08-24-1976 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Director of Recreation and Parks Robert Gresham summarized the Bowl scheduling dilemma. He stated that the possible need for playoff dates for the Lionettes Softball Club had apparently not been foreseen by the Club nor the City in January of 1976 when the original agreement was approved by Council; that the tentative 1976 schedule for the Bowl was agreed upon by the SAUSD and approved by Staff in February, including the dates for resodding of the playing field (August 50 and 31) by the Lionettes; that the Lionettes requested dates for contingent playoffs and World Cup play, with the skinned areas to remain for these events; that the playoff dates were~negotiated with SAUSD representatives in July; that~the resodding of the field was not then expressed as a primary concern of SAUSD, and the District's main concerns were practice dates, rates, parking and food concessions; that Staff has attempted to schedule as many different kinds of events as possible for the sta- dium; that the Lionettes Club has offered to provide physi- cal improvements to the stadium if the amount of their $6,400 bond is not used for resodding. Mr. Gresham, with the aid of a diagram, proposed use of the $6,400 to modify the field to reduce the skinned area from 16% to approximately 8% of the (football) playing area to accommodate future multi-use of the stadium. He distributed copies of the proposed 1976 Bowl schedule to Council and other interested persons present. In response to Councilman Evans' question, Mr. Gresham stated that Bermuda sod requires at least nine days to establish the root system with adequate water; that the sod would be fairly well down in two weeks; but that ideally there should be no traffic on the new sod for at least sixty days; that new sod might present greater problems near the center of the field than the firm skinned area in.existence now. ~d Goldstein, a resident of Fullerton, President of Lionettes Softball Club, Inc., distributed copies of a letter dated August 23, 1976 from the Club stating that the Club does not intend to exercise its option to cancel the 5-year con- tract with the City approved by Council on January 19, 1976; a letter dated June 28, 1976 from the Club to Mr. Gresham indicating tentative playoff dates; and a fact sheet per- taining to multi-purpose stadiums. Mr. Goldstein stated that he had received verbal assurances from Staff members Blaszcak and Gresham that the City wanted the playoffs and World Cup, if possible. He expressed the opinion that in any event resodding as scheduled would be impractical because of immediate use of the new sod for football play, citing examples of the problems involved; he stated that annual resodding would be a financial burden on the Club, and that a multi-purpose field would better suit their re- quirements; and confirmed the Club's verbal offer to make the amount of the bond available for physical improvements to the field for multi-purpose adaptation. Jim Dooley, who appeared at the request of Mr. Goldstein, stated that Anaheim Stadium, which operates as a multi-use facility, has never sodded its skinned infield because of the same kinds of problems outlined by Mr. Gresham. Don Franklin, 2114 North Louise, Trustee and President of the SAUSD Board, urged Council not to implement the amend- ment to the Lionettes contract, and to resod the field as soon as possible, because of 1) the injury factor to players, 2) potential damage to equipment, 5) coaching problems due to changed conditions; and because 4) the field was designed and built as a football field. CITY COUNCIL MINUTBS 322 AUGUST 24, 1976