The Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach, California has been closed for repairs through at least March, which will force the Pac 12 Championships to find a new host site at the last minute.
The facility was closed for two months in the fall while nearly 100 pipes (installed in the 60’s) were replaced to the tune of $300,000. At the time, the pool was leaking nearly 40,000 gallons of water per day. But these replacements cropped up a new problem on the pool’s main drain, and has forced the pool to close again to begin major repairs.
In the meantime, the meet will be moved to the East Los Angeles College facility, which was once a frequent host of the meet. The meet is still expected to be held from February 29th-March 3rd.
The East Los Angeles pool, while without the same national acclaim and history as the Belmont pool, is still seen as a fast facility. It is home to two indoor, 25-yard, 8-lane pools. The competition pool runs from 9-13 feet deep, with the seaparate warmup pool about 4-feet deep.
This shouldn’t throw off too many travel plans – the two pools are only about 25 miles apart (East Los Angeles College is a straight-short north from Belmont). This gives USC an even decidedly greater home-field advantage, though, as it is located only 10 miles from the new host site.
The women’s meet, along with men’s diving, will be held as planned at the King Aquatic Center in Seattle. Last week’s California/Nevada Winter Championships meet, held in mid-December, had to be moved to Golden West College (which, as an outdoor pool, was not an ideal option for Pac 12’s).
What’s the PAC 12 going to do this season? Belmont is closed again! The ELAC pool was horrible last season with zero upgrades to anything that I could see. No easement lanes adjacent to lanes 1 and 8, just a nice cold wall with poor gutters.
The PAC 12 deserves to be on the same playing field as the other power conferences at their championship meet.
But fixing Belmont like Mission Viejo I think about 6 years ago is a good idea. Belmont like the Lucy above mention once was the swimming center long before Mission Viejo was. In fact I think old Phillips 66 had more elite swimmers in late 1960’s than Mission Viejo did in the late 1970’s. I was a kid when Phillips 66 was in its heyday in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
True I swam in the high School CIF finals in 1975 in the 100 yard Butterfly and in Community College in East LA in those days some hispanics gangs but nothing tocompared today. At that time the schools werr already about 60 percent hispanic. My high school today is about 70 percent hispanic and 18 percent asian and 3 percent white, near Santa Ana but Santa Ana built a nice 50 meter pool at Santa Ana Valley and the kids won division 7 Water Polo, better Water Polo than gangs. My high school was Los Amigos the other school in Fountain Valley that gets a lot of kids from Westminster and Santa Ana.
Well in Ca, they refuse to built a new indoor pool. Belmont is 1960ish and even east LA is 1970’s. Really, belive it or not I think Commerce is faster for short course, I swam faster there but like East LA its not in the nicest neighborhood. Commerce is also 1960’s. I read of all these new high school pools in ORange County not nothing indoors. Bellflower is ancient it was once a 33 1/3 pool built before World War two but age group meets are held there as well since its indoors. And the swimmers above were world class records are going to last with those swimmers in fact in some high schools like Gary Hall Sr’s old high… Read more »
I live and work in Long Beach, and was one of the original members of Phillips 66 Long Beach Swim Club under Coach Don Gambril when Belmont was first opened. It has been a long-time dream of mine to see Belmont refurbished/rebuilt to current international standards. Where else in the country can you have a meet in a fast indoor pool right on the beach? The City of Long Beach has dithered around with plans for fixing Belmont for years, but always ends up claiming it has no money to deal with it. I’d love to hear all your suggestions on how to resolve this. I don’t think the City has any clue as to how popular inportant Belmont is… Read more »
oops – should say “popular and important” in the 6th sentence.
Belmont, although a fast pool, has been in major need of upgrades for a long time. The competition pool is very dark during evening events. The spectator seating is offset for the competition pool, aside from the small rickity scaffold area. The bleachers are decrepid. The bathrooms in poor condiiton and there is too small of an easement between the pool and the bleachers. That is a very nice location but needs to be upgraded!
The East LA college pool is also very fast for an older pool. The swimmers should have no problem. The location is criminal, pun intended. This is really no location for a major power conference championship meet. “Yeah, we’re holding our meet at the local… Read more »
15 American Records were set in this pool at the short course nationals in 1979 from names like Caulkins, Linehan, Sterkel, Woodhead, Vasallo, and Lundquist……many of them stood for over 10 years……Kostoff set the American record in the 500 Free at the high school championship there in 1983. Pool is still fast, just hasn’t been used for many years
I remember a few years ago when some swimmers were complaining about CT Branin Natatorium at McKinley HIgh School in Canton Ohio….I showed them the record board and their jaws dropped when they saw how fast some of the kids swam in that pool. There are some very fast pool in this country without all of the accessories we come to take for granted in the modern aquatic centers….not that I’m complaining, I think these new pools are great, but sometimes “old school” is fast.