LB considers delegating management of Veterans Field, stage<\/p>\n
Published 8:48 pm Sunday, March 8, 2026<\/p>\n
LONG BEACH \u2014 A proposed agreement between the Long Beach Merchants Association (LBMA) and the City of Long Beach could see the nonprofit take over managing a pair of city-owned facilities, including Veterans Field and its stage.<\/p>\n
The potential arrangement, most recently discussed at a Long Beach City Council workshop on March 5, was initiated by Long Beach officials who said they see this as a way to lessen the workload of overstretched city employees. If approved, LBMA would be authorized to utilize Veterans Field, its stage and the smaller Mary Lou\u2019s Stage at 3rd Street SW \u201cfor tourism-based events and activities\u201d through June 2029.<\/p>\n
Overseeing the management of these facilities, Long Beach Mayor Sue Svendsen said, \u201cis more of a distraction than anything\u201d for city employees.<\/p>\n
\u201c[This proposed arrangement] wasn\u2019t at their request, it was at our request to save us time,\u201d the mayor added.<\/p>\n
According to a draft agreement presented to councilors, \u201cLong Beach Merchants will be responsible for the booking of tourism-based events and activities; handling the booking and rental of the facilities to the public; retaining rental agreements and associated documentation; as well as maintaining the cleanliness of the interior the buildings and the exterior surrounding grounds following any events or activities that are held, excluding the buildings themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city, in return, would receive \u201ctourism support\u201d that is generated by events or activities that are hosted by the merchants association. Long Beach \u201calso agrees [LBMA] may charge a nominal fee for the booking and rental of these facilities\u201d for the length of the contract.<\/p>\n
Councilor Mark Perez expressed reservations about the agreement as written, saying the city should shorten the length of the agreement to just one year initially to see how the arrangement works out. He said he would also like provisions to be added that would allow the city to use the facilities as needed, as well as allow the city to override any denials issued by LBMA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a city facility, it\u2019s a public thing,\u201d said Perez. \u201cIt should be available to any reasonable request, so you\u2019re taking that control away from the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perez also asked if the agreement would affect any city policies or procedures, such as changing the fee that is paid to use the stage at Veterans Field. Svendsen said the \u201cnominal fee\u201d that LBMA could charge is the same $100 per day fee that already exists for public use of that stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an additional charge that [LBMA] would charge above that, it\u2019s the regular fee,\u201d said Svendsen. \u201cThat\u2019s my understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
The merchants, Svendsen added, \u201care not dying to take this over. It was a favor.\u201d Most of the requests to use the stage at Veterans Field come from LBMA in the first place, she said.<\/p>\n
Along with addressing other concerns raised by Perez, Svendsen said the city could adjust the initial agreement to just one year \u201cto see if it works for both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickleball draws noise complaint<\/p>\n
The council was also presented with a petition from three residents urging the city to take action to address pickleball-induced noise complaints in the Culbertson Park area, but neither councilors or nor city officials believe action is warranted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re supposed to be providing facilities so people can use them and encouraging their use,\u201d said Perez. Addressing the petitioner\u2019s concern that the noise could negatively affect property values, Perez said \u201cthese facilities have to go somewhere \u2014 and when you buy a house across the street from a playground, you\u2019ve gotta expect some noise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city first added pickleball lines to the tennis court at the park in 2018. Since then, most of the complaints about the noise and allegations that the city\u2019s noise ordinance is being violated have come only recently from just one individual, according to Long Beach City Administrator David Glasson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had told the person making the complaints that we\u2019re going to treat it like any other noise complaint for the time being: we need data,\u201d Glasson said. \u201cAnd so she\u2019s called once; a police officer went over\u2026and sat in his car with it running and with the radio off to see what kind of noise makes it through the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe noticed when the officer got there and came out and said \u2018Well, they\u2019re not noisy right now.\u2019 So my guess is it\u2019s probably not an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city recently purchased quieter balls that it has made available for patrons of the court to use, he added.<\/p>\n
Glasson also raised the issue with an attorney through the Washington Cities Insurance Authority and asked whether the city had any liability for a pickleball court that is located roughly 50 feet from a neighbor\u2019s house. The attorney, Glasson recalled, said Long Beach had no reason to worry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LB considers delegating management of Veterans Field, stage Published 8:48 pm Sunday, March 8, 2026 LONG BEACH \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-211039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}