In just under three months the San Antonio Scorpions will have a new home, and to signal the nearing of completion, a topping out ceremony was held for what will become Toyota Field.
Construction on the future home of the Scorpion’s started in late August. Since then the seats are up and the turf for the field is only few weeks from being set as crews level the ground. The vision of the stadium was that of Gordon Hartman, the founder of Soccer for a Cause and Morgan’s Wonderland, who said it’s about 80 percent complete.
“We’ve got to close in the walls which you’re starting to see happen right now,” Hartman said on what still needs to be finished. “We are holding some things off such as the seating in certain areas because we want to preserve it to the end. We need to close up, we need to start an enormous amount of flat work that needs to occur, and of course, the field needs to be built.”
"This we can call home – you know, our home stadium," said Scorpion's forward Hans Dennison of the new facility. "It’s a great feeling and it’s something that a player and a team in every division should have."
The 8,000 seat stadium needs to be ready by April 13, which is the first home game of the 2013 season and will be against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Attendance at North East ISD’s Heroes’ stadium, where the team played last year, has been consistently high, and the team already has plans to expand seating at the new stadium in the years to come.
As they wait for the completion of a new stadium, head Coach Tim Hankinson said the team is busy looking for new players.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time in Eastern Europe having conversations. A lot of the clubs financially are having difficulty and some very, very talented guys who have great experience can look at league like ours, and coming to America is a great opportunity,” Hankinson said.
A tree was placed on the stadium as a part of a topping out ceremony. It will remain there throughout the rest of the building and be planted near the stadium.
- Find out more about the team online at: www.sanantonioscorpions.com
