El Paso County jumps on board plans for outdoor soccer stadium
EL PASO, Texas — El Paso County judge Veronica Escobar said she supports MountainStar Sports Group's efforts to bring a United Soccer League stadium to downtown El Paso.
"It adds to downtown revitalization," Escobar said. "It creates a synergy that helps bring more people downtown and hopefully gets more people living downtown and increases the private investment as well."
Escobar said before anything can happen, the public would need to give its input.
"There needs to be plenty of public involvement so people can get behind it and support it and feel ownership of it from the get-go," she said.
MountainStar Sports group owns the El Paso Chihuahuas. It's CEO Josh Hunt told CBS4 he would like the stadium to "cap the freeway," or sit above Interstate 10.
In the fall, a few miles down the freeway, indoor soccer will take off at the County Coliseum. The El Paso Sports Commission said the Coyotes' crowd would be about half the size of that of the United Soccer League's crowd. The outdoor stadium would fit about 7,500 fans.
Escobar does not think the two spots will be in competition.
"The soccer arena would be outdoor and the Coliseum is indoor soccer," she explained. "It's kind of a different animal than what MountainStar is looking to."
The county's contract with the Coliseum expires in 2021. Escobar said she isn't sure what would happen to indoor soccer.
"I don't know. It's too soon. This is all so hypothetical still," she said. "It's still more in the conceptual phase that it's hard for me to say what would or could happen."
Hunt said outdoor games could begin in 2018. It's unknown how the stadium would be funded.
