Cal State Dominguez Hills is sometimes forgotten among the higher-profile Southland universities. It's not uncommon for the unfamiliar to ask: Where is the city of Dominguez?

That question may not be asked as often as the 43-year-old Carson university soaks up attention with the 85-acre, $140 million Home Depot Center. A capacity crowd of 27,000, including soccer legend Pele, is expected at 1 p.m. today when the defending Major League Soccer champion Los Angeles Galaxy face the Colorado Rapids in their first game at the center after six seasons at the Rose Bowl.

The stadium is part of a new complex on the campus that also includes nine practice fields, a tennis stadium expandable to 13,000, 30 tennis courts and a track and field facility seating up to 20,000 that recently hosted its first invitational.

CSUDH is getting national attention by forming a public-private partnership with the Anschutz Entertainment Group that is unparalleled in its size.

"We're challenged to try to bring two very different communities together an academic community and a corporate community,' CSUDH President James Lyons said. "They operate differently. The cultures are different, and the rules are different.'

Lyons said Dominguez is happy with its partnership. There have been some misunderstandings, such as when the college learned through a newspaper that Home Depot would be the complex's naming sponsor, but there has been nothing the university considers a serious problem.

The Home Depot Center accounts for 24 percent of the university's 346 acres. The facility is so enormous that it caused countless debates among those within the university and Carson homeowners, some of whom sued to try and stop the project.

"A project of this magnitude scares me,' Lyons said. "It frightens the campus. It frightens the local community. And so in that sense, it was a difficult proposition because it's just so huge. When somebody comes to the table to talk about a $140 million project, just the magnitude of the thing is frightening.'

Yet when he weighed the pros and cons and communicated with faculty members and students about the project, Lyons signed off on it, and not simply because of the added attention and sporting events.

"Don't misunderstand me,' said Lyons, who ran track at the University of Connecticut. "I love athletic excellence. But my job as president is to have people talk about academic excellence. So we will be going to our partners with requests, and we will be asking our partners to introduce us to their partners who might be able to support academic programs.'

The university received a $1 million endowment and will get a percentage of the Home Depot Center's profits and various costs, such as parking, estimated at $500,000 a year.

AEG will offer educational programs, including soccer and tennis clinics, said AEG President and CEO Tim Leiweke.

"We happened to come at the right time,' he said. "The university was looking for something to lift up this campus, and I think they have found it, not only with our facilities and our structure, but more importantly, we're an emo Ov 1 LNs tional partner of theirs.'