The Galaxy and team owner AEG on Thursday announced that the club will invest more than $15M to improve StubHub Center. Highlights of the project will include a 5,100-square-foot LED video board, the largest in MLS, as well as dedicated locker rooms and training facilities for the team's player development program, including L.A. Galaxy II and the L.A. Galaxy Academy. The team will increase branding at the venue, with dedicated merchandise stores, the concourse, player tunnel and surrounding walls outside the stadium (AEG). In L.A., Nick Green noted the upgrade is the "biggest infrastructure investment in the 24,500-seat stadium" since it opened in '03 The LED screen will "replace the current smaller one at the north end of the stadium above the grass berm, where up to 2,500 more fans can sit on blankets and lawn chairs when all seats are filled." Galaxy officials said that the club "had already made" more than $3.5M in stadium improvements in the past 18 months, including a "new lounge, bar and improved concessions, such as a Rock & Brews." Galaxy President Chris Klein said that the "rumored construction of a new state-of-the-art stadium somewhere in Southern California for whatever club will rise from the ashes of soon-to-be-defunct Chivas USA did not play a role in the timing of the work." Green noted the Galaxy announcement "comes in the wake of Real Salt Lake’s mid-September announcement that the club would install a new 4,200-square-foot video screen at its Salt Lake City-area stadium, which was to be the largest in MLS, but won’t be now." Meanwhile, the team on Thursday also announced that it has "slashed season ticket prices" by 14% for '15 in an effort to "increase its supporter base." It is "unprecedented for the Galaxy to reduce ticket prices" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 10/24).
