Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 00:52:00

USC waited more than a century for this building. The Galen Center, at 3400 South Figueroa Street on the southeast corner of Figueroa and Jefferson across from the university campus, opened on 12 October 2006 - finally giving the Trojans an on-campus arena after decades of basketball played at the Shrine Auditorium, the Olympic Auditorium and, from 1959, the LA Memorial Sports Arena. The push that made it real began in 2002, when banker Louis Galen and his wife Helene started a series of gifts that eventually totalled 50 million dollars toward the 147-million-dollar project. Architects HNTB delivered a 255,000-square-foot arena seating 10,258 with 22 private suites, attached to a 45,000-square-foot pavilion holding practice courts, offices and the athletics ticket office. It is the home of USC men's and women's basketball and volleyball - the first event was a women's volleyball win over Stanford, the first men's basketball sellout came against UCLA in January 2007 - and the building has since absorbed a much wider public life: concerts (Al Green christened the stage in October 2006), boxing and MMA cards, commencements, high-school tournaments, lectures and televised political town halls. The location works harder than most college arenas. It faces the Coliseum and Exposition Park across the street, sits on the Metro E Line at the Jefferson/USC stop, and fronts the Figueroa Corridor that runs north to Crypto.com Arena and LA Live - putting it inside the densest stretch of sports infrastructure in Los Angeles. USC also stages Trojan Fever fan events and festival-style game days on the surrounding plazas. Visitors should book parking ahead on football Saturdays and Lakers nights, when the whole corridor competes for the same garages; the Metro stop at the door is usually the faster play. A dream a hundred years in the making, and it shows.