new el paso stadium proposed for new soccer team

A move to build a new soccer stadium in El Paso has taken a significant step forward with the announcement that a professional soccer team will start playing in the city next year.

The El Paso-based Mountainstar Sports Group, which owns the El Paso Chihuahuas baseball team, says it has secured a franchise as part of the growing United Soccer League’s expansion campaign.

Initial plans call for the new team, which doesn’t yet have a name, to play in the downtown Southwest University Park stadium at 1 Ball Park Plaza.

But partly because the USL has set up a deadline of 2020 for all of its teams to be playing in their own stadiums, Mountainstar wants to see a new stadium built either in or near El Paso’s downtown.

Earlier reports indicated that that stadium would have a seating capacity of up to 10,000.

Mountainstar is now in talks with officials from both the city as well as El Paso County concerning the possibility of forming a partnership to make the new stadium a reality.

By Garry Boulard