Ah, room to breathe! And hopefully play a few games! C atthe Aztexan has discovered that House Park is going to be changed to artificial turf once the HS soccer season is done. I am feeling a little sick, because that takes out my dream venue, as far as I'm concerned. No real info yet on where the Aztex will play. I suppose we should be discussing the U-23's. House being under construction will take it out for the U-23's as well, so I guess I need to get ready to make a drive up to Pflugerville at a minimum.
That's horrible. What a waste. I just don't understand why school districts keep doing this. It may be cheaper (though I'd like to see the long term proof of that), but severely limits the types of uses because of permanent marking, which seems like it would limit profitability of the facility.
After seeing what one NFL game did to Wembly and Azteca (Cowboys, some years ago), I can see why they do it. Football, even HS football, tears up the ground pretty badly, especially when you have a wet year like this past one. Not that I have any data at all on upkeep of the fake stuff. But with school districts cutting back on more and more things, I can (sadly) easily imagine this being a necessity. As I commented on the Aztexan, Austin hasn't built a new stadium in over 30 years (Burger, 1975). But with the growth of Austin, there have been new High Schools built. Plus, with the growth of soccer, the stadiums aren't getting the spring off like they used to 20 years ago. Yes, Pflugerville and Round Rock have added stadiums, but I suspect that this is, sadly, coming down to reality. Is Austin going to fund building a new stadium or two? I haven't heard anything about it, but it seems like it'll soon be a necessity. But even then, the economics probably don't make sense, especially with the new kinds of artificial turf being developed. Yeah, I can rationalize this all to hell. It still sucks.
Who knows? Maybe AISD needing more stadium capacity will work out well for the Aztex down the road. Rawlins is already saying he wants to build the Aztex their own stadium. Given that being in city limits rather than out in BFE is preferable, the first big obstacle is affording the amount of prime real estate to build something that big. A shared facility may not be ideal, but maybe some kind of partnership with the school district would make it a little easier to pull off. Maybe?
Fiesta Gardens, would be tight, I could walk there....there better be some roasted corn on le cob mmmmm
Pardon my ignorance but where exactly is Fiesta Gardens? Will AA be in ACL or outta in the Boonies ala Cedar Pk, Round Rock, etc
I hope the stadium is near town. I mean I'd drive to wherever it is, but it sure would be nice to play at Burger or near downtown.
Anything near downtown or in the city limits would be great for the atmosphere. Anything outside of it would kill it. The only reason why House Park would change to artifical turf is to reduce the cost of maintaining the field. The grass on the field isn't that great of shape but the stadium's location & closeness from the stands to the field makes it more unique.
Plus the view of downtown and the Capitol. And Pease Park to tailgate in just across Lamar. All in all, an ideal stadium. Except for it being skinny. And, apparently, soon to have fake grass.
Fiesta Gardens is here. I keep hearing comments in BS about it being redeveloped or something. But I haven't heard anything about in the Chronicle or any other Austin news source. Just did a quick google search, and nothing came up on the first page or so. That would be fricking fabulous. But I can't believe it would happen. I also keep imagining the Holly Power Plant location would be good as well. But that's all dreaming of ideal future. The here and now? With House going plastic, I'm betting that they're going to end up in Pflugerville. It's not as boonie as it used to be, and might actually work out OK. It's all guesses at this point. The only thing Rawlins has said is that he's in negotiation with 5 different parties. My guess on the list is: AISD, RRISD, Pflugerville ISD, Del Valle... and someone else. My guess is that it's UT, but my guess is that that one won't (and shouldn't, because Myers is way too big) happen.
Wow, this is a pretty big blow. And not the good kind neither. If God wanted House Park to have had carpet instead of grass, he would have put it there.
Well, maybe I shouldn't be so pessimistic. I don't know exactly what they're putting in. I haven't actually been to a game on FieldTurf. I've heard that it's getting better and better. There were lots of stories about how hot the field got when FCD played that season at whatever that high school stadium was in suburban Dallas. But I also remember that the field wasn't exactly FieldTurf. Looking through the list on the website of the guys that are converting the AISD fields, they clearly do a variety of types of synthetic turf. So who knows which one will be done at House.
Modern fieldturf or the hybrid variant often used in warmer areas is actually rather ok, not ideal but much better than what it used to be. In Europe there have been regular league games and even national games on fieldturf, mostly in countries with colder climates but anyway...
Actually most schools go with the aritficial turf so that they can get more use out of the fields. I've seen field that host 3 different sports (football, soccer and lacross). Granted the field markings make it look very busy but, they get much more use out of the field then if it was real grass. With real grass you would have to extremely limit the use, if you wanted to keep a good field. And in turn, most schools wouldn't have it used over the summer so that it would recover. With the Field turf, you can really use it every day of the week. In addition to all of the school teams, you can also let groups in the community use it. Which in turn provides additional revenue to the school district. So actually going with the fake stull increases your revenue, not decrease it.
Oh, I completely understand all that. It makes perfect sense from AISD's perspective, since Austin has grown a lot over the past 20 years, and they haven't built any new stadiums in nearly 40 years. Soccer and lacrosse have been added to the teams since then (though, as far as I know, lacrosse doesn't use those fields). So obviously they're getting a lot more use than they used to. Still, as I understand it, the quality of a soccer game is effected by the kind of synthetic turf that's used. So I wonder what AISD is installing at House, and what got installed at Burger and Nelson. Not that you'd know. Just idle chatter as we wait for some real news.
St. Edwards University? Saw on the Aztex home page today that they've announced U-23 tryouts (Mar. 8th & 9th or Mar. 15th & 16th), at St. Edwards University. The site includes a link to a map of the university, and where the soccer field is. That's not a location I've heard anyone mention before; could it possibly be a home field for the Aztex? The U-23s, at least? From the pictures I found of their field (on Wikipedia and the St. Edwards site), it looks like grass. But, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of other facilities (stands, bleachers, concessions, etc.). The season stats for their men's and women's teams show pretty meager attendance of a couple hundred per game, but then again, it's a small school anyway... What does anyone think? Is this even a remote possibility?
Hello Aztex fans. I'm a former Austinite and now run the supporters club for the Carolina RailHawks. I"m looking forward to a return to Austin next year for our away matches. Anyway, I was talking with some of the front office execs at the RailHawks and they gave me the impression that a 12,000 seat stadium (give or take) has already been identified by your management. I'm left scratching my head as to where exactly this might be. Any ideas? Sorry to stir the pot with such an abstract rumor, but it came from a pretty good source.
Well, here's the best online source I've found. I've done some searching through the site, but don't remember anything that's that size.
The only thing I can think of (it's been a few years since I moved away though) is Mike A. Myers stadium on the UT campus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_A._Myers_Stadium It actually seats 20k.
Re: St. Edwards University? Cool. Something to go watch! Looks like we have an Aztex-specific event that we can attend! I've been out to St. Eds a few times. It's decent, and central, but you're right that it's not a stadium, just some bleachers, and I don't remember there being any concessions anywhere, though it has been a while. I suppose it could work for the U-23's. And for the USL-1, I suppose they could spring for adding bleachers on the far side. Unlike everything else in town, that field is a soccer field, and soccer only as far as I know. Have to do some more research on St. Eds, I guess.
I think we've all pretty much rejected that as likely, or even possible. I saw one person over on the Houston board say that UT refused to let the Dynamo play a CONCACAF Club Cup game against a Mexican team there. So if Houston can't get it, I can't believe the Aztex could. Not only that, I also would rather they not play there. Yeah, it's central, but 20,000 is way too large for USL-1. Not even Montreal's stadium is that large.