On Saturday the Portland Timbers opened up their 2010 USSF Division-2 (the new name for the rebranded USL-1 league) season with a 1-0 victory against the Rochester Rhinos. The Timbers scored on a late penalty to notch their first win of the season.

One notable fact about the game was that the Timbers managed to sell out their home field -- PGE Park -- with 15,418 fans in attendance in what has been described as an “electric” atmosphere.

Portland has a long and storied soccer history and the Timbers faithful are passionate in their support of the team. The Timbers will be making the jump to MLS next year and PGE Park will undergo a renovation to make it more suitable for soccer. A well-written piece about Portland’s downtown Stadium has just been posted by Andew Guest over at pitchinvasion.net. (Thanks to Chris at the Aztexan for the head’s up on this interesting article.)

The Aztex play their second home game of the season at House Park this Sunday -- against the same Rochester Rhinos -- and are hoping to emulate the Timber’s weekend for both attendance and game result. Tickets to the match can be purchased here.

With construction of the new Field House in its final stages the Austin Aztex look set to open their 2010 regular season at House Park on Sunday, April 11th at 6:00pm against the Montreal Impact.

This is good news for the Aztex. Earlier versions of the schedule showed the first two games happening at last season’s Nelson Field before the move downtown.

Tickets for the match and new Aztex “flex” season tickets are available here.

While not a stadium of their own, House Park offers distinct advantages to last year’s venue Nelson Field. In addition to being more centrally located House Park is within walking distance of a good handful of bars and restaurants including the Tavern, Shoal Creek Saloon, and House Park BBQ.

Advantages aside House Park is a 50+ year old high school stadium with an artificial surface and we continue to work and hope for construction of a multi-purpose soccer and music venue befitting Austin’s status as a world-class city.



Photo stolen from our friends over at the Aztexan.

A recent Bizjournals study has concluded that Austin has the demographics to support a professional sports franchise.... particularly if it isn’t football, baseball, basketball or hockey.

The Austin Business Journal (ABJ) article summarizing the results of the study says that the Austin area could support a Tier 1 franchise, but industry experts interviewed for the article say UT Athletics would fight any new franchise in football, baseball, or basketball. And the NHL, they say, is unlikely to place a second Tier 1 hockey franchise in Texas. According to the same experts that leaves soccer as the most likely expansion candidate for our region. (I’m not sure -- and the article doesn’t mention -- how MLS would feel about supporting a third Tier 1 franchise in Texas.)

Full ABJ article is here.

Misspelling by ABJ but great quote from the CEO of the Austin Toros, Peter Lubell (italics added):

“The [Austin] Aztecs — if they can perfect their model, and they have great leadership — have the best opportunity,” Lubell said. “But it’s venue-specific, and they don’t have the best venue right now. If they built a soccer stadium, there’s no reason they couldn’t be major-league.”



(night football, House Park, courtesy Austin History Center)

Interesting article in the Chronicle about the efforts in Houston to get the Dynamo their own stadium and the advantages it could bring:

Stadiums at heart of success in MLS

Two blog posts in one day. Unprecedented, I know, but I just adopted a five-year-old and haven’t had a whole lot of free time to blog lately.

Just a quick post to show off our new GRASS logo to everyone. A special thanks to my very good friend and talented footballer himself Andres Saa for creating this for us. Please buy Andres a glass of Aguardienete when you bump into him.

It’s official.

Despite the construction delays mentioned below the Aztex announced last week that they will be playing their USL-1 home matches at House Park next season.

See their announcement here.

Although the pitch at House is narrow and the surface artificial most everyone is very pleased with this move. The stands at House are almost TOO close to the pitch, which should lead to a much improved atmosphere for all provided the players can avoid colliding with the concrete walls that will be mere inches out of touch. In addition there is a possibility that we might sell out a match or two. Numerous bus routes nearby means that paying to park is now an option. And several drinking establishments close by should enhance the pre-game experience....

At the same time we got a second bit of good news from the team -- ticket prices will be reduced for 2010 as well. Next season single-game tickets will be $15 for adults and $12 for kids ages 5-12.

Kudos to the Aztex for making this happen. House Park is a great home for the team until we’re ready with the new stadium....

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A quick visit to House Park the other day confirms that demolition of the existing House Park locker rooms has not begun.



According to the city’s developmental review website the developer’s latest site plan has been rejected because of errors in calculating the new impervious cover figure and a couple of mistakes on a map having to do with labeling the zoning and use of adjacent tracts of land.

Believe it or not this piece of land is zoned SF-3 by the city -- Single Family Residence.

Let’s hope they can get this sorted out soon. I have to think that if construction isn’t started shortly it will jeopardize the Aztex move there for next season, something we all looked forward to.

Stay tuned.

Below is a site plan for proposed Aztex renovations at the AISD House Park complex, hand-drawn by a highly placed member of the Aztex organization who wishes to remain anonymous.

It is obvious that this promises to be a state of the art facility. Check out those luxury boxes! (Or is that a flagpole?) Whatever....






Okay seriously it doesn’t look like they’ve started work on the new locker room facility at House Park yet. WIll post photos of progress (or lack thereof) in the next few days....

The Daily Texan has published a column today about GRASS and asked the University to look at making Mike Myers the new home to the Aztex.

Daily Texan

I posted a comment to their site but for whatever reason it has not appeared (yet). Maybe they have some rules in place about posting links to other sites in their comments. Below is what I wrote in response:


Joshua --

As one of the organizers of GRASS I would like to thank you for your column. Although I don't speak for the Aztex I agree with you that if a mutually beneficial arrangement could be worked out a stronger partnership between the team and UT would be a good thing.

But I would also like to highlight a few points about our initiative:

1. GRASS is not advocating that the City of Austin pay for a new stadium. Just that they consider getting behind the idea and help bring the right parties to the table.

2. While a stadium like Rio Tinto in Salt Lake City cost $115 million there have been others -- Saputo Stadium in Montreal, for example -- built for far less money. Saputo Stadium was completed last year, is approximately the same size as we envision, and cost approximately $15 million.

3. Although the core group of GRASS supporters are Aztex or soccer fans, the other goal of bringing a new stadium to Austin would be to create a new outdoor music space. The Aztex would only use a stadium for home games roughly 20 nights per year. But having a larger outdoor space for music and festivals that was centrally located would be a tremendous asset and alleviate some of the problems associated with having big events at places like Auditorium Shores and Zilker Park.

I would personally love to see the Aztex playing at Mike Myers if the University could accommodate their schedule around the Women's team and track events. I hope they can work something out. The upcoming Copa Aztex at Myers is evidence that both parties are willing to work together. But Austin has grown and continues to grow and -- as has happened in other cities of our size across the country -- we believe there is a need for an outdoor music and sports venue that is not owned or controlled by either the local school district or University.


Ed Easton
GRASS Organizer (http://www.austinstadium.org)
Master's Student
LBJ School of Public Affairs

Last week the Austin City Council voted 6-0 to grant a floodplain variance and allow the construction of a new Field House at AISD’s House Park location to move forward. This means that the existing Field House will be demolished and construction of a new 3,120 square foot locker room facility started on the north side of the property. Although the new artificial pitch was laid down months ago the rest of the project was at a standstill until the variance was in place.

Although many new flood controls are in place now, Shoal Creek and the area around House Park have historically been the scene of several tragic flash floods. One of the very worst happened in 1981 and has become known as the Memorial Day Flood.

Construction should be complete in plenty of time for the Aztex to complete their move to House Park for the 2010 USL-1 season.

How about building a stadium and solidifying Austin’s Green City credentials at the same time?

Check out this article from the Guardian (UK) about a stadium in Taiwan that was built with environmental considerations and not only powers itself but puts power back into the grid on non-game days.





Taiwan recently finished construction on an incredible solar-powered stadium that will generate 100% of its electricity from photovoltaic technology! Designed by Toyo Ito, the dragon-shaped 50,000 seat arena is clad in 8,844 solar panels that illuminate the track and field with 3,300 lux. The project will officially open later this year to welcome the 2009 World Games.

Building a new stadium is always a massive undertaking that requires millions of dollars, substantial physical labor, and a vast amount of electricity to keep it operating. Toyo Ito's design negates this energy drain with a stunning 14,155 sq meter solar roof that is able to provide enough energy to power the stadium's 3,300 lights and two jumbo vision screens. To illustrate the incredible power of this system, officials ran a test this January and found that it took just six minutes to power up the stadium's entire lighting system!

The stadium also integrates additional green features such as permeable paving and the extensive use of reusable, domestically made materials. Built upon a clear area of approximately 19 hectares, nearly 7 hectares has been reserved for the development of integrated public green spaces, bike paths, sports parks, and an ecological pond. Additionally, all of the plants occupying the area before construction were transplanted.

Non-sports fans in the community have a lot to jump up and down for as well. Not only does the solar system provide electricity during the games, but the surplus energy will also be sold during the non-game period. On days where the stadium is not being used, the Taiwanese government plans to feed the extra energy into the local grid, where it will meet almost 80% of the neighboring area's energy requirements. Overall, the stadium will generate 1.14 million KWh per year, preventing the release of 660 tons of carbon dioxide into atmosphere annually.