At a recent County board meeting the mayors of each OC city had a vote to build Under Armour’s ‘Diablo Dome,’ a football/soccer dome shaped stadium that was proposed in 2021. The vote came out to 32 to 2 in favor of the construction, and with that J & J Architecture and several other architecture firms were delegated to constructing various parts of the stadium.
The construction for the project plans to begin in early June this year and should be finished in 2025, when finished it will have a 105,000 person capacity and three levels of parking underneath. It is planned to be an additional practice facility for the teams playing in the 2026 World Cup at SoFi Stadium. And, not only that, there’s also talks of relocating the LA Football Club to Orange County, renaming them the OCFC and holding their games at The Diablo Dome.
This stadium is going to be game-changing for Mission Viejo and all of southern Orange County, providing as a new hub for all things sports; UCI also plans on having their major football games at the stadium, and venue operator LiveNation has already had their eyes on having the Diablo Dome be the new destination for all major concerts in southern Orange County.
However, like many good things, the Diablo Dome does come with some downsides, academically that is. To make space for the dome and its parking, the tennis courts, baseball fields, swimming pool, performance art theater, portables, and small/big gym will all be demolished. Due to this demolition we will no longer have a music, theater, swim, volleyball, baseball, choir, basketball, or water polo program for the foreseeable future. Instead all of these listed athletic programs will be temporarily merged with and held at Laguna Hills High School. And, as for the VAPA programs, they will now be clubs until further notice, and the theater students will perform, like the athletes, at Laguna Hills High School.
To make room for these programs we will be building multiple more stories on top of all of the buildings, with a proposed 3-story 200 and 300 buildings, and the quad will be replaced by a new PAT/gym. If accepted, a decision that will be determined next week, the construction will be completed by 2027.
I bet this is sad for many students interested or involved with these activities, but it is a small price to pay for the Diablo Dome, which will drive hundreds of thousands of people to Mission Viejo. And, in the end, it will be a positive for the diablos, who get brand new bleeding-edge facilities and classrooms, and get discounted tickets to all events that are held at the Diablo Dome.
