Nike has been holding things down at The Montalban Theatre in Hollywood as they prepare to launch a rooftop field / sports court for the community. Working with the theatre and the LA84 Foundation, Nike has been building and refurbishing fields all over the city. With Barcelona in town, it marked the perfect occasion for the super club to head to the theatre and be a part of this really cool community based outreach program that all three organizations are taking part in.
Outside wall of the theatre. The rooftop pitch is on top of this building.
We’ve been to a lot of events recently and I have to say that at every one, soccer fans have come out and supported big time. When it was time to start letting folks inside, there was a mad rush. You can’t hold back people that want to see their idols.
Max and Patty held down the show as hosts
There were a few different people who made speeches. One person each from LA84, The Ricardo Montalban Theatre and then Fabiola (sorry if I misspelled that) from Nike.
And then came the speech from this guy. If you are a Barca fan, then you owe him a ton of thanks for putting together the team that conquered not only Spain, but Europe as well. Barcelona president Joan LaPorta.
Mia and our boy Giles got to play in a 3 v 3 game that also featured Puyol, Marquez, Pique and Bojan. Mia’s team won, thus you see her admiring the trophy that accompanied her teams win.
It was good to be at an event like this where there were real fans in attendance. A lot of times it seems like the real fans are left out and the people that do make it in are VIP’s, corporate type folks and others who aren’t really true fans. But there were a lot of fans in the theatre yesterday, and all they wanted to do was see their team in person. This was the moment they had been waiting for.
People went nuts for Messi. He actually seemed a little overwhelmed by it all.
Check out Pep’s kicks. Dude was rocking a pair of Cortez. Wow, excellent choice to don the Cortez while in LA.
Although Barcelona was the marquee draw, the point of the event was the field that has been being built on top of the theatre. I love that fields are being built and refurbished all over the city, giving kids that might not have an adequate place to play an opportunity like this. The field isn’t quite finished. They said it’s about a month away. But some dude from Nike was cool enough to take me up there to snap a couple pics.
It should be the Galaxy refurbishing fields around the city instead of FCB marking their territory. MLS management is so dumb sometimes.
Good point Jamesey. We want toady’s kids to want to play for their local MLS side, not the superclubs across the pond.
@jamesey – That’s a very good point you make. MLS clubs SHOULD be doing these types of things. From what they said yesterday, it was Nike’s idea to get together with these organizations to build these fields. With all MLS sides being sponsored by adidas, bringing them in on something like this would never happen. However, MLS clubs should be looking at initiatives like this to engage with their local communities…there is a lot that could be done creatively by MLS or individual clubs that has yet to happen. This is a very cool community initiative put together by Nike, but this should have had an MLS angle attached to it. Opportunity missed…
im the kid that was working staff. It was nice to meet you, and the new shirt didn’t look to bad either
Soccer is a global sport .. there are no boundaries, let’s not think in terms of us and them .. That’s how I see it .. we all play. Having said that, Yes, it would be great to see more MLS teams get involved in the community. Let’s see every team adopt a non-profit like Barca has done. 0.7% of Barca’s profits go to UNICEF … who is next?