L.A. Soccer Stadium Named, Breaks Ground

The 22,000-capacity Banc of California Stadium broke ground at a ceremony featuring Mayor Eric Garcetti Aug. 23. The stadium is estimated to cost $350 million and the Los Angeles Football Club soccer team is scheduled to play its first professional MLS game in 2018.

If readers don’t recognize the sponsor, don’t worry; pretty much no one does. It is the smallest organization to secure naming rights for a stadium of this size in the country. Bloomberg reported BOC shelled out $100 million for 15 years of rights. The company formed in a merger of Pacific Trust Bank and the Private Bank of California in 2013, and has reportedly been growing rapidly, though it is still not close to the size of traditional stadium-name companies.

“It’s a little out of the mold for a bank of our size,” BOC chief executive Steven Sugarman told the Los Angeles Times. “But we think it’s exciting. It demonstrates the commitment we have to California and to Los Angeles.”

The stadium is being constructed in accordance with a community benefits plan developed to ensure that prosperity generated by the stadium is shared by the community, the BOC said in a statement.

An element of that plan is to guarantee that the community surrounding the stadium will be the main pool of resources for new, living wage jobs created at the stadium.

The stadium will include a food hall, event center, store, and “nightlife components,” according to Bloomberg. If Los Angeles is selected to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, Banc of California Stadium could be used as a venue for the international competition.