YouTube Theater Fast Facts
When Was YouTube Theater Built?
YouTube Theater was built between 2018 and 2021 as part of the Hollywood Park mixed-use development on the former Hollywood Park Racetrack site in Inglewood. The overall development is owned by Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams. Construction on the theater ran concurrently with SoFi Stadium, which broke ground in 2016 and opened in September 2020.
The theater was designed by Populous, one of the world's leading sports and entertainment architecture firms (also responsible for projects like Chase Center in San Francisco and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London). The design prioritizes intimacy: at 6,000 seats, it is roughly a third the size of a typical arena, which makes it ideal for comedy specials, award shows, and mid-size concerts where being close to the stage matters.
The venue officially opened on July 9, 2021, roughly nine months after SoFi Stadium opened. The delay was in part due to COVID-19 restrictions on live events. The first full season of programming ran in 2021-2022 and established the theater's identity as Inglewood's premier indoor entertainment venue below the arena scale.
Why Is It Called YouTube Theater?
YouTube — Google's video streaming platform — signed a naming rights deal with Hollywood Park in May 2021, about two months before the theater opened. The deal makes this the first YouTube-branded live entertainment venue in the world. The exact financial terms of the naming rights agreement were not publicly disclosed.
The partnership is more than a branding exercise: YouTube uses the venue to film live productions and events, including the annual Streamy Awards (which YouTube co-produces). The YouTube Theater has become a literal production studio for YouTube content at scale, hosting tapings that are subsequently watched by millions online.
Before the YouTube naming deal was announced, the venue was referred to generically as the “Hollywood Park Theater” or the “Inglewood Theater” in early development documents. The YouTube name gave it an immediately recognizable identity that aligned with its programming emphasis on content creation and broadcast productions.
Part of the Hollywood Park Entertainment Campus
YouTube Theater sits within the broader Hollywood Park campus, which also includes SoFi Stadium (70,240 seats), the Intuit Dome (18,000 seats), retail, restaurants, a hotel, and residential development. The campus covers 298 acres of the former Hollywood Park Racetrack site.
With all three venues open, Hollywood Park offers event organizers a rare choice of scale: from the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater to the 17,500-seat Kia Forum (across Pincay Drive) to the 18,000-seat Intuit Dome to the 70,000-seat SoFi Stadium. No other entertainment campus in the United States offers this range within walking distance of a single transit hub.
YouTube Theater's proximity to SoFi Stadium means it frequently activates on the same days as major stadium events. Pre-game and post-game activations, corporate hospitality events, and satellite programming during Super Bowl week and FIFA World Cup 2026 are all planned or anticipated given the shared campus infrastructure.
YouTube Theater Timeline
Stan Kroenke's company formally acquires the 298-acre Hollywood Park Racetrack site after years of negotiation. The master plan for the site envisions a mixed-use campus with a stadium, an indoor theater, retail, hotels, and housing.
SoFi Stadium breaks ground. YouTube Theater is planned as a companion venue on the campus — a 6,000-seat indoor theater that can host events too small for the 70,000-seat stadium but requiring better production quality than a traditional concert hall.
Construction on YouTube Theater begins as part of the broader Hollywood Park development. The building is designed by Populous, the same architecture firm behind many of the world's top sports arenas.
Exterior construction progresses. The theater's distinctive round shape takes form adjacent to SoFi Stadium. The two buildings share the Hollywood Park campus infrastructure including parking, pedestrian plazas, and access roads.
SoFi Stadium opens in September. YouTube Theater construction continues but the COVID-19 pandemic delays the opening of all live events venues nationwide. The theater is essentially complete but sits empty as the industry waits for restrictions to lift.
YouTube signs a naming rights deal in May, making this the first YouTube-branded live entertainment venue in the world. YouTube Theater officially opens on July 9, 2021 with a concert. Its first major productions include comedy specials and the Streamy Awards.
The venue solidifies its programming identity: award shows, comedy specials, podcast tapings, and mid-size concerts. The Streamy Awards return. BET Hip Hop Awards film here. The theater establishes itself as the premier 6,000-cap indoor venue in the Los Angeles metro.
YouTube Theater hosts The Game Awards for the first time, bringing the largest annual video game awards broadcast to Inglewood. The campus fully activates: SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, and the Intuit Dome (under construction) position Hollywood Park as a complete entertainment destination.
Intuit Dome opens in August, completing the Hollywood Park entertainment campus. The three-venue campus — SoFi Stadium (70,240 seats), Kia Forum (17,500), and YouTube Theater (6,000) — gives Inglewood a complete portfolio from theater to stadium scale.