L.A. PRO TEAMS FORMING ALLIANCE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Los Angeles’ professional sports teams compete for advertising dollars and attention from fans, but the 11 organizations are joining forces for a new social justice initiative.

The franchises announced Tuesday that they are launching The Alliance: Los Angeles. The five-year partnership’s main emphasis will be to provide more resources for underserved Black children. It also aims to address racial injustice while developing educational programs.

Los Angeles Football Club president and co-owner Tom Penn said the first meeting was held May 31, less than a week after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis. The death of Floyd and other Black people at the hands of police sparked demonstrations in cities across the globe, including Los Angeles.

“Everyone co-signed that we would try to bring some good out of the situation. If not sports, then who?” Penn said. “We expect this program to be a beacon and magnet for others.”

The Alliance — which also includes the Angels, Chargers, Clippers, Dodgers, Ducks, Kings, Galaxy, Lakers, Rams and Sparks — will work closely with Los Angeles’ Play Equity Fund and Accelerate Change Together (ACT) Anaheim.

Renata Simril, the president of the Play Equity Fund, said the program’s progress will be measured by tracking high school graduation rates, college admission and retention.

Golf

The PGA Tour first started going to Asia in 2009 with the HSBC Champions, a World Golf Championship. Since then, it added events in Malaysia and South Korea, and then Malaysia gave way to the Zozo Championship in Japan, which Tiger Woods won last year.

This strange year of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to mean no Asia swing at all.

The tour has begun exploring the idea of moving each to the western part of the United States for this fall only.

Even if the coronavirus situation is stable in Asia by the fall, it’s unlikely many of the top players would build a trip to the Far East into their schedules just a few weeks before the Masters on Nov. 1215.

Any move was described as being a long way off.

Two people aware of the talks said one possibility for the Zozo Championship was Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. The CJ Cup in South Korea is scheduled for the week after Las Vegas, leading to speculation the PGA Tour would look into staying there for two weeks.

Soccer

Olivier Giroud put

Chelsea closer to Champions League qualification by sealing a 1-0 victory over relegated Norwich on Tuesday.

Giroud headed in Christian Pulisic’s cross from the left wing in first-half stoppage time to move the thirdplace west London club four points ahead of Leicester and Manchester United, which both play on Thursday.

• Rookie Mauricio Pineda scored in the 84th minute to give the Chicago Fire a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Sounders on Tuesday in the MLS Is Back tournament.

• Chris Mueller scored twice in the opening 10 minutes and Orlando City won its second game of the MLS tournament, beating New

York City FC 3-1.

• Kacper Przybylko scored in the 63rd minute to break a tie and send the Philadelphia Union to a 2-1 win over Inter Miami in the MLS late game.

Also

Right wing Troy Terry has agreed to a three-year, $4.35 million contract extension through the 2022-23 season with the Anaheim Ducks.

• The New York Islanders signed goaltender of the future Ilya Sorokin to a $2 million contract for next season.

• Former top-10 tennis pro Lucas Pouille will have surgery on his right elbow and miss the return of sanctioned tennis.