when Willow Bay Her husband is the CEO of Disney Bob Igerbecome Control the owners to Angel City Last July, they inherited a women’s soccer team that lost more games than it won, made fewer playoff appearances than those suspended from the league, and ended the year by parting ways with its second general manager and second coach in three seasons. .
So, on Wednesday, when Bay cut the ribbon on the team’s massive new performance center at… California Lutheran University In Thousand Oaks, it was hoped it would mark the beginning of a transformation in Angel City as well.
“This is the vision of this team that we are helping to support and execute,” said Pai, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, who joined her husband in investing $50 million in cash for the team to expand its balance sheet and mitigate its losses. “It was very clear that we needed to invest in football operations here, support the leadership, support the players and make sure they have all the resources they need to build a winning culture.”
The Angel City Training Center comes complete with a state-of-the-art weight room.
(Seeb/For The Times)
The opening of the Performance Center comes six days after Angel City announced its hiring Mark Parsonsone of the most successful coaches in the history of the National Football League, as its athletic director. Parsons said the new training facility will be a big help in recruiting women to play for his new team.
“If you can bring them here and have them walk around, it’s going to be very difficult for people who don’t want to be in that environment,” he said. “When I think about Angel City and why I want to be here, what started with the ownership group and investors to build a world-leading brand, and how female athletes should be supported, knowing the ambition now and delivering performance. A position that no other women’s sports team in the world has, I’m touched by Kind of everything.
The Performance Center is part of a 9-acre training base that Angel City inherited from the Rams when the NFL team moved to Woodland Hills in August. It is the largest and most modern in NWSL history, featuring a 5,400-square-foot gymnasium, three locker rooms, a film room, a medical and hydrotherapy area, and a children’s playroom, among other things. There is a full and half football field adjacent.
It’s a big step forward from the past three seasons when Angel City operated out of a pair of temporary trailers in a far corner of the CLU campus and used a weight room that wasn’t actually a room, but a huge tent. Angel City did not say exactly how much it spent renovating the facility, but said it was a “multi-million dollar custom rebuild.”
The move to the new facility comes at a time when the league is adjusting to radical new rules that have changed roster construction. Last September, the NWSL became the first major professional league in the United States to abandon the draft, which ties players to the team that selects them. The new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union also allows out-of-contract players to negotiate with every team in the league and gives players the right to block trades with teams they don’t want to play for.
As a result, signing players now means recruiting them first.
Angel City FC General Manager Mark Parsons speaks during a ribbon cutting ceremony to unveil the new Angel City Training Center in Thousand Oaks.
(Seeb/For The Times)
“My job has become easier with this facility,” Parsons said. “A few clubs have invested over the last few years. [But] This is unlike any other place. I’m thrilled to be part of an organization that cares so much.
“But I’m also happy that my skill set has become a little easier, because everyone is going to want to be here.”
Christine PressThe two-time World Cup champion and the first player to sign for the team said the facility would help make Angel City a destination.
“For the last three years, when we have been going as a club and talking to the best players in the world, we have not had those facilities to offer,” she said. “It’s a big part of our daily experience as athletes and it’s important.”
It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to turn things around against a team that lost a record 13 games last season, 12th in the 14-team NFL. Last month, assistant general manager Matt Wade and head coach Mark Wilson agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Press, added French forward Julie Dufour and Australian defender Alana Kennedy, and signed Mississippi State midfielder Maisie Hodge.
However, the team will begin pre-season training on Wednesday without a permanent replacement for coach Becky Tweed and with Parsons only a week into the job to replace general manager Angela Mangano Hockless.
A look at the locker room inside Angel City FC’s training facility.
(Seeb/For The Times)
Parsons said the team has hired Sam Lighty, who previously worked in Seattle and Houston, to manage the club on an interim basis while it searches for a permanent coach.
“Getting the right person is the priority,” Parsons said. “If the right person is available sooner rather than later, that’s fine. If we have to wait for that right person and they’re not available until the summer, we’re open to that as well.”
For now, Bai promises to be patient and supportive. However, results must come eventually.
“Bob and I have been very clear about investing resources in this team and the people who lead and manage it. And certainly the women who play for it,” she said.
But she added: “We know how important it is to do our best to bring a championship to this city.”
