The city council of Irvine, California has voted to move forward on a $250 million sports complex, including a major water polo facility. The Orange County Register reports that the water polo complex will serve as a training venue for the 2024 U.S. Olympic water polo team.
The sports facility will be built at the Orange County Great Park, and will include a water polo complex and a field house for basketball and volleyball, along with a parking garage. The Irvine City Council approved the project on Tuesday evening. The Orange County Register reports that officials will settle on a final design for the facility, and that construction could begin in early 2021. If construction stays on the schedule, the facility should be ready to house the U.S. Olympic water polo teams as they train for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The city will borrow against future homeowners’ taxes, the Register reports, without raising current tax rates.
USA Water Polo lauded the move on Twitter, along with some artist’s renderings of the facility:
⚠️BREAKING NEWS⚠️:
New world-class Aquatic Center, Home to USA Water Polo, to be built at OC Great Park in the City of Irvine. Special thank you to the OC Great Park Board, Irvine City Council, Five Point, the USOPC and LA28 for working together to make this dream a reality. pic.twitter.com/sYH7rHaJZu
— USA Water Polo (@USAWP) October 23, 2019
“For us, this is a dream come true,” said USA Water Polo CEO Christopher Ramsey in an interview with The Orange County Register. “We could not be doing the scale of what we’re doing without this partnership.”
I guess they can moved US Volleyball from Anaheim since they are building Volleyball too. I wonder if the pool will be use for swimming as well as water polo.
If it’s 25 yards long at any point, then, undoubtedly
FINA polo is 25 meters between goalposts but, yeah, doesn’t look like an Olympic swimming venue