Sports-Complex Proposal Gets Preliminary Approval

After viewing stadium schematics and listening to presentations by Galaxy and Cal State Dominguez Hills officials, the California State University board of trustees finance committee Tuesday voted unanimously, with one abstention, to move forward with the Carson sports-complex project.

The proposal goes today to a vote of the full board of trustees, which is expected to approve the project’s conceptual plan and to continue negotiations with the Galaxy.

“It’s nice to see a unanimous vote,” Galaxy President Tim Leiweke said. “Obviously, I think that’s a good sign.

“We’re prepared to work through issues that may be out there with the community and the university, but obviously, this is a good step forward. It’s a good day for sports in Southern California.”

One issue is the future of the Olympic Velodrome, earmarked to be torn down to make way for the soccer-tennis complex. Several velodrome supporters carrying signs that read “Save An Olympic Legacy! Save The Olympic Velodrome!” attended the meeting in Long Beach, and Steve Meiche, president of the Southern California Velodrome Assn., appealed to the board to amend the proposal to include the velodrome.

“We’re not opposed to the project,” Meiche said. “We think it would be a great thing for events, we think it would be a great thing for the college and the community. What we’re opposed to is being excluded, to being pushed out of there, and not being included in the program.”

After the presentation, Meiche and Leiweke spoke briefly outside the conference room.

“I just simply indicated that we’ve already talked to the L.A. Sports Council about [the possibility of Los Angeles hosting another Olympics] and should that happen, we’ve made a commitment to the Sports Council to be partners with them [in] making sure there’s a velodrome facility in Los Angeles,” Leiweke said.

“[Meiche] didn’t want to hear that, and he made it very clear that they were going to fight us every step of the way. Simply because of the attention they’ve gained from this process that has helped their cause. He made it clear that, based on the attention they’re getting, they’ll continue to fight.”

Meiche said the idea to build a new velodrome in the event Los Angeles is awarded another Olympics is “not acceptable. I think that any time you kick somebody out, you should mitigate it. I think they should still hold through with their offer to come up with half [the funding for a new velodrome] and the cycling community will come up with half.

“We’re not talking about a great amount of money. I’m sure there are areas we can find to locate [a new velodrome], regardless of whether it’s at Cal State Dominguez Hills or not.”

Meiche said his organization has hired an attorney and will try to get an injunction against the eviction notice the university served the SCVA last month. Originally, the university had granted the SCVA until Sept. 13 to vacate the premises, but Tuesday, George Pardon, university vice president of administration and finance, said the organization “did not comply to three or four items we requested” and has been ordered to vacate by the first week in June.

The next step for the Galaxy and the university is to submit a national training center bid proposal to U.S. Soccer by June 30. After that, the team and the university must complete a master plan, detailing how the project would be funded, for the board of trustees to consider at its next meeting in July.