Los Angeles Coliseum

Representatives of both sides in the effort to keep USC playing football in the Coliseum expressed optimism Tuesday that an agreement could be reached as early as next week. The Coliseum Commission is expected to vote on the most recent set of negotiated proposals at its monthly meeting next Wednesday. Pat Lynch, general manager of the Coliseum and Sports Arena, said, "We're not done yet, but we are very, very close."

Argentina's national soccer team, minus Barcelona wunderkind Lionel Messi, will be on display when it takes on Guatemala at the Coliseum tonight at 7:30. Messi, 20, is still not fully recovered from a left thigh injury. But his absence doesn't mean Argentina brought its "B" squad to face Guatemala -- even if it is primarily fielding the under-23 team that will participate this summer at the Bejing Olympics.

Faced with continuing demand for tickets for the Dodgers' return to the Coliseum on March 29 despite an early sellout, the club has announced an additional 25,000 tickets will go on sale Saturday, increasing the capacity to 115,000 for the exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox. That would be the biggest crowd to watch a baseball game.

Times staff writer Steve Springer participated in a conference call Monday with 11 former Dodgers who played in the Coliseum. Their reflections: Every Dodger who played in the Coliseum can picture a special moment there. Half a century later, right-hander Carl Erskine still pictures a moment that didn't happen. The year was 1958.

The Dodgers' one-night return to the Coliseum has the team wrestling with a familiar problem -- parking. The Dodgers are offering round-trip shuttles from the Dodger Stadium parking lot to the Coliseum for Saturday's exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox. That wasn't an option in 1958, before the Dodgers' first game in Los Angeles.

Charitie McArthur says she bleeds Dodger blue. She thinks Vin Scully is a genius, wept with joy when Steve Finley's grand slam clinched a division title in 2004 and scored big when she got married at home plate at Dodger Stadium the following summer. But as the team returns to town this week for the new season, the 32-year-old teacher from Redondo Beach is already cringing. It's not the team's prospects that have her down, but the prospect of the bad traffic expected at this weekend's games.

Fight on? Not anymore. USC and the Coliseum Commission have worked through their differences, and Wednesday signed off on their first long-term lease, one that will keep the Trojans playing football at the historic stadium for decades to come. It was six months ago that USC, frustrated with the lack of progress on much-needed improvements to the 84-year-old Coliseum, threatened to relocate its games to the Rose Bowl.

Consider it an Olympic-sized task: Dressing up, and modernizing the historic Coliseum without leaving any lasting fingerprints. Results of the careful balancing act were unveiled with plans for a $112-million temporary renovation of the 84-year-old facility, announced Thursday by the group attempting to bring the 2016 Summer Games to Los Angeles.

Picture the Mona Lisa wearing a leather jacket and miniskirt and clutching an iPod. It wouldn't work. Imposing a modern sensibility on a classic icon creates a culture clash that the brain simply can't process. The temporary steel-framed addition that would envelop the Coliseum if Los Angeles gets the 2016 Summer Olympics would have the same jarring effect.

The commission in charge of the Memorial Coliseum seems at a crossroads: should it keep chasing its NFL dream, or sign a long-term deal with USC? That will be the focus of today's monthly meeting, its last before summer break. Clearly, there are divergent opinions on the nine-member commission, with some not ready to give up on pro football returning, and others fed up with the flirtations that have dragged on since the Raiders left after the 1994 season.