The Chargers had long wanted their permanent Los Angeles home to be near their home on game days, but they weren’t going to settle on just any site to be conveniently located next to SoFi Stadium.
After four years of searching, the Chargers announced Monday their plans to construct the new team headquarters and training facility on a 14-acre site in El Segundo, with an estimated completion time in spring of 2024.
“When searching for a location to establish our hub of football and business operations, we didn’t leave a single stone unturned,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a statement. “This process played out for more than four years because we weren’t willing to settle. Good enough wasn’t going to cut it. We wanted great, and we finally found it.”
The site is located south of El Segundo Boulevard and east of Pacific Coast Highway on Nash Street. It’s located less than three miles from Los Angeles International Airport and seven miles from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
The Chargers’ new home is projected to have a main building that spans nearly 145,000 square feet and outside of it will be three football fields for the team to hold practices. The new headquarters is expected to have a roof-top hospitality club, full eSports gaming and content studios and a 3,100 square foot media center.
An additional 3,400 square foot elevated outdoor turf area and two-lane lap pool for player rehabilitation are among the various outdoor amenities set for construction.
“The goal is for the Chargers to become the standard of excellence in the NFL,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said in a statement. “This new facility demonstrates our organization’s commitment to that standard.”
The field area will be designed to accommodate bleacher seating for more than 5,000 spectators, 348 on-site parking spaces and options for offsite parking, which will allow the Chargers to host public training camp practices at the El Segundo complex.
The Chargers have operated in Costa Mesa since leaving San Diego in 2017. The team leases a building near the 405 freeway and Harbor Boulevard and have held their training camps at the Jack R. Hammett Sports Complex near Costa Mesa High School.
Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens wasn’t blindsided by the Chargers’ announcement Monday because it was always the team’s plan for their next headquarters to be near SoFi Stadium. The Chargers have a year-by-year lease with Costa Mesa and are hoping to be at Jack Hammett Sports Complex for training camps in 2022 and 2023.
“We get a lot of visitors during training camp and the team itself has been a great community supporter of a lot of different events,” Stephens said. “Costa Mesa has kind of adopted the Chargers as their team.”
Now, the Chargers are headed to El Segundo, where the Lakers and Kings also have training facilities.
“The Lakers welcome the Los Angeles Chargers, and Dean Spanos and his family, to El Segundo,” Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “El Segundo is a great place to be, and it’s exciting that our city will now host the headquarters and training facilities of the Lakers, Kings and Chargers.”
The Chargers agreed with Continental Development Corporation and Mar Ventures, Inc. to construct the new headquarters and training facility in El Segundo.
Gensler Sports was tabbed to design the project, which is set to go before the city’s planning commission later this month.
Alicia Robinson contributed to this story.
COMING 2024.
→ https://t.co/nKpZxYH1hB pic.twitter.com/cOKEu1Jnyl
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 1, 2021
iconic.
world class.
a statement. pic.twitter.com/wxcM2T4XYK— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 1, 2021