USC seeks to secure final funds for long awaited sports arena

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) The University of Southern California has secured more than 75 percent of the $70 million it needs to begin the first phase of its long awaited sports arena.

After decades of discussion, the school's athletic department recently received enough private and corporate donations to present its proposal to the USC Board of Trustees, according to Trojans senior associate athletic director Carol Dougherty.

The department hopes to have the 12,000-seat arena open by the fall of 2005.

The Events Center, as it is called, would be located across the street from the South Los Angeles campus.

``These recent gifts give the Events Center project some new momentum,'' Athletic Director Mike Garrett told The Orange County Register.

USC has played basketball in the Los Angeles Sports Arena since its construction in 1959 and has long wanted its own arena, which would be more accessible to students and give the Trojans a home-court advantage.

The Trojans also want their own building so they can control its availability. Over the last two years, conflicts at the Sports Arena forced USC's men's basketball team to play Pac-10 home games at The Great Western Forum in the neighboring city of Inglewood.

Dougherty, who will be the managing director of the arena, said USC still has not found a naming sponsor but is pursuing one.

The athletic department must meet USC's fiscal demands and ensure the building also would house concerts and theater performances.

A $70 million ceiling for the first phase of the project was established in 1999. USC president Steven Sample has insisted the athletic department adhere to that limit and to the university's policy that capital projects be paid for within 11 quarters of their approval.

Dougherty said USC could build the arena in the first phase and later could add coaches' offices and practice courts.

Last month he secured the largest corporate donation, a $12 million contribution from a company that requested it remain anonymous.

That came after a $15 million from two private donors.

Dougherty said USC is in the final stages of negotiations for four founding sponsorship agreements at $5 million apiece and has several more that could go forward if the trustees approve the project.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)