A glimpse into football game days

As UTRGV gets closer to the proposed 2025 inaugural season for the NCAA Division 1 football program, Sams Memorial Stadium and H-E-B Park are prospective stadiums the team will play in, university officials say.

In a referendum last November, the UTRGV student body approved increasing the Athletics Fee by $11.25 per credit hour, capped at 12 hours, to establish a football program, women’s swimming and diving teams, two marching bands and two spirit programs. The increase will take effect in Fall 2022. Currently, the fee is $15 per credit hour. With the rate increase, it will total $26.25 per credit hour.

The next step is getting approval by the University of Texas System Board of Regents.

Chasse Conque, UTRGV vice president and director of Athletics, told The Rider that he feels optimistic about what the board will decide.

“At the same time, really proud of what we’re going to be able to share with the regents, with the really strong showing of students that voted in a referendum,” Conque said. “… I feel like we’ve done our part as an institution and that’s not just on the administrative side but about the students.”

He said the proposed starts for swimming and diving in 2024 and football in 2025 may seem a long time from now, but there is a lot of work to be done before then.

Anticipating the football program to kick off for the 2025 season, Conque said the plan is to build a practice field and locker rooms by 2024, not just for football players to use but those from other sports as well.

A proposed location for these new facilities would be north of the UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

“So, one scenario is placing that practice field, practice facility, north of the baseball stadium,” he said. “That seems to be a good location for us to look at and it keeps our athletics footprint fairly tight, right? We’ve got baseball there. And so, putting it near that would make a lot of sense.”

Since UTRGV will compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS),  as opposed to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), it will not be required to build a separate football stadium.

H-E-B Park in Edinburg and Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville are the stadiums that are being discussed as possible home-game sites for the football program.

H-E-B Park seats about 9,700 people, according to the park’s Facebook page. It is also home to the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros of the USL, the second level of the U.S./Canadian professional soccer pyramid. The park also hosts various concerts and events, such as Fiesta Edinburg, which will take place later this month.

Conque said the university is only in preliminary discussions with H-E-B Park, but that one does not have to think too hard to imagine what it would look like if it were a Division 1 college football stadium.

“It’s a beautiful facility,” he said. “It’s one of the crown jewels of sports facilities in the entire region. … It has premium seating options and press box capabilities … locker room situations that can accommodate a college football game.”

H-E-B Park has a full-service restaurant, executive lounges, a sports bar and 33 suites. The park also includes soccer practice fields, various bench areas, picnic tables, a playground and an amphitheater with a capacity for

over 2,000 individuals.

Conque said all of these things could give UTRGV a great Saturday home game feel.

Leading up to the referendum vote, the university promised to have at least one home game in Cameron County to accommodate students based on the Brownsville campus.

Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville is a possible site in which the football program would play

future home games. The stadium, built in 1952, holds a capacity of 10,300 people, according to Texasbob.com.  The stadium is home to all six Brownsville Independent School District high school varsity football teams.

“It’s a neat stadium, and it’s going to provide us, of course, an opportunity to be in Cameron County, as we talked about rallying the Valley,” Conque said. “That was important to us, playing in two locations.”

Gilbert Leal, BISD athletic director, told The Rider that Sams Memorial Stadium holds a lot of rich history and has the ability to host UTRGV football games.

“We’re actually right in the middle of a face-lift here at Sams Stadium,” Leal said. “We’re improving the parking on the south side of the stadium, new concessions, restrooms and a new parking lot just south of the stadium.”

These renovations to Sams Stadium are projected to be completed by December 2022, according to Leal.

The athletic director said it is one of the few “old-school” concrete-based stadiums left in the Valley and the people of Brownsville are very proud of the facility.

In 2018, the school district added a $1.4 million, 65-foot scoreboard to the stadium, making it one of the largest scoreboards in the Valley.

Leal, who coached football for 25 years before taking his current position in 2018 and played quarterback at the University of Texas at El Paso from 1988 to 1990, said bringing a Division 1 football program to the Valley, and especially Brownsville, will have an immediate impact.

“It’s going to be able to provide, instantly, a home base for UTRGV to be able to create a, you know, a dedicated fan base,” Leal said. “The second thing is it allows our Brownsville student athletes … for the first time, really, Valleywide … gives an opportunity for these student athletes to be able to see firsthand how big and how fast and how technical Division 1 college football is.”

The athletic director said with many student athletes having travel restraints, they will be able to watch firsthand some of the best athletes the Western Athletic Conference has to offer. 

Leal said with BISD and UTRGV working closely already in academics, the school district wants it to be the same for athletics.

“We don’t want them to think that, you know, that they’re just a visitor here,” he said. “We want them to feel comfortable and know that ‘Hey, anytime that you have a football game available, that the stadium will always be available for them.’”

With both of these stadiums only in preliminary talks to host UTRGV football games, Conque said the Intercollegiate Athletics department is waiting for the UT System Board of Regents approval for those discussions to substantially pick up.

“We haven’t gotten to that point, yet,” he said. “… We’re really waiting for that board approval and we don’t want to put the cart before the horse.”