The new SoFi Stadium, opened in Sept. 2020, will, for the first time, hold the Super Bowl in two weeks and for only the second time one of the teams will be playing on their home field. (The 1st time was last year.)
SoFi Stadium sits on the site of the former racetrack that opened in 1938. For the first few months it was known as the Hollywood Turf Club.
In the weeks after the park opened, the decision was made to simplify its name to Hollywood Park.
Hollywood Park from the Air, 1938. (Turf and Sport Digest)
It officially opened on June 10, 1938. It's first big stakes race was the $50,000 Inaugural Hollywood Gold Cup Handicap on July 16, 1938.
A :50 second video of the opening and Seabiscuit winning the Gold Cup race.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35bBboP-hqg
Or watch silent footage of the Seabiscuit race: (Source says: Entire 1938 Hollywood Gold Cup race, no sound)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9EoMD9K5Yg&t=77s
During WWII, Hollywood Park was shut down from March 14, 1942 until it reopened on November 1, 1944.
Hollywood Park was shut down again when on the night of May 5, 1949, a major fire burned down the grandstand.
No injuries to animals or people were sustained, but the grandstand was a total loss.
Fortunately, insurance covered the loss, and the park quickly was rebuilt, reopening on June 27, 1950 after holding its 1949 season at Santa Anita Park.
Hollywood Park kept its fans coming through a series of innovations, beginning with the first electronically controlled starting gate, which was installed in 1939. Betting innovations included he exacta, introduced in 1971, and the Pick 6, which was first put into operation at Hollywood Park in 1984. Another huge first in 1984 was the inaugural running of horse racing’s Breeder’s Cup, the sport’s richest event, which features an entire card of big-money stakes races.
In its earlier days, the racetrack hadn’t been used much as a concert venue, then Wham! headlined a memorable show there on Friday, Aug. 30, 1985, with Chaka Khan and Katrina and the Waves playing in support. An estimated 50,000 fans jammed the track to see the George Michael-led pop sensation, well before Michael’s successful solo career. Friday night concerts would later become a track staple.
After 75 years, Hollywood Park ran it's final race in December, 2013.
Now the location is SoFI Stadium, a sports and entertainment complex. It opened officially in September, 2020. Several events and concerts planned were cancelled or postponed due to the Covid epidemic. On May 2, 2021, the stadium hosted its first major event with spectators present, the filming of the Global Citizen-organized concert special Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World, hosted by Selena Gomez and featuring Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, the Foo Fighters, H.E.R., J. Balvin and the Duke of Sussex, which aimed to promote COVID-19 vaccination.
The Stadium will be used as a major venue for the Los Angeles Olympics and is currently being used by the NFL and MLS.
A whole lot more about Hollywood Park (learn about the Goose Girl!) are in these sources used for the information and photos in this post:
http://www.calracing.com/wp-content/...ng-History.pdf
http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...ollywood-park/
http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...adual-decline/
http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...ollywood-park/
http://maryforney.blogspot.com/2008/...e-of-1949.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoFi_S...ummer_Olympics