For 23 years it was called the Olympic Training Center.
Now, the sprawling 155-acre facility at the southeast corner of Eastlake has a new name: The Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center.
While the name change prompted a flurry of work this week to replace signage, everything else about the property is pretty much the same, at least for now.
"I anticipate we'll see a pool here in the next five years, we're actually working on that. We might also see a gymnasium out here as well" said Kelley Bacon, Deputy District Attorney for Chula Vista.
Bacon spearheaded the huge transition of the property from the hands of the United States Olympic Committee to the City of Chula Vista.
The USOC wanted out of owning and operating the property, but promised to still provide a hefty chunk of the $8 million annual operating budget in the form of rent for its athletes.
The change marks a new opportunity for Chula Vista to keep the Olympians and elite athletes, while expanding the center to meet the needs of other sports teams and groups.
Following a thorough application and vetting process, city leaders selected Point Loma Trust to operate the training center. Point Loma Trust established Elite Athlete Services as the effective organization for day-to-day operations.
After a few months on the job, Elite Athlete Services CEO Greg Jamison says the Olympic athletes are happy and so is the bottom line. They say they’ve already booked enough athletes, teams, and groups to finish year one in the black.
"The Olympics is one of the main things that drove this, I think what this allows is you can open it up to have more types of different groups come on" said Jamison.
To mark the change in ownership, the city will host a “Celebration of Champions” event at the training center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday February 25.
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The event is free to everyone and kids will be able to test out the archery range and ride parts of the BMX track.
