Galaxy, TUDN provide funds for rink upgrades
The facility will now be known as Community Sports Complex, and will be a place for a variety of activities, including futsal, roller hockey, pickleball and basketball
The Galaxy is expanding its local branding footprint — by adding its name and a few upgrades to Torrance's much-loved Charles H. Wilson Park Roller Rink.
The soccer franchise, along with Univision's Spanish-language sports broadcasting network TUDN, donated $30,000 to Torrance to renovate the old rink, helping modernize the space and make it functional for various indoor sports, including futsal, roller hockey, adult and youth pickleball, and youth basketball.
The facility also has a new name: the Community Sports Complex.
“The L.A. Galaxy is proud to partner with TUDN and the City of Torrance to support the restoration of recreational facilities at Wilson Park,” Thomas Braun, Galaxy's senior vice president of business operations, said at a recent press conference.
The team “is committed to providing quality sports spaces to the South Bay community,” Braun added, “and are thrilled to be able to help create a multipurpose rink that will serve residents of Torrance.”
The Wilson Park upgrade comes just on the heels of the Galaxy's latest collaboration with Torrance, the rebranded L.A. Galaxy Sports Complex at the Civic Center, which opened in April.
That facility, previously called the Toyota Sports Complex, had faced permanent shutdown because the Judicial Council of California, which controls the 6-acre plot of state-owned land on Maple Avenue, wanted to raise Torrance's rent from $1 a year to thousands of dollars a month — a steep increase the city couldn't afford.
The Galaxy — a longtime fixture in Torrance's youth sports scene — offered to pay more than $20,000 a month to the city, which, in turn, will continue renting the land from the Judicial Council.
“Based on their positive experience working with the city at the Sports Complex,” a May 24 Torrance city staff report said, “The L.A. Galaxy advanced the idea of a community oriented footprint for futsal in Torrance.”
Futsal is an indoor version of soccer.
Galaxy partners with Univision, TUDN's parent company, to put on the annual Campeón de Campeones, a Mexican professional soccer championship match between the winners of the most recent Liga MX season; Mexico's top flight splits its season in two, with the winner of each considered a league champion.
This year, the match was hosted at the Dignity Health Sports complex in Carson, which is also home to the Galaxy.
Given where the competition took place this year, the Galaxy and Univision wanted “to take this opportunity to give back and help bring Futsal soccer to the local community,” according to the staff report.
The $30,000 provided by the Galaxy and TUDN will be used to fund additional upgrades to the Wilson Park roller rink, including:
• Repairing and resurfacing the rink.
• Putting in a new “center ice” logo.
• Installing one to three pickleball practice courts.
Those upgrades are expected to be completed by October, the staff report said.
The contract is set to last three years, the staff report said, with the possibility to extend it for another seven years — with additional commitments from the Galaxy — after that initial timeframe.
The Galaxy will also provide at least one free futsal community event at the facility annually, the report said, with the first expected to take place before the end of this year.