Sports Complex Proposed

Would Pete Sampras catch a soccer game if he were in town?

Would Tiger Woods stop by to watch a track meet if there were one in the neighborhood?

Would Cobi Jones take time out to see some cycling?

All three possibilities were raised Wednesday, when Tim Leiweke, point man for Phil Anschutz’s burgeoning sports empire, detailed plans for a $100-million multisports complex on 80 acres of Cal State Dominguez Hills property in Carson.

If the plan, which calls not only for a 20,000-seat soccer stadium but also for facilities for cycling, tennis and track and field, as well as a sports fitness and rehabilitation center, receives approval, construction will start in 2001 and be completed in 2002.

“This is going to be a true national training academy for soccer, tennis, cycling and track and field,” said Leiweke, the president of Staples Center and the L.A. Kings and the man in charge of the three Anschutz-owned teams in Major League Soccer.

“I think that’s a very big idea. If you look at those four sports, they have a prominent place in Southern California. Many of the athletes who compete on a national and international basis within those four disciplines come from Southern California.”

What started out as a desire by Anschutz to build a home for the Galaxy has mushroomed into a much more ambitious project. According to Leiweke, it includes:

* A 20,000-seat soccer stadium based on a European model and expandable to 29,000 seats. It would be home for the Galaxy as well as a future Women’s United Soccer Assn. team.

“Should a WUSA team be located in Los Angeles, and we expect that to happen, the WUSA team would play there as well,” Leiweke said. “So this would be the heart and soul of soccer on an amateur and professional basis for not only L.A. but I think the United States.”

* Eight additional soccer fields, including one with seating for 2,000, along with locker rooms, weight rooms, office space and so on. Combined, the soccer element is expected to become the national training headquarters for all men’s and women’s national teams.

“We are one of what we’re told are 12 cities bidding to win the United States Soccer Federation training center,” Leiweke said. “We believe that at the end of the day this bid will be very difficult to beat. We will be able to give them, we think, as good a training facility as any [sports] federation within the Olympic movement.”

* A 6,000-seat track and field stadium, expandable to 11,000. It would have the capacity to “host national and international track and field events,” Leiweke said.

“There were those who came to us and said, ‘Well why don’t you just put a track in the soccer stadium?’ ” he noted, adding that the idea was rejected.

“We’re still dedicated to making this as good a soccer stadium as has been built in this country,” he said. “We want to make it intimate. We want to make it classy. And we want to use that European flavor that we have seen in our various trips to Europe, to create the kind of atmosphere at our games that we see at other places.”

* A tennis stadium, with surrounding courts and facilities, including a possible hall of fame.

“I’m not going to deny we have had active conversations with Pete Sampras’ folks and a goal of ours on the tennis side is to have Pete Sampras and his team involved,” Leiweke said.

And golf?

“Tiger Woods is a conversation we haven’t had yet,” he said. “If there was an ability to develop some sort of not-for-profit golf aspect to this for inner-city kids, we would be interested in pursuing that conversation.”

* A new velodrome to replace the site’s current one, whose scheduled demolition raised initial opposition to the Anschutz Corporation’s plans.

“Obviously, that opposition will disappear as well,” Leiweke said.

* A state-of-the-art fitness and rehabilitation center to serve soccer and tennis players, track and field athletes and cyclists.

Financial opposition to the proposed sports complex is unlikely to surface. The $100-million projected cost will be privately financed, with some help for the not-for-profit elements coming from the Anschutz Foundation and the U.S. Soccer Foundation.

So far, the proposal has received “tentative approval” from Cal State Dominguez Hills, but it still requires approval from the state university system’s board of trustees, as well as the city of Carson.

Environmental impact reports are needed and the homeowners in the area have to be wooed.

“Obviously, our highest priority is getting the neighborhood to feel comfortable with this,” Leiweke said. “There are assets in this complex now for that. We’ve included a three-mile running track with physical fitness stations along the track, and that will be for the community’s use and the athletes’ use.

“Obviously, the tennis courts and the track and field and the soccer fields will be for community use as well. So our hope is this has a very positive impact on the community.”

A series of community meetings are planned for later in the year, when the proposal will be outlined in greater detail. Parking, always a neighborhood concern, should not be a factor because all parking will be self-contained within the site, Leiweke said.

In addition, Galaxy games or international soccer games that attract more than 29,000--such as the Fourth of July game--will still be played at the Rose Bowl or, if no agreement is reached, at another facility, possibly the Coliseum.

The bid for the complex to serve as a national training center for U.S. Soccer has to be submitted by Sept. 30, with a decision due by the end of the year.