Hartman’s San Antonio Scorpions will Announce Team Will Play at Heroes Stadium
Gordon Hartman’s San Antonio Scorpions will hold a press conference today to announce that the team will play at Heroes Stadium for the 2012 NASL season. The organization sent out a media advisory on Monday stating the team will announce their playing facility, new team president, new team sponsors, 2012 ticket prices and “Select Our Jersey Design” contest for Scorpions fans.
Heroes Stadium
Hartman has been stating since announcing his team that a stadium owned by the organization was crucial in order to make profits which would in turn be handed over to his theme park for the disabled, Morgan’s Wonderland.
In recent months Hartman has run into many snags trying to get public funding to help build his stadium that was to be constructed on his STAR Soccer Complex. The move to start the team’s NASL involvement at Heroes Stadium is a major change for Hartman. Just last month Hartman was told that his Scorpions would not receive public funding from either the city of San Antonio nor Bexar County.
Heroes Stadium is a typically large Texas football stadium that was built in 2009 and seats 11,000. It’s less than a 1/2 mile from the STAR Soccer Complex. It’s said to boast one of the larger digital scoreboards in Texas and has nice facilities. However, there’s a huge track running around the perimeter of the field, distancing the seating from the playing surface, which is an artificial surface with lots of football lines including team lines outside the football field itself.
According to Richard Oliver of the San Antonio Express, the surface is only 68 yards wide before hitting the running track on either side. Meaning the field would most likely be 66 yards at a maximum width.
Heroes stadium is owned by the North East Independent School District which will almost certainly mean that alcohol will be prohibited at the facility, a feature that will not “go down easy” with many hard core soccer fans in San Antonio.
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Damn, that is an ugly stadium!
They couldn’t even paint over the outside of the running track, to make it somewhat visually appealing?!
I hope this is a VERY short term solution. Reminds me of a nicer James Griffith stadium; the former home of the Thunder.
At least there’s plenty of parking.
Compared to Alamo Stadium, I think it might be a better move but not by much . Alamo also has Turf, no video screen, and seats 23,000. Alamo Stadium was built in the 1940 but has a ton of money going into renovations and is considered the biggest high school football stadium in the state. Also, no beer. And from what I’ve read, SAISD doesn’t allow any vendors but their own to operate at Alamo Stadium.
The Scorpions have the land to build on. They need to build a stadium in order to be successful. One stand. Seats 5000. Shouldn’t be that hard. Look at Raymond McEnhill Stadium for inspiration.
With all the rubber surface around the field and the fill turf itself, the area in and around the playing surface must get hotter than blazes in the scorching Texas summer sun.
Wassn’t a HS field (no alcohol, football lines, etc.) one of the big things that forced the Aztex from Austin? This just looks like a rough start.
Doesn’t the USSF require that all professional teams play on pitches no smaller than 70 x 110 yards? Would a narrow pitch in SA be detrimental to NASL’s Div. II sanctioning bid for 2012?
Edward, if you read the link that I had in the article it makes that very point.
I think USSF is somewhat tolerant of some of these situations but only for a while. It’s clear in the requirements as you state which is actually a FIFA requirement. The issue will be that Edmonton is basically in the same boat as to football lines etc… The cumulated effect can’t help.
At this point, are we even thinking that the NASL will not be sanctioned for the years to come? I mean, the new commish seems like a pretty connected guy with those at the top.
The NASL can’t afford to take it for granted that they’ll receive full sanctioning starting in 2012.
@Edward: Bro–I’m pretty sure that the NASL is NOT taking it for granted that they’ll recieve full sanctioning next year.
They are going to continue to bust their backsides working while praying and lighting candles at the same time to get the sanctioning for next year.
When I read this story all I can think of is “Friday Night Lights”.
That stadium will make for a great high school american football Region III final in Texas.
This is worse than the Austin stadium last year.
^ Unlike Austin, they actually have the land and plans to build their own stadium, for 2013. I’d bet the USSF will let the field requirements slide since they are building a proper soccer venue.
Hartman said at the press conference that it will only be for a year and also that they have acquired land across the street to build Phase 1 of Scorpions Stadium. Phase 1 is 5000 seat stadium and when the demand is large enough they will go to stage 2 which is 11000 seat stadium. I believe Hartman will be using Private funding to build scorpion stadium.
It just looks like they don’t have enough time to get their stadium built by 2013. I hope that doesn’t turn off too many Scorpions supporters in the first season. That’s the main danger I see with the situation. The USSF should be just fine with them playing on this field for one year knowing that a permanent SSS home is under construction. At the end of the day the USSF guidelines are about creating situations that have the greatest chance of long term stability at the D2 level. I don’t think anyone would disagree with the point that having and controlling your own SSS is HUGE in trying to accomplish this.
Regarding the Aztex, the owner was looking for new investors to soak up some of the losses, and the inability to sell alcohol at games in Austin was one of the issues the new investors had, but not the only issue. The playing surface itself was never mentioned as a concern. (And Rawlins was apparently looking into building a SSS in the suburbs of Austin. This might have also been contingent on finding investors.)
Right now, I think the major threats to the viability of the Scorpions is the fact that the owner seems to think this team is going to be profitable early on, and that they may have a local competitor who has better resources (Spurs) within a few years.