City Getting Serious About Sports Stadium

A commercial airport may be on the drawing board for El Toro, but that isn’t stopping city leaders from drafting their own reuse plans for the base, at least on the 440 acres Irvine owns.

The City Council, which is fighting the county proposal to build an airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station when it closes in 1999, envisions a sports stadium that would be home to a major league football team.

So serious are city leaders about the plan that today they will consider forming a blue-ribbon committee to solicit interest from the local business community. The council envisions building the stadium with private funds and using no tax dollars.

They will also consider hiring an accounting firm to research how other U.S. cities with similar demographics to Irvine economically benefit from being home to professional sports teams.

In November, Irvine amended its general plan to allow an 85,000-seat stadium on the parcel. The city also has contacted Newport Beach sports attorney Leigh Steinberg about the feasibility of luring a professional football team to Irvine.

Mayor Christina L. Shea said two soon-to-be-formed expansion teams are looking for homes and Irvine could be a contender.

“Our city is located in between two freeways and we have a very low crime rate,” Shea said. “A lot of teams don’t want to come to cities with high crime because security for games is very, very expensive.”

Shea said the city could compete for the teams against Los Angeles, a city that has been abandoned by two professional football teams.

The stadium and parking lot would fill about 125 acres, and the remainder of the parcel could be used for hotels, a convention center and entertainment, Shea said.