Sports Arena closing after hosting huge 20th century moments

FILE - In this July 4, 1959 file photo, the crowd watches three different sports activities being staged at once at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Las Angeles. The crowd was there to hear Vice President Richard M. Nixon deliver the dedication address for arena. The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is about to become just a memory. City leaders are holding a closing ceremony Thursday, May 12, 2016, for the building that hosted to some of the 20th century's biggest moments in sports, politics and rock 'n' roll. (AP Photo/Don Brinn, File) FILE - In this July 4, 1959 file photo, the crowd watches three different sports activities being staged at once at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Las Angeles. The crowd was there to hear Vice President Richard M. Nixon deliver the dedication address for arena. The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is about to become just a memory. City leaders are holding a closing ceremony Thursday, May 12, 2016, for the building that hosted to some of the 20th century's biggest moments in sports, politics and rock 'n' roll. (AP Photo/Don Brinn, File)

By Associated Press May 12, 2016 3 min read

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The dump will jump no more.

The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, the building that Bruce Springsteen affectionately dubbed “the dump that jumps,” will have a closing ceremony with city leaders on Thursday.

In recent decades it has lived in the shadow of the younger, sexier Forum and Staples Center.

But the Sports Arena was once home to the Lakers, Clippers and some Olympic events; rocked with Bob Dylan, James Brown and Michael Jackson, and saw the nomination of John F. Kennedy at the Democratic Convention of 1960.

It lacked the luxury boxes and corporate suites that are essential to modern arenas, but it had a run-down, intimate quality that many loved – few more than Springsteen.