Santa Ana Stadium

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Santa Ana Stadium
Eddie West Field, The Santa Ana Bowl
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Location 602 N. Flower St. Santa Ana, California, United States, 92703
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Public transit Orange County Transit Authority
Bus Route 51
Bus Route 145
Bus Route 462
Metrolink
Amtrak
Santa Ana-Garden Grove Fixed Guideway and Streetcar (OC Streetcar). (Scheduled for 2020).
Owner City of Santa Ana
Operator City of Santa Ana Parks and Recreation
Capacity 9,000
Tenants
Santa Ana Unified School District
Santa Ana College
Mater Dei High School
United Premier Soccer League
(US Open Cup, exhibition matches)
LA Laguna FC

Santa Ana Stadium, also known as Eddie West Field or the Santa Ana Bowl, is a city-owned and operated 9,000 seat American football and soccer stadium located in downtown Santa Ana. The field was named after Eddie West, a writer for the Orange County Register and tireless supporter of the Santa Ana College Dons and all Orange County sports.[1][2]

Current tenants include the Santa Ana Unified School District's High School football teams, the Santa Ana College Dons football team, and the Mater Dei Monarchs football team. The upstart United Premier Soccer League, founded in Santa Ana, also holds occasional exhibition and league playoff matches at the stadium, for its various clubs.

The newest tenant at the stadium is PDL team LA Laguna FC, that has scheduled 4 out of 7 home matches there beginning in May, 2016.

The stadium is serviced by the Orange County Transit Authority Bus Routes 51, 145 and 462 and is 1.4 miles west of the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center (SARTC). Travelers using regional rail may transfer from Metrolink or Amtrak at SARTC to OCTA Route 462 to Santa Ana Blvd and Flower Street. Santa Ana Stadium is scheduled to be serviced by streetcar, through the Santa Ana-Garden Grove Fixed Guideway and streetcar project, or OC Streetcar, which will travel from the east terminus at SARTC and stop at Santa Ana Blvd and Flower Street. The streetcar is scheduled to open in 2020.[3][4]

The city's stadium holds many events in addition to its high school and college football main draws, including children's and adult soccer games through local leagues, high school and college commencement ceremonies and more.

  • SantaAnaCityStadium1.jpg
  • Santa Ana Stadium.jpg

Notable Events

Santa Ana College held its Centennial Commencement (1915-2015) at the stadium on the June 5, 2015.[5]

Santa Ana Stadium was the site of an international soccer match between the Orange County Soccer Club and Bayern Munich of Germany on June 10, 1966, in which the clubs played to a 3-3 tie.[6][7] The Orange County Soccer Club played in a league called the Continental League. That same year, in 1966, the Orange County Soccer Club played the final of the national tournament, the U.S. Open Cup (then called the National Challenge Cup), and played it again in 1967, but was unable to become champion on both occasions.[8] In March 2011, Santa Ana Winds FC, formerly of the National Premier Soccer League and now in the United Premier Soccer League, played an exhibition, at Santa Ana Stadium against a Club Atlas youth squad.[9] In December 2011, Winds FC played another exhibition at the stadium, this time against a Chivas De Guadalajara youth squad.[10] In 2014, Orange County Blues FC of the United Soccer League played an international exhibition game at Santa Ana Stadium against Atlético Marte of El Salvador.[11]

International Soccer Exhibition Record

Santa Ana Stadium has held U.S. Open Cup matches in the past and is scheduled to hold another on November 22, 2015, pending results.[12][13][14]

U.S. Open Cup Record

On October 25, 2015, UPSL team "Ozzy's Laguna FC," which formed the PDL side "LA Laguna FC," lost a US Open Cup qualifying match against So Cal Premier League side Real Sociedad in penalty kicks at East Los Angeles College thus losing the opportunity to host a US Open Cup match at Santa Ana Stadium.

Boxing

Former pro boxer Oscar De la Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions presented a boxing card at Santa Ana Stadium on September 18, 2003, which was shown on HBO.[15]

Proposed Uses

Santa Ana Stadium was a site twice identified as an option for a Major League Soccer franchise. Talks for a possible franchise began as far back as 2007, as then MLS investor Antonio Cue went to a State of the City Address to talk of possibly relocating Chivas USA from the Home Depot Center in Carson to the Santa Ana Stadium site. Plans included relocating the Chivas USA Academy to Santa Ana as well.[16] In 2011 the City of Santa Ana passed a Memorandum of Understanding to enter into a six month negotiating window with MLS via Chivas USA,[17] (MLS and its teams are a single entity) but MLS never committed to negotiating with Santa Ana for two main reasons. One was Major League Soccer's stance (through investor Antonio Cue) that the City of Santa Ana had to pay to remodel Santa Ana Stadium.[18] The other reason was due to MLS's long insistence on getting a stadium built for their second LA area franchise at the site of the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena at Exposition Park in Los Angeles. The Chivas USA Academy (U-16 and U-18) did play a season at Santa Ana Stadium then left the stadium to settle in Bell Gardens. In 2013, Sueño MLS Winner and Chivas USA player Jorge Villafaña, who grew up playing soccer in Santa Ana, started a branch of the Chivas USA Academy that played at Santa Ana Stadium until the demise of the first team.

Soon after the demise of Chivas USA, Major League Soccer investors in the Chivas USA replacement Los Angeles Football Club franchise identified a number of locations in Greater Los Angeles for a possible home for their "LAFC." Santa Ana was again counted among the possible locations for an MLS franchise.[19] A Santa Ana fan group sprouted on social media to attract LAFC to the Santa Ana Stadium site, given its proximity to downtown amenities minutes away on foot, but Major League Soccer through investors involved with LAFC, and with the help of park operator USC, opted on building at Exposition Park in Los Angeles, a site that was identified for years by MLS as a top priority.[20] The social media movement out of Santa Ana formed to attract LAFC was one of the first and became one if the, if not the, largest grassroots groups throughout the LA region to swell to over 600 likes on Facebook,[21] in addition to combined efforts on Twitter and Instagram.

Santa Ana Stadium qualifies as a division 2 stadium under the United States Soccer Federation's current divisional criteria.[22] As such, the stadium has again been identified and proposed for housing a professional soccer team, this time by grassroots efforts.[23] Because the stadium has double the size of the USSF division 2 standard of 5000 seats, it is considered ideal for an investment at the level of the division 2 North American Soccer League. The social media sphere proposes a possible return of the NASL's California Surf (formerly owned by Henry Segerstrom, developer of South Coast Plaza), this time to Santa Ana Stadium. The original California Surf played at Anaheim Stadium for the duration of their short existence. In 2014, NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson stated the following regarding NASL expansion, "We’ve had conversations throughout California, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and others."[24] There are no further details, currently, about what Orange County group is interested in investing in the NASL or in what venue.

On December 11, 2015 Northern California soccer writer Evan Ream stated. "[I] can confirm that the singer Sting is in fact involved with the Orange County bid."

On January 21, 2016 writer Dave Martinez of Empire of Soccer quoted NASL Comissioner Bill Peterson concerning west coast expansion as saying, "We will start making announcements as early as four weeks or as long as eight weeks … At least one market … could be more.”

Other Tenants

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Former Tenants

References

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