Before the new stadiums rose, Inglewood already had an arena that the whole music world knew by name. The Forum opened on December 30, 1967, and more than half a century later it is still here, still loud, and still one of the best rooms in America to see a show. Today it carries the name Kia Forum, but locals will tell you it has always just been The Forum, or the Fabulous Forum.
A building ahead of its time
Architect Charles Luckman designed it to echo a Roman coliseum, and he gave it a trick that still matters every night: a cable-suspended roof spanning roughly 407 feet with almost no interior support columns. That means clean sightlines and an open bowl, which is exactly why performers and fans love the way it sounds and feels.
From Showtime to a music house
This was the home of the Showtime Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings from 1967 to 1999, through the Magic Johnson dynasty years, and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks called it home from 1997 to 2001. The ownership roll call is its own LA story: builder Jack Kent Cooke, then Lakers owner Jerry Buss from 1979, then the Madison Square Garden Company, which bought it in 2012 and poured about 76.5 million dollars into a renovation that reopened the venue in January 2014 as a dedicated live-music room. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer bought it in 2020 for 400 million dollars, and Kia took the naming rights in 2022.
Who plays here
The Forum's concert history is legendary. Led Zeppelin played it 16 times in the 1970s, Prince ran a 21-show residency in 2011, and Madonna premiered her Re-Invention tour here in 2004. In recent years the room has hosted everyone from Bruce Springsteen to today's biggest pop and rock headliners, with room for up to about 18,000 fans for a concert. When the Madison Square Garden Company reopened it in 2014, the whole point of the renovation was to make it a world-class room for live music, and that focus still shows.
Visitor tip
Because the Forum is built for music and not much else, almost every seat has a real view of the stage, so you do not have to chase the most expensive tickets to have a great night. Come early, park on the Manchester Boulevard side, and grab dinner in Inglewood first; the surrounding neighborhood is where the real pre-show energy lives.