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Sports Nov 01, 2021
| Photo courtesy of @chargers/Twitter
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The Los Angeles Chargers announced an agreement Monday to construct a 14-acre corporate headquarters and training facility in El Segundo.
The facility will be located on Nash Street, south of El Segundo Boulevard and east of Pacific Coast Highway, about three miles from Los Angeles International Airport and seven miles from SoFi Stadium. Gensler Sports is designing the project.
“To be able to develop 14 acres of prime real estate — with the proximity to LAX, SoFi Stadium, Silicon Beach, more Fortune 500 companies in the state than anywhere except San Francisco and, of course, neighbors like the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings — it’s another major step toward building a perennial contender and further rooting ourselves in the community we serve,” Chargers owner/Chairman Dean Spanos said in a statement.
Spanos said the team spent four years looking for the right location “because we weren’t willing to settle.”
“Good enough wasn’t going to cut it. We wanted great, and we finally found it,” he said.
The facility — which is being constructed with Continental Development Corp. and Mar Ventures, Inc. — will include a roof-top hospitality club, full eSports gaming and content studios and a 3,100-square-foot media center within the headquarters. Team officials said the complex will have an emphasis on player efficiency and movement between spaces, including direct access to the fields from player and coaching areas.
“The goal is for the Chargers to become the standard of excellence in the NFL. This new facility demonstrates our organization’s commitment to that standard,” Head Coach Brandon Staley said.
The main building will span nearly 145,000 square feet. Outside that building will be three natural grass fields with an artificial turf perimeter. A 7,600-square-foot elevated outdoor terrace will overlook the fields, and the facility will have an additional 3,400-square-foot elevated outdoor turf area and a two-lane lap pool for player rehabilitation.
The Chargers plan to host public training camps once the facility opens, so the field has the capacity for 5,000 audience members on bleacher seating, as well as 348 on-site parking spaces and accommodations for offsite parking.
“The look, feel and functionality of your training facility means more today than it ever has in professional sports,” General Manager Tom Telesco said. “Being able to create a building that can grow with technological advances — especially in regard to nutritional needs, strength and performance, injury prevention, medical treatment and game planning — is crucial to sustained success. Everyone knows the margin between wins and losses in the NFL is razor thin. Any advantage you can create for your coaches and players, you’ll take it. Having a world-class training facility definitely falls into that category.”
Luc Robitaille, president of the Los Angeles Kings — which is also based in El Segundo — welcomed the Chargers to the area, saying in a statement, “El Segundo has been a tremendous home for the LA Kings for more than 20 years, and throughout this time the city and the community overall have been outstanding partners.”
“Our hockey club is now thrilled to help welcome the Los Angeles Chargers to the South Bay, joining us and our life-long friends, the Lakers, in this affable community we call home. The Chargers — their players, their staff — are perfectly suited to add so much to El Segundo, and we look forward to partnering with them as we continue to seek opportunities to make positive contributions to the local community.”
The city Planning Commission will review the project later this month, and the Chargers estimate that construction will be complete by spring 2024.
