The Home Depot Center in Carson (Los Angeles County) will be home for the CIF State Football Championship Bowl Games for at least three more years.
Marie M. Ishida, CIF executive director, said Monday via a press release that the state’s governing board looked at six other sites but decided there’s no place like home.
California’s version of football championships have been played at the Home Depot Center the first four years since returning after an almost 80-year hiatus.
Home Depot’s contract ran out after the 2009 season and the CIF considered sites at Bakersfield College, Buchanan High School in Clovis, San Jose State, Stanford and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
The Home Depot Center beat out six other venues to remain as site for the CIF Bowl Championships.
The all-grass home of the Los Angeles Galaxy MLS team seats 27,000 and is located on the campus of Cal State Dominguez.
“We had some great venues that we considered,” Ishida said. “But because we’ve been with Home Depot in the past, and because they provided us with an opportunity to go back that was financially feasible, we chose to sign a deal with them.
“We think we a have first-class event and we’re proud to have our games at a first-class venue like the Home Depot Center.”
Ishida said she likes the size of the venue (even though no game has demanded more than 12,000 the last four years), the location and an opportunity to build what she called a “fascination around the state football championships.”
What does that exactly mean?
“We’re trying not only to create and develop an event, but generate a goal that Home Depot Center is a final destination for our football teams,” she said. “Just like the “Road to Arco” (Arena) in Sacramento is for our state basketball championships, or the “Road to Woodward Park” in Fresno is for our state cross country championships.
“ We now have that mystique for the football championships.”
The two-day, five-game format next year is scheduled for Dec. 17-18.
The concept of the state football championship bowl games was approved by the CIF Federated Council as a two-year pilot in May 2005. It has expanded from three to five games and is based on enrollment, though teams in the top (Open) division can be pulled from any enrollment.
Last year’s champions were: De La Salle-Concord (Open), Oceanside (Div. I), Servite-Anaheim (Div. II), Serra-Gardena (Div. III) and Modesto Christian (small schools).