Business View Magazine | November 2019

186 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 Association’s (USTA) High-Performance Training Center, the national team training headquarters for the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF), and EXOS, an international training center for elite and professional athletes. The Sports Park has 18 tennis courts, 11 practice fields, and a three-mile jogging trail with 12 fitness stations around the perimeter of the development, all of which are available for use by the greater Carson community. “The Galaxy was one of ten original teams in Major League Soccer when the league started in 1996,” says the Sports Park’s General Manager, Katie Pandolfo. “Back then, the owners looked at the league and decided that one key to success was to build soccer-specific stadiums; a number of the teams were playing in football stadiums that were way too large for the fan base at that time. To be successful, it was best to own and operate your own venue and not be a tenant. So, in 1999, the Columbus Crew opened the very first soccer- specific stadium and in 2003, we opened what was then called the Home Depot Center, as the second soccer-specific stadium in MLS. In the spring of 2003 the LA Galaxy moved out of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and into their new home in Carson.” “Building a soccer-specific stadium for the Galaxy was the primary focus, but our ownership also recognized that our Olympic and collegiate athletes needed a state-of-the-art complex to train which led to building of the entire complex on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills,” Pandolfo adds. Thus, Dignity Health Sports Park has many different venues and amenities housed within the complex, including an 8,000-seat tennis stadium, a 27,000-seat stadium for soccer, football, and other athletic competitions and outdoor concerts, a 2,000-seat facility for track & field, and a 2,450- seat indoor Velodrome – the VELO Sports Center – for track cycling. In 2017, to accommodate the Chargers’ use of the venue, a number of upgrades were made to the stadium. Those upgrades included new tip- up seats in the mezzanine, bleachers added to the grass berm, and a new section of upper-level General Manager, Katie Pandolfo