LAFC Executive Director Alina Beruff says LAFC has plans for supporting their new neighbors, South Central.
BY SULEM GONZALEZ Our eighth grade journalism class sat down with Alina Beruff, the executive director of the fairly new Los Angeles Football Club, who opened the new Banc of California stadium on Figueroa Street. The club’s slogan is “We Are Los Angeles”. In reality, can they just build a stadium in the heart of Los Angeles and claim that they are the “heart”? What will it take for this new football club to become part of the community? I did some research on Alina Beruff before we interviewed her. I found out she is part of an Organization called Young Eisner Schools (YES), which help support and coach underprivileged students with what they need. She said that she is still affiliated with the organization and that it was “impossible not to”. We asked why she would go from an amazing cause to becoming the executive director of a soccer team. She said “Well, it was time for me to grow up a little bit.” She also said it was a “small startup” organization and that she wanted to “replicate organization with LAFC”. We asked her if she was doing anything to help the community. She said that the Football club “had plans” for helping their city. “We have programs that will support [all parts of LA]….there are a lot of plans.” One of my peers asked how LAFC had a positive impact on the community. She said “ Well, we brought JLI(our journalism program) here. If it wasn’t for us, you guys would probably not have an opportunity like this… I think that’s a positive impact on the community.” They say they have plans, but are they really going to be put in effect? When are they really going to happen? She didn’t say. We asked her what would her and her club do to support South Central, the neighborhood they put their stadium. She had said before that they were helping do beach clean ups in Topanga Canyon and in other regions far away from Los Angeles. We asked her the question again, but rephrased it in order to get the answer we needed. We asked her “What will LAFC do to help families in need, poverty, and homelessness?”.Alina Beruff said “So we just added like….what…. 4,000 jobs?” The fact that she said that like she was unsure made me skeptical. She said that they were also helping immigrants by sending and donating things to their home countries, like El Salvador and other South American countries and regions. That was a great answer but not the one I was looking for. If you think about it, we asked what they would do for immigrants, not their countries if we were asking them, “What are you doing to help other countries and regions in need?” then that would be the perfect answer. I was looking for something more along the lines of helping them maybe settle in their new country? And it also funny how she only said about latino countries…. Like the only immigrants are hispanic. We did not specify what type of immigrants.
A day at Banc of California Stadium
BY MICHELLE YANEZ-ORGANISTA Laurent Ciman got a penalty shot! The suspense builds, it’s a free shot for him! There is pure silence while he is running towards the ball and ...bam! The ball goes flying in the air and into the goal. The crowd goes wild with happiness! After that shot I had to ask the fans about how they felt with the amazing goal. I went to one fan named Ron Gochez. He was speechless because once I asked him he didn’t know what to say or where to start. Gochez also mentioned he loves soccer! I went to another fan named Mark! Lopez and I remember him asking why he supported LAFC and not others too? When it comes to LAFC they don’t care about your background, they involve everyone, he said. When I have asked the multiple fans who was their favorite player they really couldn’t answer that questions because they like how all of them work together in the game. Although there were about one or two who said their favorite was Carlos Vela! Overall, the fans really are supporting LAFC getting out there and being different than others. In the game they were going crazy even if they weren’t playing on Banc of California field.
Is South Central Safe?
BY DENISE JOSEPH South Central is known to be seperated and violent because of the 1992 L.A riots. However, South Central really is a warm and welcoming neighborhood with a bad reputation. One way Los Angeles is improving is by having organizations and companies offer to help and fix issues to make L.A a better place for its residents. Alina Beruff, LAFC foundation executive director, answered the question: Does LAFC have any plans to help the community? Beruff answered ”[LAFC] has a lot of plans for the future.” South Central’s community is growing and improving and leaving behind their controversial past. A current Los Angeles resident, Bethany Santana, stated “L.A has changed in a positive way by making the communities come together since the riots because the community was impacted greatly.” South Central has changed from the past 20 years and is improving and becoming a better place. From my experience the community of South Central isn’t as bad as what people have told me.
LAFC Experience Center
BY ASHLEY HOLT Middle school students of The Accelerated School took a trip to the Los Angeles Football Club Experience Center. LAFC is a new soccer team in South Central that started not too long ago.The LAFC experience center is where you get the “breakdown” of the different parts of how LAFC works and what they do in and for our community. When we visited the experience center something I noticed was Erica Donald was really big on selling the idea that LAFC was a part of our community. When Erica Donald started talking about what they do for the “community” i realized that they don’t really do much for it. Erica told us that they do beach cleanups but, how is that helping our community? We aren’t living by the beach? If they really want to be part of the community they can get street cleanups and other things or projects that actually affect our community. Another thing I noticed about LAFC is that they are really good at selling themselves. ESPN.com states that “LAFC has sold out of season-ticket packages for the inaugural season in its new downtown stadium. LAFC announced the sellout of 17,500 full-season memberships Wednesday, four days before the team makes its MLS regular-season debut Sunday at Seattle.” So, obviously they are good at what they are doing because all their season-ticket packages sold out before the stadium even finished building.The website also states “LAFC is Major League Soccer's 23rd franchise. The club is attracting significant attention throughout Los Angeles' revitalized downtown, where it is building the city's first new open-air stadium in more than 30 years.” This is another example of how LAFC is getting a lot of attention. Something else I noticed that I liked about LAFC is that they are willing to listen to us. I noticed this from the first time we met at the LAFC experience center. The first time we met they let us ask questions. Another time I noticed this was when we interviewed them. They allowed us to ask more questions and they listened to what he had to say about them and took it in a constructive way. When you visit the LAFC experience center you will get the breakdown of the different parts of LAFC and what they do in and for us as a community. By visiting the experience center I learned that they are willing to listen to our ideas and what we have to say, they are good at advertising themselves and they want to be part of our community. Something that I realized is that they shouldn’t be the only ones to have to do something in our community. We can be helping too.
What's life in South Central?
BY CARLA DELGADILLO South Central has been my home for 14 years. Everyday I wake up to a sound of cars driving by; to an image of trash; young and elderly people on the streets living in tents; or graffiti on walls that many of us don’t even understand. All of these are examples of what we can see the minute we walk into South Central, but there’s more behind that. There are several other issues people have that we don’t know about, but they are still there. I want to support and help South Central. I know for a fact that many others do too. Based on interviews I know that several LAFC fans, fellow classmates, and families have concerns for South Central. I went to the grand opening of Banc of California stadium that occured on April 21,2018. In this event I took about 10 interviews and all of this lead to an important question that I wanted to know from everyone: “In your opinion what’s your biggest concern for South Central?” “I served in the (Boyle Heights) neighborhood council and I help people stay in Los Angeles or in their neighborhood. I believe that we need more housing advocates,”said Mynor Godoy on the day of the grand opening. Godoy is a member of Los Tigres del North End Fan group. According to Mynor Godoy, Banc of California is the only stadium next to public housing and I believe that we should be able to help that concern. Not only was Mynor concerned about housing but so was a local organizer and college professor, Flori Boj Lopez. She did not know that LAFC was trying to help their new neighbor, South Central, but she had many concerns such as homeless shelters, investment for schools, and inequality for immigrants.However, her number one concern was housing. After the grand opening I decided to ask this question to my fellow classmates and one of my teachers. All of them had different responses but they were all concerns that LAFC fans also had.