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.
Former teams 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. has served as the home of the Los Angeles Angels since its opening in 1966 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 city is also home to
WPBL Los Angeles 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. is the current home of the
Los Angeles Clippers 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 , home of the
Los Angeles Rams and
Los Angeles Chargers during
Super Bowl LVI. 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. serves as the home of the
Anaheim Ducks. 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. The Ducks were founded in 1993 by
The Walt Disney Company with an entrance fee of $50 million, half of which Disney paid to the
Los Angeles Kings as compensation for sharing the Southern California NHL market. On March 1, 1993, at the brand-new
Anaheim Arena – located a short distance east of
Disneyland and across the
Orange Freeway from
Angel Stadium – the team received its name, inspired by the 1992 Disney movie
The Mighty Ducks. As a result of the name adoption, the arena was named "The Pond", The Ducks have won the Stanley Cup once in 2007.
Soccer serves as home to the
LA Galaxy. The Los Angeles area hosts two teams in
Major League Soccer (MLS), the top flight of the men's sport in the United States: the
LA Galaxy, a charter member of the league, and
Los Angeles FC, which began play in 2018. The Galaxy have won six
MLS Cups, more than any other MLS team. The two teams play in "
El Tráfico", the cross-town derby.
Chivas USA was a member of Major League Soccer starting in 2005, but was shut down by the league in 2014. serves as home to
Los Angeles FC and
Angel City FC. Before MLS was created, the
Los Angeles Wolves of the
United Soccer Association (USA) and the
Los Angeles Toros of the
National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) both had its first season in 1967. The Wolves won the
USA Final in 1967, defeating the
Washington Whips 6–5 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. When both leagues merged to form the
North American Soccer League (NASL), the Wolves remained in Los Angeles while the Toros relocated and became the
San Diego Toros in 1968. When the first season ended, both teams folded. Later, the NASL returned a team to Los Angeles by establishing the
Los Angeles Aztecs in 1974, but folded in 1981. In their first season as an expansion franchise, the Aztecs captured the
1974 NASL championship, defeating the
Miami Toros in a penalty shoot-out after a 3–3 draw. Notable players for the Aztecs include
Manchester United's
George Best and Dutch superstar
Johan Cruyff. Anaheim was represented in the NASL by the
California Surf from 1978 to 1981. The
Los Angeles Lazers was owned by
Jerry Buss and played in the
MISL from 1982 to 1988. Buss again owned the
Los Angeles United in the
CISL but after one season (1993) sold the team. The United relocated to Anaheim and became
Anaheim Splash playing from 1993 - 1997 then folding as well. Los Angeles has many amateur teams that have competed for the
U.S. Open Cup, the annual club championship for all men's teams in the United States. These teams, along with their MLS successors, made 25 total appearances in the competition's finals from 1955 to 2024. The area has one past and one current team in U.S. women's professional soccer. The
Los Angeles Sol played one season (
2009) of
Women's Professional Soccer before folding. The area then went more than a decade without a top-flight team, either in WPS or in the current National Women's Soccer League, until an NWSL franchise was granted in 2020; the new side, since unveiled as
Angel City FC, started play in March 2022.
Cricket The
Los Angeles Knight Riders are one of 6 current teams in
Major League Cricket that plays
Twenty20 international league
Major League Cricket launched in the US in 2023. Their home ground will be
Knight Riders Cricket Ground in
Pomona when it opens in 2026. == Major league professional championships ==