Puerto Rico Islanders Make Alternate Plans While Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium is Remodeled
As was reported at IMS back in late February, major renovations are under way at the Puerto Rico Islanders stadium, Juan Ramón Loubriel.
Recently it was announced that there were delays in the first phase of the construction and the mayor of Bayamon had decided to place real grass in the stadium instead of turf. All this has caused delays that will mean the Islanders will not be allowed to play on Juan Ramón Loubriel until late July.
The Islanders had planned on playing at the Bayamón Soccer Complex which is about 3 miles from Juan Ramón Loubriel. But that facility only seats approximately 1,000 fans. Now that the duration of their time away from Juan Ramón Loubriel has increased, the team announced on Monday they have added additional seating bringing the total capacity up to about 3,000 according to a spokesperson for the team.
It was also announced that because of the circumstances surrounding the Islanders home venue, the team will allow anyone who comes to the home opener on Saturday evening free admission.
The Islanders will take on the Tampa Bay Rowdies at 7:30 on Saturday April 7th in the first regular season game for both teams.
Comments are closed.
This is going to crush the Islanders financially. They had low attendance last year as defending champs, I shudder to think what will happen this year. The Bayamon Soccer complex, although sporting a nice artificial pitch (if such things can be said about artifical turf), is not enclosed in any way except by a chain link fence. In many ways, most High School soccer programs in the States have more impressive stadia which allow the teams to control the gate better than this professional team will be able to do.
The fact is, the stadium has zero parking and no mass transit. Even with announced plans to bus people from Loubriel’s parking lot to the soccer complex which allows fans to likewise come by train, the attendance will be pathetic. I honestly don’t think that the Islanders will be able to charge anybody to go to any games there. If someone doesn’t want to pay, all they have to do is stand in the street and look over the chain link fence to the field.
While the reports say that they will be “able” to use the field in late July, the fact is that I know from a very high and good authority that the team will not be ALLOWED to us the field until Aug. 16 (the day after the national team’s game with Spain).
This is just a part of the comedy of errors which I am afraid will mark the Islanders on and off the field. (Sigh)
The good news is the Islanders will have an excellent setup with stadium in August. Islanders could be in a much worse situation.
Real grass on the renovated stadium sounds great. Football must be played on real grass, always (unless we are talking about Antarctica FC). The artificial bumpy surface at the Sounders stadium is killing the otherwise amazing experience of watching a game there.