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South Coast Soccer City Founders
Paul Higgins is the Company’s President and is a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes. Paul was educated in London, England and entered Trade School to learn the Construction Industry. Paul worked in the Hotel Renovation industry in the United Kingdom until 1980 when he came to California. For six years he worked on commercial projects including the construction of numerous music and film star homes.
In 1986 he formed his first company, one that was focused on music studios. Paul’s company worked on numerous studios, including the renovation and rebuilding of studios for A&M Records, Capital Records, and Soundworks West. In addition, Paul worked alongside Continental Studio Builders on many other recording studio projects. At the same time Paul started traveled the U.S. building custom stores for B.B.C.1. This led to a significant amount of work for The Walt Disney Company from 1995-2000 where Paul worked as an outside contractor restoring the Keystone Homes, building offices and building the themes and running the maintenance for the Club Disney buildings in Thousands Oaks, Costa Mesa and Chandler Arizona. In addition, Paul handled many tenant improvement projects including the Omnicom (Binocular) building in Venice, CA.
In 2001 Paul and his family moved to Manhattan Beach where he built a 3,000 sq. ft. home. He then built a 2nd home 2 doors away and went on to build a number of custom homes for homeowners and as well as several spec homes, all of the highest quality, earning a Bank of Manhattan nomination for Best Real Estate Developer in the South Bay – 2008. His company, Knightsbridge Development, and other affiliated companies, have built or remodeled over 15 homes in the past 6 years and are currently exploring other building opportunities.
Paul’s soccer roots run deep, back to when he played “football” growing up in England. He continues to have a strong passion for soccer, from player to coach, to manager and director. Paul is involved with the Palos Verdes Soccer Club for youth soccer and is a player in the adult league
Kevin Gilmore is the Executive Vice President of the Company and the President of its holding company, SoCal Soccer City Holdings LLC. Kevin is a resident of Manhattan Beach and was most recently the Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategic Planning for Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). In his three years with AEG’s senior executive team, Kevin was responsible for analyzing new business opportunities for AEG such as potential company acquisitions and new venue initiatives. He led all strategic planning efforts for the company to ensure AEG’s growth and increased revenue streams through new business initiatives. Kevin also headed up AEG’s Asia strategy, with a strong emphasis on establishing the Company’s venue and programming initiatives in mainland China. As AEG’s head of Asian strategy, he was the lead negotiator on the Beijing Olympic Basketball Arena Management Agreement, the Shanghai World Expo Performing Arts Center Joint Venture, the Guangzhou Entertainment Center Joint Venture, and AEG’s landmark Joint Venture Agreement with the National Basketball Association and NBA China. These key agreements have set the foundation for AEG’s expansion and leading market position in a country that is rapidly evolving and will soon become one of the most important consumer markets in the world.
Prior to joining AEG, Kevin spent seven full seasons as the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations and Assistant General Manager of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. With the Kings, a professional hockey team owned by AEG, he assisted the General Manager in all facets of team operations, including player contract negotiations, salary arbitrations, cap management and planning, and overall team operations. He also attended over 120 games per year in connection with his involvement in the Entry Draft as well as all player personnel decisions. During his tenure with the Kings, the team compiled a record of 178 wins, 148 losses, and 84 ties and overtime/shootout losses and the qualified for the playoffs in three of the six seasons played over this period – the only three times the team has made the playoffs in the last 11 years. He also served as the Governor and General Manager for the Kings' primary minor league affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League, from 2001-06. Gilmore was charged with upgrading the Kings’ minor league development system and he recommended and led the acquisition and start-up of what became the Kings’ first wholly-owned minor league affiliate. He was ultimately made responsible for overseeing the Monarchs hockey operations and business operations as well as the development of the Kings top prospects. During Manchester’s five first seasons with Kevin as its General Manager, the Monarchs made the playoffs each year, complied a record of 212 wins, 130 losses and 58 overtime/shootout losses, and were one of the top three teams in attendance in the AHL. The development system created by Kevin and the Monarchs were critical steps in ensuring the proper development of the Kings’ top young prospects, many of whom are now playing in the NHL for the Kings and are part of what many experts consider to be one of the league’s best young teams. During Kevin’s tenure with the Kings, NHL players such as Jason Blake, Dustin Brown, Michael Cammelleri, Joe Corvo, Alexander Frolov, Tim Gleason, Denis Grebeshkov, Cristobal Huet, Frantisek Kaberle, Anze Kopitar, Andreas Lilja, Jonathan Quick, Steven Reinprecht, David Steckel, Jeff Tambellini, and Lubomir Visnovsky, were either drafted or signed by the Kings, or developed within their development system.
A native of Arvida, Quebec, Kevin studied at St. Lawrence College in Quebec City and obtained his law degree from the University of Ottawa in 1987. He began his professional career in 1988 as an Attorney with the Los Angeles law firm of Latham & Watkins. He later joined The Walt Disney Company as Corporate Counsel where he primarily assisted in the negotiation and drafting of major strategic alliance and sponsorship agreements between Fortune 50 corporations (American Express, Nestlé USA, Federal Express, Coca Cola) and various divisions of The Walt Disney Company (theme parks, consumer products, home video and motion pictures), which alliances generated over $200 million in net profits per year. While at Disney, he was one of the first executives brought in by Michael Eisner to assist the Company when it decided to explore the acquisition of an NHL expansion team. He was asked to lead the legal team responsible for the acquisition the National Hockey League franchise (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) and the securing of a lease at the new 18,000-seat arena in Anaheim, and was a key member of the group that envisioned and implemented the strategy and start-up of a launch that created one of the most successful expansion franchises in NHL history. He joined the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1993 as Vice President of Hockey Operations. He eventually served as Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for the Mighty Ducks and the Anaheim Angels, following Disney’s acquisition of the Major League Baseball team in 1996. He handled the legal affairs as well as the negotiation of player contracts for both the hockey club and baseball team, oversaw all legal aspects for both teams and Anaheim Stadium, and, as one of the organization’s most senior executives, was involved and led efforts in numerous key areas such as team and venue sponsorships, local broadcast rights deals, and new projects.
