The Greater Los Angeles area is home to many professional and collegiate sports teams and has hosted many national and international sporting events. The metropolitan area has 12 major league professional teams: the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Rams, the Los Angeles Angels, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles FC, the LA Galaxy, the Los Angeles Kings, the Anaheim Ducks, the Los Angeles Sparks, and Angel City FC of the National Women's Soccer League. Since 2000, 9 of the area's 12 teams have won a combined 24 championships. The Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to nine universities whose teams compete in various NCAA Division I level sports, most notably the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans. Between them, these Los Angeles area sports teams have won a combined 105 championship titles. Los Angeles area colleges have produced upwards of 200 national championship teams.
Los Angeles is home to a variety of sporting venues including the two National Historic Landmarks, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Bowl, the multi-purpose arenas, Crypto.com Arena and Intuit Dome, and the roof-covered SoFi Stadium. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics. In 2028, the city will host the Olympics for a third time. Los Angeles also hosted matches during the 1994 FIFA World Cup including the final match, and hosted matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Los Angeles hosted both the MLB All-Star Game and the MLS All-Star Game in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Los Angeles also hosted the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2023 and Super Bowl LVI in 2022, the eighth such event in Los Angeles. The United States Golf Association brought the U.S. Open back to Los Angeles in 2023, with the Los Angeles Country Club as host. The geography and weather of Los Angeles also make Los Angeles a hub for surfing and beach volleyball. When the Rams won Super Bowl LVI, the city of Los Angeles became the second city in the 21st century (the first was Boston) to have at least one championship in the four major pro sports and the second to ever have championships in four major professional leagues within a ten-year span, accomplishing this feat in a span of seven years, and eight months (from the Kings' championship win on June 13, 2014, to the Rams' Championship win on February 13, 2022).
Major league professional teams
Greater Los Angeles is home to 15 major sports teams, eleven professional major league teams and four from the top level collegiate ranks—MLB, MLS, the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, and the Big Ten Conference (with both Big Ten members having moved from the Pac-12 Conference in 2024). The city also boasts teams in both of the most prominent women's professional leagues, the WNBA and NWSL, as well as the aforementioned NCAA Division I teams.
ClubSport League Venue Attendance Founded Established in Los Angeles Titles in Los Angeles Los Angeles AngelsBaseball Major League Baseball Angel Stadium 45,050 1961 1961 1 Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 56,000 1883 1958 8 Los Angeles Queens Women's Pro Baseball League 2026 2026 1 Anaheim DucksIce HockeyNational Hockey League Honda Center 17,174 1993 1993 1 Los Angeles KingsCrypto.com Arena 18,340 1967 1967 2 Los Angeles SparksBasketball Women's National Basketball Association 10,998 1997 1997 3 Los Angeles LakersNational Basketball Association 18,997 1947 1960 12 Los Angeles Clippers Intuit Dome 18,000 1970 1984 0 Angel City FCSoccer National Women's Soccer League BMO Stadium 22,000 2020 2022 0 Los Angeles FC Major League Soccer 22,000 2018 2018 1 LA Galaxy Dignity Health Sports Park 27,000 1996 1996 6 Los Angeles Chargers Football National Football League SoFi Stadium 70,240 1960 1960, 2017 0 Los Angeles Rams 1936 1946, 2016 2 Los Angeles Knight RidersCricket Major League Cricket Knight Riders Cricket Ground 15,000 2020 2020 1
Former teams
Club League Last Venue Years in L.A. Titles in L.A. Los Angeles Dons All-America Football Conference Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 1946–1949 0 Los Angeles Raiders National Football League Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 1982–1994 1 Anaheim Amigos/Los Angeles Stars American Basketball Association Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena 1967–1970 0 Los Angeles Sharks World Hockey Association Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena 1972–1974 0 Los Angeles Wolves United Soccer Association&North American Soccer League Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 1967–1968 1 Los Angeles Toros National Professional Soccer League &North American Soccer League Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 1967 0 Los Angeles Aztecs North American Soccer League Rose Bowl &Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 1974–1981 1 California Surf North American Soccer League Anaheim Stadium 1978–1981 0 Los Angeles Lazers Major Indoor Soccer League The Forum 1982–1989 0 L.A. United/Anaheim Splash Continental Indoor Soccer League The Great Western Forum & Honda Center 1993–1997 0 Chivas USA Major League Soccer StubHub Center 2005–2014 0 Los Angeles Sol Women's Professional Soccer Home Depot Center 2009–2010 0
Baseball
The Los Angeles area is one of four metropolitan areas to host two Major League Baseball teams—the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League and the Los Angeles Angels in the American League.
The Dodgers were founded in Brooklyn, New York in 1883; they officially adopted the name Dodgers in 1932. The team moved to Los Angeles before the 1958 season and played four consecutive seasons at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before they moved to their current home stadium, Dodger Stadium, in 1962. The Dodgers are one of the most valuable franchises in MLB. They have won nine World Series championships and 25 National League pennants. Eleven NL MVP award winners have played for the Dodgers, winning a total of 13 MVP Awards; eight Cy Young Award winners have also pitched for the Dodgers, winning a total of 12 awards. The team has also had 18 Rookie of the Year Award winners, twice as many as the next closest team, including four consecutive from 1979 to 1982 and five consecutive from 1992 to 1996. Los Angeles and the Dodgers hosted the MLB All-Star Game in the summer of 2022.
The Los Angeles Angels were established as one of the league's first two expansion teams in 1961 by Gene Autry. The Los Angeles Angels played their home games at Wrigley Field and moved in 1962 to newly built Dodger Stadium, which the Angels referred to as Chavez Ravine, where they were tenants of the Dodgers through 1965. In 1966, they moved to their current home, Angel Stadium in Anaheim. In 2002, the Angels won their first and only American League pennant and World Series when they defeated the San Francisco Giants 4–3. The Angels have had many award winners including seven AL MVP awards by four players, two Cy Young Award winners and three Rookie of the Year Award winners.
The city is also home to Los Angeles Queens of the Women's Professional Baseball League.
Basketball
Los Angeles boasts two National Basketball Association (NBA) teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. Both shared the Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) from 1999 to 2024. The Lakers are one of the most valuable franchises in the NBA and have gained a considerable fanbase over the years. They have the most championships of all current Los Angeles franchises, having gained 12 titles in Los Angeles and 17 overall, the second-most in the NBA behind the Boston Celtics who have 18. The Lakers were founded as the Minneapolis Lakers, having moved to Southern California in 1960.
The Los Angeles Clippers were founded as the Buffalo Braves in 1970; in 1978, the team moved to San Diego and changed the nickname to Clippers; the team relocated from San Diego in 1984. They were one of three expansion teams to join the NBA that year, along with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers. The Braves saw some success and reached the playoffs three times, led by league Most Valuable Player (MVP) Bob McAdoo. Conflicts with the Canisius Golden Griffins over the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and the sale of the franchise led to them relocating from Buffalo to San Diego.
When he died in 2013, Lakers owner Jerry Buss also owned the city's WNBA franchise, the Los Angeles Sparks, which also plays at Crypto.com Arena. His family still owns the Lakers, but has since sold the Sparks to Guggenheim Partners, the current owners of the Dodgers. One year later, longtime Clippers owner Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA after derogatory statements he made became public, and was subsequently forced to sell the team. The franchise was purchased by former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer in August 2014. The Clippers built a new arena, Intuit Dome, in Inglewood, across from SoFi Stadium in 2024 when their lease with Crypto.com Arena expired.
Football
The region has two National Football League (NFL) teams: the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers. The Rams originally played in Los Angeles from 1946 to 1994, while the Chargers shared Los Angeles with them for only one season in 1960 before moving to San Diego.
Los Angeles did not have an NFL team in between the 1994 season and the 2016 season. Immediately after the 1994 season, the Los Angeles Rams moved from suburban Anaheim, California, to St. Louis, Missouri, and the Los Angeles Raiders returned to Oakland, California, after playing 13 years in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1982–1994) and winning Super Bowl XVIII. Between 1995 and 2016, there were multiple failed stadium proposals to bring back the NFL to Los Angeles and teams threatening to move in. On January 12, 2016, NFL owners voted 30–2 to allow the then St. Louis Rams to move back to Los Angeles and allow for the construction of the stadium proposed by Rams owner Stan Kroenke over a plan proposed by the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers would still follow through with a move to Los Angeles a year later in 2017. The Rams and Chargers play their home games at the 70,240-seat SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. 2017 marked the first time since 1960 that the Rams and Chargers shared the same market and the first time since 1994 that the market had two NFL teams. The Los Angeles Rams won Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in 2022 making them only the second NFL team to win the Super Bowl on home turf after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020.
Prior to the NFL, Los Angeles had multiple teams in the American Football League. The Los Angeles Wildcats, also called "Wilson Wildcats", were a traveling team for the first AFL in 1926. The Los Angeles Bulldogs were members of AFL II (1937) and a minor AFL (1939) before joining the Pacific Coast Professional Football League. The original Los Angeles Chargers were a charter member of AFL IV, becoming the San Diego Chargers in 1961. The Los Angeles Mustangs were members of the short-lived American Football League in 1944. From 1983 to 1985, the Los Angeles Express was a team in the United States Football League.
Ice hockey
The region has two NHL teams — the Los Angeles Kings, which entered the league when it doubled in size in 1967, and the Anaheim Ducks, which joined in 1993 as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
The Kings were founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent Cooke was awarded an NHL expansion franchise for Los Angeles on February 9, 1966, becoming one of the six teams that began play as part of the 1967 NHL expansion. Prior to the Kings arrival in the Los Angeles area, both the Pacific Coast Hockey League (PCHL) and the Western Hockey League (WHL) had several teams in California, including the PCHL's Los Angeles Monarchs of the 1930s and the WHL's Los Angeles Blades of the 1960s. The Kings have won two Stanley Cup titles in 2012 and 2014.