outdoor clubs serve these sports, including the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, which leads over 4,000 outings annually in the area.

Los Angeles also boasts a number of sports venues, including the Staples Center, a sports and entertainment complex that also hosts concerts and awards shows such as the Grammys.

The Staples Center also serves as the home arena for the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL and the Avengers of the AFL.