Sports

Absolutely Nobody Braved Horrible Los Angeles Traffic To Watch USC Football During World Series

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USC Football Crowd Los Angeles Traffic World Series
Getty Image

USC defeated Rutgers at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles on Friday night. Even though it was a home game for the Trojans, they drew an abysmal crowd because of the traffic caused by various events around the city, including Game 1 of the World Series.

Absolutely nobody showed up to watch college football.

First and foremost, USC lost its fourth game of the year at Maryland last week. A four-loss team will not make the Playoff. A four-loss team at this point of the season is still at risk of missing a bowl game all together. Former players even called for Lincoln Riley to be fired.

Trojans fans are some of the best in the country when their team is winning. They typically have better things to do when their team is not winning.

It was the latter on Friday.

The Dodgers hosted the first game of the World Series at Chavez Ravine. The Lakers played the Phoenix Suns at home. David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd) played a concert at the Intuit Dome. Jeff Lynne (of ELO) opened his two-night run at the Kia Forum. Garfield High School and Roosevelt High School played the East L.A. Classic at SoFi Stadium.

Los Angeles Traffic
ABC 7

Traffic on Friday night in Los Angeles is always crazy. Especially during rush hour and prime “going out” hours. Adding six major events right in the center of the city certainly did not help.

It was already stop-and-go at 3:00pm.

Here is how it looked at 5:00pm:

Traffic Los Angeles
Google Maps

Here is how it looked at about 7:00pm:

Traffic Los Angeles
Apple Maps

Getting out of Dodger Stadium was an absolute nightmare.

It was total gridlock on the 110.

Conditions did not improve as the night went on.

As a result of the traffic, the World Series, the opponent, the day of the game, the time of kickoff and the losing record, USC fans mostly decided to stay home or find a local bar within walking distance. The Coliseum was mostly empty.

It was no more than 30% full come kickoff, if that.

To be fair, a late-arriving crowd filled in a little bit during the first quarter.

Even still, most of the focus was on the Dodgers until Freddie Freeman walked it off in the bottom of the 10th.

Los Angeles traffic is always bad. It reaches its peak on the days leading up to a holiday weekend like Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Friday night was up there as one of the all-time worst!