<\/p>\n
Pickup games start at $15 at the open-air venue.<\/p>\n
(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Created by Chicago-based marketing agency Elemento L2<\/a>, the complex opened its L.A. location this fall with two rooftop soccer fields, a panna cage (basically a small enclosed area for 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 speed-focused games), a fut tennis court (a small rectangular court with a net dividing it), a soccer golf section and other interactive play zones \u2014 offering players 15 ways to engage with the sport. The venue also boasts sleek lounge areas where patrons can hang out, order food, sip on mocktails, watch games on flat-screen TVs and dance to music spun by live DJs on special nights. <\/p>\n Skyline Pitch follows a trend of athletic clubs moving into shopping centers as retail leaders try to tap into customers\u2019 desire for communal experiences<\/a> and new activities. In the past couple years, indoor pickleball venue Pickle Pop<\/a> debuted in Santa Monica, in part to try to revive the ailing Third Street Promenade, and Padel Up (dedicated to the sport of padel) entered Westfield Century City. Also this past summer, a social club for racquet sports<\/a> announced that it would be taking over the defunct Macy\u2019s building at The Bloc in Downtown L.A. <\/p>\n In the world of recreational soccer, converting a portion of a parking structure to create Skyline Pitch is a welcomed move, helping alleviate one of the constant barriers for players in L.A.: a shortage of fields. <\/p>\n A view from the soccer field to downtown L.A.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cFinding somewhere to play is the hardest thing,\u201d says Matthew Bambrick, founder of SoCal Youth Sports<\/a>, one of the local organizations that\u2019s partnered with Skyline Pitch to host youth training camps and other programming. \u201cSo finding underutilized spaces or space that can be revitalized in different ways is really, really clever. This should be the blueprint.\u201d <\/p>\n For Ivan Lopez, co-founder of elemento L2, it made sense to open the second Skyline Pitch location in L.A. \u2014 the first was in Chicago<\/a> \u2014 not only because it\u2019s home to three professional teams and will host the FIFA World Cup next summer but also because of the city\u2019s rich soccer culture.<\/p>\n People enjoy an evening playing soccer.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cThe stadiums are jam-packed whether it\u2019s [the] Gold Cup<\/a>, World Cup, [UEFA] Nations League, and we celebrate the game in so many ways,\u201d says Lopez, who\u2019s been traveling to L.A. for years to build soccer activations for brands like Target and Coca Cola. \u201cThis is where the game is alive and well.\u201d <\/p>\n Anyone wanting to play at Skyline Pitch can sign up for pickup games starting at $15, rent an entire field starting at $150 or buy a $20 activity pass, which grants you access for two hours. The venue is also available for private events and birthday parties. Along with SoCal Youth Sports, other local partners include Cal South Soccer<\/a> and Soccer Stars Los Angeles.<\/a> <\/p>\n Jimmy Conrad, who played for the national soccer team for five years and 12 years for Major League Soccer, became a brand ambassador for Skyline Pitch and says he would\u2019ve loved to have a space like Skyline Pitch when he was growing up in L.A., a place where people are \u201cencouraged to play soccer.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt just didn\u2019t exist in my generation,\u201d he says. Although the street and local parks [offer] more than enough room to play, he says, having a dedicated venue with the proper goals and lines \u201cjust raises the cool factor.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the sun begins to set over the San Gabriel Mountains, a group of people runs across a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[31808,61100,49,48,128460,15967,128461,10492,128459,128462,561,306,457,82,128463,19228,3275,2552],"class_list":["post-282410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-americana","tag-brand","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-l-a-location","tag-padel","tag-pickup-game","tag-player","tag-skyline-pitch","tag-socal-youth-sports","tag-soccer","tag-space","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tree-lined-street","tag-venue","tag-world","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n