Monday was a busy day for soccer in San Antonio with two significant stadium announcements made from Gordon Hartman, owner of the Scorpions NASL club and the San Antonio Independant School District.
Gordon Hartman announced the plans for the Scorpions stadium in the morning at a "State of the Scorpions" roundtable event.
The stadium, San Antonio Scorpions Community stadium will be privately funded which Hartman stated was the way this should be done, a reversal of his statements a year ago when he sought public funding for the same venue.
The stadium will be built at Wurbach Parkway and Thousand Oaks, behind Morgan's Wonderland the charity that the Scorpions will benefit, which puts it accross the road from Heroes Stadium where the Scorpions will play their 2012 season, allowing fans to see the progress throughout the season.
The stadium will include a FIFA standard field which will allow for the venue to host various events, as it also matches NCAA standards and could prove a replacement to Blossom Stadium for San Antonio's soccer events after Blossom lost the Big 12 Championships this year.
The stadium will be built in stages, with the first stage having 6,100 seats, 16 VIP boxes, a merchandise store, a beer garden and a video screen.
The second stage will improve capacity to 9,000 seats, stage three will increase capacity to 11,000 and a total of 34 VIP Suites, stage four goes to 14,000 seats and stage five will give a final capacity of 18,000.
The Scorpions also revealed five new signings, crucially signing two goalkeepers Patrick Hannigan and Daryl Sattler, forwards Luis Tiago and Hans Denissen and winger Euan Purcell.
Hannigan joins from the PDL Ocean City Nor'easters, coming back after a year out of the game, Hannigan has also played indoor soccer, playing this past season with the Rochester Lancers.
Sattler holds the record for career shutouts at Western Kentucky University, now 32, Sattler comes to the Scorpions from FC Tampa Bay after being released in the off season.
Denissen comes from Holland, where he played for second division side FC Emmen making 40 appearances between 2009 and 2011.
Tiago joins from Brazil where he played with several clubs in Brazil's Serie A, while Purcell adds to the Scorpions foreign contingent, originally from England Purcell has a prior relationship with Hankinson from Fort Collins College where he won a national championship while under Hankinson.
The Scorpions player will begin work in February as Coach Hankinson said, "Our team-building will continue with more player signings prior to the start of training camp next month."
The news for San Antonio Soccer didn't end there as the SAISD had their meeting concerning the future of Alamo Stadium.
Ahead of the meeting a third option regarding the stadium was raised, that it would be possible to extend the infield to FIFA specifications and keep the track, thus satisfying the track coaches.
The compromise suited SAISD as, with just two votes against, that was the idea adopted, the decision now gives SAISD a high quality soccer field which they were lacking.
Should these two stadiums be completed on schedule, San Antonio would have three high quality soccer stadiums with UTSA recently announcing their athletic complex will begin it's first stage shortly, which will include a track and a soccer stadium.
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