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Santa Ana : City Officials, Public to Discuss New Stadium

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City officials will meet with residents in the area of Centennial Park on Wednesday to discuss plans to build an $11-million stadium at the southwest corner of the park, located at Edinger Avenue and Fairview Street.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Mitchell School, 3001 W. Harvard St. The city has sent flyers to residents within 500 feet of the park, city redevelopment project manager Robyn Simpson said.

The stadium would house local high school and college football, soccer and track teams. It would replace Santa Ana Stadium at Civic Center Drive and Flower Street, which the city would demolish to make way for the proposed $40-million Westdome arena.

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The new Santa Ana Stadium would seat more than 13,000 people, take about a year to construct and would be used by teams from Rancho Santiago College, Cal State Fullerton and Santa Ana Valley, Mater Dei, Saddleback and Santa Ana high schools.

A final decision on the new stadium will not be made until March, when the City Council considers an agreement for Westdome, a 20,000-seat indoor arena that would be developed by a partnership of four local businessmen and financed with industrial development bonds. The next important council action in the process will come next Monday when the council considers approval of the bonds.

If the council approves Westdome and the Centennial Park plan, the old stadium would be demolished at a cost of $150,000. While the new structure is being built, a temporary 5,000-seat facility would be erected, either at Rancho Santiago College or in the park itself, to accommodate the school teams left without a playing field.

Bobb said that, even if the Westdome project falls through, he would recommend approval of the new stadium and demolition of the old one. Deputy City Manager Rex Swanson said the site would probably be used for offices, “given the pattern of development downtown.”

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