Good deal, sports fans

It makes little difference now whether USC was ever serious about abandoning the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a couple of blocks south of the campus, to play in the distant Rose Bowl. The point is that the threat finally got the attention of the Coliseum Commission, the unwieldy city-county-state joint powers authority that runs the stadium and had for too many years treated its prime tenant as the backup plan for some long-sought, but never-snagged, National Football League team. After much wrangling, the university and the commission have agreed to a long-term lease to keep the Trojans in their historic home for at least another 25 years.

It’s a good deal all around. Instead of losing its badly needed anchor and being saddled with a stadium all but empty except for occasional one-time rentals, the commission cements in place a high-profile tenant that routinely attracts nationwide media coverage. The Trojans may be just a college team, but it is one of the best-known sports programs, collegiate or professional, in the nation.

USC gets to stay at home. And there can be little doubt that the Coliseum is home. The university’s consistent presence over the life of the stadium has protected the asset’s value. Olympics -- two of them -- came and went, as did two NFL teams, but the Trojans have been a constant and deserve the long-term commitment that the commission has finally provided. The deal leaves the university short of the management role it claimed to want, yet it will remain a partner with the state, city and county, and not just their tenant.

The rest of the neighborhood benefits as well, extending downtown’s renaissance even farther to the south and preventing the underappreciated gardens and museums of Exposition Park from becoming isolated. Fall football every other Saturday boosts the area’s economy, providing jobs for local residents.

The Coliseum stands to get much-needed maintenance and improvements. The deal ties the commission to new sound and lighting systems, added and upgraded restrooms and concession areas, new seating, a new drainage system and new video displays. Much of the money for all this will come from naming rights -- an inevitability of the modern sports world and a good solution for pumping funding into public assets without tapping the taxpayers.

Now if only the commission could figure out what to do with the Sports Arena.