Multiple Stadiums Encompass Plenty

What started out as Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz’s modest idea to build a home for one of his five soccer teams has mushroomed into a major project intended to provide top-flight facilities for more than half a dozen sports.

If the California State University Board of Trustees approves the plan today, the $112-million sports complex at Cal State Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) in Carson could be completed by the fall of 2002 and will include:

* A $30-million, 20,000-seat soccer stadium, expandable to 27,000 seats, that will serve as home to Major League Soccer’s Galaxy as well as a potential Los Angeles team in the Women’s United Soccer Assn.

International matches and NCAA tournament and youth tournament games also might be played there. The stadium will feature 43 suites, six event suites and a 300-seat restaurant.

* Six soccer fields, including five with natural grass and one with artificial turf.

The soccer portion of the sports complex is intended to serve as a permanent home and national training center for the U.S. Soccer Federation’s national teams, including the men’s and women’s national, Olympic and age-group teams.

“My understanding is that the leadership of U.S. Soccer has been given authority to complete this deal,” said Tim Leiweke, president of the Anschutz Entertainment Group. “We’re very optimistic.”

* A $15-million, 8,000-seat tennis stadium, expandable to 13,000 seats, with 21 suites. The stadium is expected to host 36 events each year, including two or three week-long tournaments in the summer.

* Eighteen tennis courts, including 14 hard courts, two clay courts and two grass courts, and featuring one 3,000-seat show court adjacent to the tennis stadium, as well as other facilities to support a possible Pete Sampras tennis academy.

“You don’t get any better than that,” Leiweke said. “You’ve got the world’s greatest player, maybe ever, and he’s going to create a tennis academy here so kids don’t have to travel to Florida to end up being great tennis players. That’s like a dream come true.”

* A 6,000-seat track and field venue, expandable to 15,000 seats, that will “potentially serve as the permanent home to USA Track and Field,” according to the sports complex proposal, and as a site for U.S. national and Olympic trials and meets.

* A new 250-meter oval track velodrome that could include up to 5,000 temporary seats for cycling fans.

* A new baseball field for CSUDH.

* A new softball field for CSUDH.

* A $24-million plaza support building with 135,000 square feet of space for coaches’ offices, training rooms, weight rooms, locker rooms, food services and the like.

* An upgraded floor for Toro Dome, CSUDH’s gymnasium.

* A three-mile jogging trail.

* The addition of 3,900 parking spaces and an upgraded campus road system.

If the sports complex--to be financed entirely by Anschutz--is approved today by the board of trustees, construction is scheduled to start in July, with completion expected in September 2002.