USC Galen Center

The security team was rude saying that we were not allowed to bring coffee into the arena noteven in the lobby! The concession stands were not open for the USC keck school of medicine graduation. The graduation is early in the morning, people need coffee! The security person yelled at me no outside food or drink! They said you need to throw it out pointing to the garbage can. I said its for my dad who is in there saving seats for me and my mom who was with me. They said throw it out, I wasted $ 3 and perfectly good coffee, I was pissed and upset! They didn’t care. There should be exceptions for graduation ceremonies that are in the early morning hours when there is nothing open in the venue! They didn’t offer coffee whatsoever!

This is a great venue for basketball or volleyball. Not a bad seat in the house and great staff.

Perfect little home for Trojan basketball. Attended the sold out game against UCLA on Feb 4, 2016. Every seat is a decent seat as this is a smaller venue. I was sitting in the cheap seats and was still able to enjoy the action.
The USC crowd really gets into it, with the dance cams, hug cams, etc.
Parking is available via valet, structure, or street. Congestion didn’t seem to be an issue leaving the arena. USC is near plenty of freeways, so everyone can make a quick escape.

I saw a concert here New Years Eve (Morrissey!) and had a lovely experience from start to finish. The venue staff was friendly, welcoming, professional, and prepared for fans to be queuing. Queue management was excellent, and the entry process was stress free. The venue itself is a large arena, but was very clean and had surprisingly good acoustics. Barrier held about 60 people. Great view from wherever you were standing. Crowd control seemed very aware of the audience and was helpful to those in need.
My only complaint is that the venue needs to be more efficient with the large volume of people entering the venue. The artist was forced to go on stage 15 minutes later than scheduled due to there still being a line around the block at 8:30pm.

Let me start by saying I love all things Trojan.
Was here again last weekend for a Basketball game against Arizona with a 4OT Victory! Good times!
The venue is large enough to accommodate everyone but small enough so that all the seats are good. It is clean, easy to navigate in and out, parking across the street is close, and the crowd interaction is good during games. No trouble, No Thugs, No Drama
Fight On!

My super bffs and I came for the Morrissey new years eve show, I wasn’t too sure what to expect from a college venue. I was really surprised at the sheet amount of profession staff that USC has hired.
Security was amazing outside of the venue, they were telling people where to go and where to find the shorter lines. It’s nice that there are multiple entrances and exits at different parts of the buildings. We get checked by security and all of the ladies checking us were fantastic and seemed to really enjoy their job.
If you need to use the restroom, there is one upstairs with no wait!
A special mention to Mr Esquire for tipping us off to the other ladies room and showing us where to find it. He’s a rock star!
I like that there were many places to get snacks and drinks from throughout the building. The seats were comfortable and we really enjoyed the show!

Beautiful arena! Saw USC play Yale, basketball. The game was good, food was good and the theater is grand! It is newly renovated and very well managed.

I went to the USC Galen Center in Los Angeles, CA on 12/​13/​2015. I’ve been there many times before. This time the USC Trojans men’s basketball team defeated the Yale Bulldogs by a score of 68 – 56. Plus, I took photos.

Took the family to watch women’s volleyball and had a blast. It was entertaining from beginning to end. The USC women’s volleyball team is awesome as they defeated Arizona couldn’t stop cheering. I will be back for more games.
FIGHT ON

Free entry for students from the second floor area! General admission is at the first floor. Be sure not to bring your backpack though, because they don’t allow that (they did make an exception for me though).
I only give the Galen Center a 4-​star rating because of the positive experience I’ve had when attending the USC women’s volleyball games here. During games, it gets heated in there! Fans are cheering, we’ve got MCs riling us on, and most of all… THE ATHLETES. They’re just so good! USC is (currently) ranked #1, and I instantly became a fan with the women’s volleyball team. Intense spiking, digs, and overall very exciting games! It helps that the Galen Center is a huge arena (wouldn’t have guessed from the looks from the outside), and so it creates a large echo-​y stage for all the music and game announcements.
As for the architecture, I think it’s a pretty standard stadium. Surrounding the volleyball court, we have seats progressing upwards in all directions. On the periphery, we have food stands and the broadcasting stations.
I will definitely be back for future volleyball games!

Pretty cool venue for events. This center looks small from the outside, but don’t judge a book by its cover. We had an event here for a program called Kids in Sports, which hosts its volleyball events at the Exposition Park. However, we needed a bigger venue for the tournament. With that said, we used a smaller room in this facility, and it was enough to set up two volleyball courts. There was USC staff making sure no one drifted off, and it was clean. Definitely a good venue to host events. During the same time, there was an event going on downstairs. I didn’t even check the rest of the venue, but I am sure it was big enough to host 3 – 4 events at the same time.

First off the Galen Center gets five stars just because USC built it to get out of the decrepit sports arena. This review is for the Galen Center’s basketball configuration. In my mind this is one of the best venues for watching high level basketball in it’s purest form. To start off with the venue has tremendous leg room. My husband likes it that people can get by without him having to get up which is the usual case considering how tall he is. It is rare in today’s profit centric venues to have the spectator experience built into the design.
I have seen multiple basketball games at this venue and every seat for which I have been deposited has reaped fantastic lines of sight, tremendous spectacle appeal, and almost always victorious conditions. Parking here is a breeze if one provides themselves sufficient time and utilizes the adjacent Radisson structure. From the structure it is two hops and a skip (okay maybe just a little bit farther) walk to the brick adorned classic architecture of this stand out stadium.
Once inside one immediately is immersed into the heritage of the greatest athletic institution in America. Adorning the walls are pictures and a chronology of the greatest of all Trojan athletes. Further proof that this one of the great destinations for basketball games are the freebies that Trojan athletics has provided. This year alone I have a t-​shirt, glossy program and several frame ready team posters. Because you already read the above paragraph and arrived with sufficient time you have the opportunity to go into the Trojan store here. The selection is different than what you find at the bookstore on campus and will outfit you like the true spirited fan you must be. Don’t worry we will know who the true Trojans are because they can afford the higher than anticipated prices for the gear within. Basically be willing to shell out the green stuff because you will want the gear and it doesn’t come cheap.
The food is pretty standard with hot dogs, nachos, popcorn and some pizza by the slice. Every time I’ve come here the lines have not been too long so I can get my dog, dress it up, grab a beverage and still get to my luxurious seating unit before the unusually tall people jump up in unison to tip that round ball. From this point it is a basketball viewers nirvana, with the band playing Conquest, the Song Girls dancing and the Yell Leaders rallying the crowd it can only end in another Trojan victory. I know this however, win or lose, you will always be the victor when you buy a seat to view a game at the Galen Center.

USC plays here, automatic 5 stars! Great facilities, clean and spacious.

I attended two events here — a volleyball game and a visit by the Dalai Lama. The two experiences were dramatically different.
The volleyball game was a rousing, communal experience. People were loud and spirited. USC hosted Stanford and despite the childish comments from many fans it was a pretty fun time. It was nice to sit a few rows from the court.
The Dalai Lama event was decidedly uninspired. It was difficult to hear him and the atmosphere was flat and empty. The acoustics weren’t appropriate. The Dalai Lama’s faint voice certainly exacerbated this, as did the fact that I was up in the bleachers, pretty far from where he sat.
The Galen Center is best suited to sports events, where sound comes from and to many places, echoing around, but no particular message is important. It’s not great for speaking engagements, where people need to hear a single message clearly.

This place is huge. Went for a TV show taping. The shear volume of people was incredible but overall it was relatively easy to get seated in the nosebleed section. Nice acoustics. Choice of food is underwhelming and parking can be difficult and expensive.
parking — lot or metered

Great conference space.
I didn’t come here for a sports event, but rather for a conference. The facility was great. Roomy and comfortable. The catering service was superb. For their morning continental breakfast they had warm muffins and danishes, which were delicious. The coffee and tea they served was from Starbucks. For lunch, it was a variety of tasty sandwiches and homemade potato chips.
Overall, I had a great time at this facility. Being that I’m a UCLA fan, I would otherwise never step here if it wasn’t for work. I did find it interesting they had a display honoring OJ Simpson’s display (I mean, he’s like the worst person on earth/​who wants to be connected to that?).
It was a nice facility, but compared to Pauly Pavilion it’s looking a little old/​dated.

I saw the Microsoft E3 2013 press conference at the USC Galen Center.
The Xbox One was shown in full glory with a sound system to match (that mostly worked). Seating was plentiful, but getting out was a real pain. It’s a sports venue, but it works just fine for a geeky-​style thing as well.

Tough review for me. I like the new Galen Center, but the food really sucks. They have the typical game fare; dogs, popcorn, pretzel, candy etc… but nothing gourmet?!
The Galen has great seats all over, but naturally the arena level is the best. At the USC games they do fun things to keep the crowd engaged, they have parachutes fall from the ceilings with gift cards, and the Sports Challet usually gives away a debit card with a surprise amount loaded on it.
This past weekend I even got a witness a rare and exciting USC hoops victory over Oregon State. Fight on! The arena itself is very nice/​new, but the food, which is a key part of any experience, is lacking.

The Galen center is indescribably AWESOME and then some. /​review hahaha I wish…
You can easily tell that this facility is new and definitely one of the best smaller venues around So Cal. I love the view out the Northern end of DTLA and at night the city lights are awesome to behold. The interior and exterior are definitely special places. I love how the exterior façade is done in brick with lots of relief work in the stone showing sports scenes all around the facility.
Pro Tip: This is a great place to take your child for a father/​daughter or son day or even a mother/​daughter or son day… to be able to watch live collegiate sports is fairly cheap and a fun thing to do that will instill great memories…
There are plenty of clean restrooms located on all levels and sides of the arena. Likewise there are a lot of concession stands around the facility providing the usual stuff at the usual prices. The seats (when I have been lucky enough to sit down there) seem to be quite comfortable and plush compared to most.
Overall it is a top flight smaller facility with all the accoutrements of a much higher end facility. Definitely a great place to see a game at least once and more if you can. If you go, maybe I will be sitting courtside clicking pix… come say hi if you see me =)

My most recent visits here were for the Clippers’ open practice and for my graduation. As always, this facility is clean and comfortable. The people that work here are nice and courteous. The lighting is great and it is all that you would expect from a professional sports arena.
Parking: It’s best to park at one of the parking structures (i’d suggest the one at radisson or the one a little further at fig and exposition