First Phase Of Ambitious Irvine Park Opens Saturday
IRVINE (CBSLA.com) – A new soccer stadium, tennis courts and other amenities will open to the public Saturday at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine.
A grand opening celebration for the 53-acre sports park at 6950 Marine Way will include various activities, gourmet food trucks and a free concert by the Blues Brothers featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi. The grand opening runs from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. and is free to the public.
Developers are ultimately planning a sports park that will be nearly twice the size of Disneyland. The developer, FivePoint, will spend about $250 million to improve and operate the 688 acres of the Orange County Great Park.
The first phase of the developer's partnership with the city of Irvine is the youth sports facility. Officials will show off a new soccer stadium that can hold as many as 5,000 fans.
The stadium will also be used for other sports activities, graduations and community events, officials said.
Guests Saturday will also get their first look at 25 hard-surface tennis courts, six natural-turf soccer fields and five sand volleyball courts. There's also a one-acre playground for children.
The sports park will eventually be 175 acres and include a softball complex with five diamonds, a stadium and four batting cages; a baseball complex with seven baseball diamonds, a stadium and four batting cages; four basketball courts, six more soccer fields and "flex" fields that will be home to soccer, rugby, cricket and lacrosse teams.
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