BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Imagine watching live college football one weekend and a professional soccer game the next at the Brownsville Sports Complex.
The first sporting event is already here as the UTRGV Vaqueros are now playing their first season.
But a locally-based pro soccer game is on the horizon if everything goes as planned.
The City of Brownsville and Tampa-FL-based United Soccer League have signed a letter of intent to explore all the ups and downs to have a franchise in town.
And to let everybody know about it, the two entities met on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the BSC to state their intentions.
Although the idea has been the result of a year-long exploration it will take another year or more to make an announcement whether the city can sustain such a project.
“We don’t know if this is going to put a burden on the taxpayers,” Tino Villarreal, a city commissioner at large, said prior to the meeting. “The agreement is there and we have plenty of areas to hold soccer games.”
Bringing a USL franchise is costly enterprise that runs into the millions of dollars.
Dan Holman, the league chief operating officer, said he was pleased to be here and to announce the partnership to explore the possibility of bringing a franchise.
He said there is a lot of excitement with soccer in light of the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
“ULS is a community driven league,” Holman he said in a brief interview. “Brownsville meets the league objective.”
However, he said bringing a franchise is a long a process that takes a lot of planning.
The financial aspect is another matter.
Holman said a franchise costs about $10 million for a League One team, which is where Brownsville would belong.
The initial franchise fee is $5 million today, compared to $2 million a couple of years ago.
The other fees are in player salaries, stadium leases and year-around staff.
With that said, the idea of bringing a USL franchise is kicking in a lot of enthusiasm among city leaders.
Mayor John Cowen, Villarreal, District 3 Commissioner Gustavo De Leon and City Manager Helen Ramirez said soccer is the pride and joy of Brownsville.
“Brownsville deserves this,” De Leon said. “What is excites me is to see the energy this city has. Our youths are the future of Brownsville. Soccer is our culture, our identity.”
Cowen said they are in the early phase of the negotiations and he added it would take about a year before they announce some sort of agreement, if any.
