Taking part in ground breaking ceremonies Friday for the planned $5.5 million soccer complex at South Gate Park in South Gate are, from left, Mayor Henry Gonzalez, Councilman Gilbert Hurtado, City Clerk Carmen Avalos and Les Allan, president of Goals Soccer Centers, a Scottish firm that is building the complex.
Story Created:
Dec 24, 2009 at 11:07 AM PST
Story Updated:
Dec 24, 2009 at 11:07 AM PST
SOUTH GATE — Construction is under way on a $5.5 million five-on-a-side soccer complex on 3.5 acres in South Gate Park, 4900 Southern Ave.
Planned are 11 miniature soccer fields with supporting buildings to include locker rooms, offices, a media classroom and sales areas for food and soccer equipment.
Ground breaking ceremonies took place Friday.
South Gate last spring entered into an agreement with Goals Soccer Centers, a Scottish firm that specializes in five-a-side soccer centers, to build and operate the facility.
Parks and Recreation Director Paul Adams said the complex is scheduled for completion by May.
The city will not be putting any money forward for the construction or development of the center. Goals will pay all construction costs, said Nellie Cobos, assistant to City Manager Ron Bates.
In addition, Goals will build a nine-station batting cage facility as part of the project. Once constructed, the city will purchase the batting cages from Goals at a fee much less than the cages would cost the city to build on its own, Cobos said.
Five-a-side soccer, as opposed to the usual 11 players a side game, is a fast-growing sport,played on a much smaller field. The 22-yard-by-33-yard fields have walls that rebound the ball back into play rather than going out of bounds. The game becomes faster and the smaller size field allows players both young and old the opportunity to play, Cobos said.
Goals currently operates more than 30 centers throughout the United Kingdom and South Gate will be the company’s first center in the United States, she added.
Under the agreement, the private company will lease the site from the city for $154,000 a year for a period of 25 years, plus two five-year extensions, Adams said.
The facility will be at the northeast corner of the park, formerly leased to the Los Angeles Unified School District as a temporary site for Tweedy Elementary School until a new school was ready nearby.
Adams said the size of the project calls for 56 parking spaces under city code. Of that amount, 48 can be provided on the leased site while the other eight can be shared with adjoining parking.
Goals will stripe the adjoining parking area, in effect creating 25 more spaces, Adams said.
City proposals call for the Scottish firm to staff the center from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. with prime-time playing from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday.
They city would get 25 hours of weekday prime time and 12 hours of weekend prime time for its programs, along with 40 hours of non-prime time, Adams said.
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