L.A. Express Will Play Final 1985 Home Game at Pierce

As a Valley resident, Harry Usher thinks it’s time his community changed direction.

As commissioner of the United States Football League, Usher has taken the first step.

He announced Saturday that the Los Angeles Express football team would move its final home game of 1985 from the Los Angeles Coliseum to Pierce College in Woodland Hills. The team will meet the Arizona Outlaws at the school’s stadium on June 15.

The capacity of Pierce’s stadium will be expanded to accommodate approximately 15,000 fans with the addition of 10,000 temporary seats. Usher said he has had preliminary discussions with school officials about adding 35,000 to 45,000 seats should the Express decide to permanently move to the Valley in 1986.

“More and more people are moving out here with lots of money. This is an affluent area, particularly in the West Valley,” said Usher, whose home is in Tarzana. “But unless we get an identity as a separate entity from Los Angeles, we are not going to get the cultural centers and the symphonies.

“We are basically living in bedrooms here,” he said. “There is nothing else. I think it’s a mistake. Few people want to go all the way downtown to see the wonderful things in life.

“We had a wonderful piece of property out at the Sepulveda Dam area. We could have had a swim stadium, a velodrome and lots of things. We are finally getting a hotel (a 17-story Marriott is being built in the Warner Center). It’s astounding.”

The Sepulveda Dam area referred to by Usher consists of 2,148 acres owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was considered a prime location for a myriad of events in the 1984 Summer Olympics, but all such plans were dropped when a vocal group of homeowners protested that any such activities would be disastrous in terms of traffic and the environment.

A similar protest by homeowners killed exploratory talks by Hollywood Park race track officials about a relocation in the Sepulveda Basin.

“I’ve always felt the Valley had a great potential as a site for a professional sports team,” said Don Klosterman, Express president. “There’s a window of availability now that has not been there previously. The San Fernando Valley is the seventh-largest market in the United States, and it is the largest without a professional sports franchise. That’s hard to pass up.”

The population of the Valley is slightly more than 1.2 million, and Usher envisions drawing additional fans from Simi Valley and parts of Ventura County.

Usher’s motives, however, don’t appear to be purely parochial. The Express made its debut in 1983 before 34,002 at the Coliseum. The average attendance that first season was 21,376. Last year, it dropped to 13,977. This year, the average has plummeted to 7,000 and the last two crowds haven’t been much over 4,000. A losing record hasn’t helped.

‘An Embarrassment’

And, Usher said, “I’m not sure all that 4,000 is paid. It would be silly to continue down there. It’s an embarrassment to both the Coliseum and to us.”

Now that the spring league has announced a switch to a fall schedule for 1986, the Express would have the additional problem of having to share the Coliseum with its two other fall football tenants--the Raiders of the rival National Football League and the University of Southern California.

Usher also is searching for an owner for the team. Thirteen other USFL owners had to put in $500,000 each to bankroll the Express for this year while a new owner is sought.

Usher says there are now five separate investor groups considering taking over the team, two from the Valley. A new owner, of course, would make the final decision on a move to the Valley.

‘We Will Stay’

On one point, though, Usher is emphatic. “We will stay in L.A.,” he said. “This is the second-largest television market in the country.”

Despite the size of that market, however, USFL television ratings on ABC have dropped in each of its three years and the network has announced it is dropping league games after this season. The games will be carried on the ESPN cable network.

In looking out to the Valley for salvation, Usher said three other sites were considered--California State University, Northridge, Valley College and Birmingham High School. But only Pierce affords the opportunity for large-scale expansion. An Express exhibition game at Pierce in February sold out.

“It would not be a complicated project to expand 35,000 to 45,000 seats,” Usher said. “The stadium at Pierce is a natural bowl and it could be filled in quite easily. We could do even more if we dropped the field down lower.”

Cost of Expansion

It would cost $5 per seat to expand and that expense would be assumed entirely by the Express.

“The Valley, and Woodland Hills in particular, can support a pro team,” Usher said. “We hope the excitement will be growing for the game on the 15th. You know, when the Raiders started in the American Football League, they played on a high school football field that seated 14,000. The way to generate interest is with local support.”

There is, however, no magic attendance figure on June 15, Usher said, that would guarantee a permanent move.

“It’s late June,” he said. “You can’t expect too much. This is not going to turn one way or the other on a particular figure. A lot will turn on our being able to show investors that the Valley is an entity that has the population base and the interest to turn out at the gate. An awful lot of these fans used to go see the Rams and they are now playing in a place called Anaheim. That’s a long way away. And there is no set habit yet for going to see the Raiders.”

Parking Issue

What about parking at Pierce?

“We can handle 5,000 cars,” Pierce College President Herbert Ravetch said. “Since they figure a little over three people per car, the June 15 game should pose no particular problems.

“We think it will be a good experience. We have some 200,000 people visit our campus each year for a whole host of activities. We look at this as another way for the college to be involved with the community.

“As for the future, we would want to talk more before what Harry talked about could become a reality.”