Exclusive: Beckham Academy Closure Derails Canadian Soccer Team’s Dreams

In a follow-up to Sunday’s story about the unheralded closure of the David Beckam Academy in Carson comes word the shuttering was so quiet they weren’t even telling those who had registered for camp that it had closed.

Turns out they didn’t tell local hotels either: I received an e-mail from Natasha Hamilton, wife of the Lloyd Hamilton in the story Wednesday night, observing the Doubletree Hotel in Carson where they had booked rooms, was similarly unaware of the closure.

Yet, PR debacle aside, the termination of the David Beckham Academy is a loss to the South Bay (and wider) community as the following e-mail I received vividly illustrates:

To Nick:

Thank you for finally mentioning that the DBA had officially closed. I knew about this closure back in November. When I heard this news I was very devastated. One of the reasons is that the DBA had a School Outreach Program that provided, free of charge, soccer skills to public schools.

My school, Panorama City Elementary in Panorama City, was fortunate enough to be able to participate in it last year. We started to do it again this year. One group was able to experience it. But, the 2nd group wasn’t able to because the DBA closed a week prior to them coming out to our school again. The students at my school were extremely saddened by this news. They were looking forward in experiencing soccer with the DBA Coaches. The DBA coaches were excellent!

Last year, I even made a presentation board so that people in our district would see the great things that our students were doing in relation to sports. A lot of those people were very impressed. Our students learned a lot from the DBA coached about soccer and fitness/health in general. Too bad they won’t get to experience that again.

Well, at least some of our students had the chance last year, and this year. But, they will surely be missed. I hope that AEG has plans to still use the field as some type of academy. Perhaps they might be able to continue the School Outreach Program that was in place at the DBA.

Always in soccer,

Carlisa Perdomo

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About Nick Green

South Bay-based Los Angeles News Group soccer columnist and blogger Nick Green writes at the 100 Percent Soccer blog at www.insidesocal.com/soccer and craft beer at the Beer Goggles blog at www.insidesocal.com/beer. Cheers!