IBEW 11 Takes to the Field at New Football Practice Facility
By Grant Slater
These days, where the LA Metro takes a sweeping, elevated turn toward the Pacific Ocean in El Segundo, the train soars above three brown fields that will soon be green, powder blue, and lightning yellow.
There, on the edge of the future turf of a professional football team, IBEW 11 electricians are trenching and laying wire for scoreboards and video screens at the practice facility for the NFL team, now helmed by Jim Harbaugh.
A close-knit team of 18 IBEW Brothers and Sisters are doing championship-level work on this state-of-the-art, luxury facility that broke ground in May 2022. The $270 million dollar project is being built atop the site of an old parking lot for the Raytheon facility next door.
The site will serve as both a headquarters and permanent home base for the NFL team that moved north to LA from San Diego in 2018.
Aside from the three practice fields, the facility will boast medical offices, hydrotherapy pools, a swimming pool, a weight room both indoors and outdoors, groundskeeping and maintenance buildings and three restaurants, including a Luxe Club for VIP visitors.
Taylor Griley, an Inside Journeyman Wireman, who has been with IBEW 11 for almost 13 years, said that it’s important that the electricians on this project get it right, because the professional football team have a lot of requirements. So here in El Segundo, the IBEW team is racing to the end zone.
“It’s definitely a hustle thing,” Griley said. “It’s a high-profile project to work with the NFL; it feels like everyone wants to put their stamp on it.”
Mitchell Cardenas, General Foreman for IBEW 11 signatory contractor Rosendin Electric, said the budget has gone from $9 million to more than $15 million for electrical work alone as the new coach and the professional football team organization have upgraded the building requirements to meet their needs.
IBEW staffing on the facility peaked at 25 members at the height of construction.
“It’s a huge footprint,” Cardenas said.
At lunch, overlooking the bolt-shaped awning of the new facility, IBEW 11 Business Manager Robert Corona introduced himself to the IBEW members on site as the new Business Manager. He answered their questions and commended their work on the complex project.
“You all stuck with it on this one, and this is a special project.” Corona said. “You deserve all the recognition for the smarts and hard work you brought to this site.”
The “professioinal Football Training Facility is the first ground-up project for Inside Wireman Apprentice Hannah Rose. Her father has been in the electrical trade for more than 40 years. Joining the union, she followed in his footsteps.
“I grew up with a dad at home, who’s been in construction for so long,” Rose said. “He had so many stories from the field. Straight out of high school, I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t have money for college.”
So, she joined IBEW and never looked back, and she landed at this exciting project a little over a year ago.
“This is my first job where I’ve seen the whole building come up while I was here,” she said. “There were no walls or anything. It’s just so awesome. The crew is great. I love everyone.”
Rose has been working to install lighting in the facility, her first big project.
“It’s probably one of the most rewarding things you could work on, because light feels like the center of our trade, and I’m watching them all come on now,” Rose said.
