Cal State Teams Losing in Fight Over Stadium

A football game between neighboring-county rivals Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach has become entangled in a legal dispute between Santa Ana and a swap meet operator.

Norton Western Ltd., which has run the swap meet at Eddie West Field since 1979, has in the past heeded the city’s request and moved to another location on Saturdays when Cal State Fullerton has had games scheduled at the stadium, which serves as its home field.

This year, in March and again in May, the city advised the company that it would need the stadium Sept. 19, when the Titans of Fullerton are scheduled to play the 49ers of Long Beach at 1 p.m. The company never responded, City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said.

Then, in July, the City Council voted to shut down Norton Western’s swap meet on the stadium grounds when its current agreement expires, Sept. 30. It also shut down a smaller, unsanctioned swap meet at Rancho Santiago College, which had served as the company’s alternate site on Fullerton football weekends.

Because the city has forbidden swap meets at Rancho Santiago College, Norton Western will not vacate the stadium Sept. 19, company spokeswoman Debra Fritz said. On Tuesday, Norton Western attorney Rodolfo Montejano got a court order backing up the company’s decision to stay put, leaving the two football teams out in the cold.

“It’s not that we don’t like football,” Fritz said. “We love football. We love Cal State Fullerton. But we’ve got 10,000 people and no place to put them.”

Norton Western’s agreement with the city does not require the company to vacate the stadium, according to both Fritz and Cooper. “We’ve done that in the past as a matter of courtesy,” Fritz said.

But late Tuesday night, Ed Carroll, athletic director at Cal State Fullerton, said the game could be rescheduled for that night. But he said he had not yet discussed this option with his counterpart at Long Beach.

He said that the swap meet ended at 4 p.m. and that he was considering a kickoff sometime between 6 and 7:30.

“We still have to check with our radio stations as far as air time,” he said. Until Tuesday, Carroll said, he was unaware there could be a problem with the game.

Last month, Norton Western sued the city, alleging that the council’s decision to close the swap meet violated the state’s open-meeting laws and was racially motivated.

Residents have complained that the meets, which draw each weekend about 18,000 people--most of them Latinos--create too much noise and cause trash, traffic and parking problems.

The temporary restraining order issued by Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Eleanor M. Palk forbids the city from interfering with the swap meet Sept. 19, unless it provides the company with another suitable site.

Allen Doby, city recreation director, said that there is no “alternate site” for the swap meet and that the Rancho Santiago site will not be offered “because the (city) council has decided that is not a suitable spot.”

As for the football game, Doby said he did not yet know if other arrangements could be made, or what obligation the city is under to find another location.

“I got the verdict at five minutes to 5 (o’clock),” Doby said late Tuesday night. “We’ll be looking at it in the morning.”

Fritz maintained that the company began operating its swap meet at Rancho Santiago College at the city’s suggestion, an assertion that city officials denied. Fritz said the city was reluctant to offer the college site this time as an alternate location “because they don’t want to get the residents angry.”

Shayne Schroeder, sports information director at Cal State Long Beach, said Tuesday night he had not heard about the problem: “I spoke with (Cal State Fullerton sports information director) Mel Franks twice today, and he didn’t mention it.”

Efforts to reach Franks and other Fullerton athletic department officials were unsuccessful.

Schroeder said the game would probably draw 8,000 to 10,000 fans.