Dodgers Fulfilled Commitment to Recreation Area

Terms of the City of Los Angeles’ October 7, 1957 contract with the Dodgers required Walter O’Malley to build, privately finance and maintain a 50,000-seat stadium; develop a youth recreation center on the land at $500,000 initially plus annual payments of $60,000 for 20 years; and pay $345,000 in property taxes in 1962, putting the land on the tax rolls for the first time in many years. Also, O’Malley and the Dodgers would transfer team-owned Wrigley Field in L.A., then appraised at $2.25 million, to the city. Wrigley Field was used by the Los Angeles Angels for home games in 1961. O’Malley privately built Dodger Stadium at a cost of $23 million and opened it April 10, 1962.

Fulfilling the terms of the Dodgers – City of Los Angeles contract, the Dodgers paid for two baseball fields in the recreation area which opened across the street from the Police Academy adjacent to Dodger Stadium in the mid-1960s. Los Angeles Times, January 28, 1965 The Dodgers spent $300,000 in grading and preliminary work on the land and the City Council accepted $200,620 from the Dodgers on January 27, 1965 which fulfilled the initial half million dollar obligation. Ibid.  

In December, 1971, Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty approved an amendment to the city’s maintenance-improvement agreement with the Dodgers enabling the city to receive three annual payments in advance totaling $180,000, less discount. Los Angeles Sentinel, December 2, 1971, Dodgers Score Again! The city needed the funds to purchase materials and supplies for Phase I of the Elysian Park water system. In addition, the city greatly benefited by moving the payments forward as it then “qualified to receive $477,286 in Emergency Employment Act funds to create 78 new jobs for the planning and installing of the water system.” Ibid. Mayor Yorty said, “We are grateful to Mr. Peter O’Malley, president of the Dodger organization, for his enthusiastic cooperation in making this action possible.” Ibid. According to the Los Angeles Sentinel, “Yorty noted that under the terms of the existing agreement with the Dodger organization, the city has been receiving an annual payment of $60,000 for maintenance or improvement of recreational facilities since 1962.”

In a May 11, 1978 letter to author Leonard Koppett, Dodger President Peter O’Malley wrote about the recreational facilities, “The $1,700,000 commitment on behalf of the Dodgers was not only a major one but I am pleased to report to you that we have honored it completely…$500,000 of the $1,700,000 was to be spent on grading and preparing the 40 acres for the recreation facility. After spending only part of the $500,000 for this purpose, we sent the city the balance of the $500,000 to be used by them as they saw fit. This year we have sent the city payment No. 17 for $60,000. After three more payments, we will have made the final payment of the 20 $60,000 payments. This payment will be made in 1981. Throughout this 20-year period, the city has title to the 40 acres. Title does not transfer to us until the end of the 20th year. In addition, we have been paying real estate taxes on the 40 acres and this payment for the year 1977 was for $23,650.00.” Peter O’Malley letter to Leonard Koppett, May 11, 1978

Jim Hadaway, General Manager of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks from 1976-1992, contacted Peter O’Malley telling him that the fields were rarely being used and asked if the Dodgers would prepay the remaining years so that the city would have better use of those funds. O’Malley accommodated their request. The Dodgers then received title to the land and added more parking at Dodger Stadium.