​Nick Green, the LANG newspapers' soccer columnist, reports today on the closure of the David Beckham Academy, which for the last five years has offered soccer lessons to kids at AEG's Home Depot Center in Carson.

Seems the culprit is the weak economy, as fewer and fewer parents have $500 to spend on one week of soccer camp.

Green contrasts the hoopla that surrounded the opening of the camp in 2005 with the quiet way in which AEG informed the public of its closure. It was so quiet, in fact, that the camp closed back in December but the news is only getting out now. Green says that's not surprising...

... given the damage control/spinning AEG and 19 Entertainment representatives spent much of Friday engaged in as they tried to convince me this was not a story. When a Beckham rep calls you from home at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday London time, you know how sensitive his management team is to ANY suggestion of bad news.

So is this yet another verdict on the "Beckham Experiment"?
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Tiger Woods Foundation

​As if the Tiger Woods saga isn't sleazy enough, a company called Creative Classics has unleashed a set of golf balls with names and likenesses of Woods' alleged mistresses emblazoned on them.

One of the apparent subjects, Joslyn James, was scheduled to hold a press conference in Los Angeles today with her attorney, Gloria Allred, to decry the recent release of "The Mistress Collection" edition of Tail of the Tiger golf balls, someone in Allred's office confirmed.

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​Don't call it a reconquista just yet, but Mexico is coming to the U.S. to recruit athletes of Mexican heritage for its Olympics teams.

"Sports Games for Mexicans Abroad" is scheduled to take place right here in Los Angeles March 29-April 4 to test out and recruit athletes who might be willing to play for mom or dad's team rather than America's. Mexico's sports minister Bernardo De la Garza told Associated Press that its hoping to find future Oscar De La Joyas.

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petecarroll.com

Pete Carroll.

​If it wasn't official, it sure sounded like it Sunday as several news outlets reported that USC football Coach Pete Carroll was leaving town to take over the top coaching job for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

It wasn't the reported $32.5 million that likely sent Carroll, one of the most successful coaches in the NCAA, to leave University Park, however: USC was under intense scrutiny for its recruiting practices, and Carroll could have decided his life would be easier in the NFL than at USC answering questions.

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Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling, who's no stranger to lawsuits of one kind or another, is now being sued by former West Wing actress Kim Webster, TMZ reported yesterday afternoon.

Mr. Fish

L.A. Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling

​
It's been a rough few months for the billionaire, who made his fortune as a landlord of so-called luxury apartment buildings.

In November, Sterling settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly discriminating against blacks and Latinos. The billionaire denied he refused to rent to people of color, but paid out a $2.725 million settlement anyway.

In December, Sterling was fighting another African American in court. This time, former Clippers general manager and basketball legend Elgin Baylor, who accuses Sterling of firing him due to his race.

Now, Sterling is staring at a lawsuit from Kim Webster, who says he failed to fix an electrical problem in her L.A. apartment building that led to a devastating fire in September, according TMZ. 

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​There's been a lot of chatter about how the developers behind a proposed NFL stadium in the San Gabriel Valley city of Industry are shopping for other cities' NFL teams, specifically the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills.

Majestic Realty Co. managing partner John Semcken told Associated Press (via the Daily News) that the company would prefer to deal with owners willing to sell a team to a Majestic-lead consortium (as opposed to buying a stake in a team and keeping its owner). And so "Jacksonville and Buffalo are two teams in very, very small markets" and "have either outdated stadiums or are having trouble filling their stadiums, or both."

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nba.com

O.J. Mayo now plays for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies.

​In one of the more bizarre attempts at putting a lid on bad news, USC announced over a sleepy holiday weekend that a booster gave under-the-table gifts to a basketball player and, as a result, the school would be issuing sanctions against itself.

The early Sunday morning announcement, made when many reporters were away for the holiday weekend, still resonated far and wide. And there's already speculation that the preemptive strike was made in order to shield the school's football program from any heat the violation might bring. Last year the NCAA combined its ongoing investigations of former USC running back Reggie Bush and basketball star O.J. Mayo, who is the source of the university's weekend mea culpa.

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KTLA News

​We're glad a new generation of Southern Californians has discovered fresh ways of going green. In Orange County, a group of teens has been spotted surfing discarded Christmas trees -- tying them up to the back of a vehicle while one of the brave ones sits or stand on it as the driver guns it. We doubt this is true to the "go big" spirit of real surfing, but you have to give the teens credit for going green in a ballsy way.

In San Clemente over the holiday weekend an 18-year-old was injured after he wiped out, slamming into a parked car during a tree-surf session. The driver apparently made a turn, but the tree did not. KTLA News reports that the driver fled on foot and the victim was taken to Mission Hospital with head injuries. Ouch, dude.

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Da Lakers.

​Yes, another year-end, top-of-the-decade list, this time from Sports Illustrated. The magazine says the Los Angeles Lakers are the sports franchise of the decade. The Staples Center-based ballers beat out the NFL's New England Patriots (number two), the University of Connecticut's women's basketball team (number three), the San Antonio Spurs (number four) and the New York Yankees (number 5). USC football, by the way, came in at number seven.

Of the Lakers, SI states, "No team in the four major professional sports -- NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB -- won more titles during the 2000s than the Lakers (four). Los Angeles made six appearances in the NBA Finals during the decade, reached the playoffs nine times and had seven seasons with at least 50 victories." It also voted Phil Jackson as coach of the decade.

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USC

Joe McKnight.

​A commenter who says he's the Santa Monica businessman who registered an SUV that the Los Angeles Times reports has been driven by USC star tailback Joe McKnight denied providing the vehicle the player in a post responding to to LA Weekly's own item on the matter Saturday.

The writer, who identifies himself as Scott Schenter, states that the vehicle was purchased for an employee of his, Johanna Michelle Beltran, who he calls "a longtime family friend." She also happens to be McKnight's girlfriend and the mother of his child, according to The Times. The person posting as Schenter says he took out a loan for the Land Rover in his name because her parents could not secure financing, and that Beltran has been paying for the vehicle at a rate of $500 a month.

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