Opponents of El Toro Airport Unveil Plans for Sports Complex

Community groups fighting plans to build an airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station said Wednesday that they have foreign financing for a rival proposal that includes a lavish sports and entertainment complex and an 80,000-seat stadium tailor-made for a National Football League franchise.

Pacific Palisades sports consulting executive Michael O’Hara, who served as top lieutenant to Peter Ueberroth during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, confirmed that he is working on the plan with Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, a group of mostly south Orange County residents leading the fight against a commercial airport at El Toro.

“We’re very excited about it,” O’Hara said.

O’Hara, 64, who competed as a volleyball player during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, said he hopes to develop a 3,000-room hotel, a 350,000-square-foot convention center, a championship golf course, an annual auto grand prix, an NFL Experience theme park and a state-of-the-art stadium that potentially could compete with Los Angeles for a professional football franchise.

The development would be located on 440 acres of El Toro within Irvine’s city limits, O’Hara said.

Critics quickly dismissed the proposal Wednesday and said an airport is destined for El Toro.

The plan faces critical obstacles. The Orange County Board of Supervisors--the federally recognized planning authority for the base--has already endorsed an airport at El Toro, in part because of two countywide votes supporting that option.

Times staff writer Greg Johnson contributed to this story.