New Home After Homeless Season?

The temporary displacement of the Cal State Northridge football program because of a proposal to transform the school’s North Campus area into an office park is an inconvenience worth weathering because the university stands to gain a much-wanted new stadium, Athletic Director Paul Bubb said.

“If you’re talking one season [playing on a rented field], everyone would accept that,” Bubb said.

At a public meeting Wednesday night, Northridge administrators presented a plan to lease nearly half of the 65-acre North Campus facility to a biotechnical company that would relocate from Sylmar.

The tentative agreement, to be finalized in coming months, would generate $800,000 annually for the school but would force the football team to find another home for the 1999 season. The Matadors have played at North Campus Stadium since 1971.

Bubb said he had not seen specific layouts of where the stadium would be built on the main campus but mentioned two possibilities.

“What’s been discussed . . . is the old ‘C’ [parking] lot or between the Kinesiology building and the baseball field,” Bubb said.

The large area between the Kinesiology complex and the baseball diamond is used partly for intramural sports. The ‘C’ lot is now a grassy field off Zelzah Avenue after it was demolished during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Bubb said he is checking into the availability for 1999 of the stadiums at Pierce College and College of the Canyons.

“Those are the two most probable locations,” Bubb said. “I’m still hoping we’ll have a new stadium in place by the year 2000.”