Site for new downtown soccer stadium remains a mystery

There are some important questions still unanswered following Tuesday’s announcement that MountainStar Sports Group will be bringing a United Soccer League team to El Paso.

At the top of the list, where will the stadium be built?

“We haven’t had any discussion about that. That is MountainStar’s call. So they are going to have to make the decision on what they want to do with a downtown soccer stadium,” said El Paso Mayor Dee Margo.

MountainStar CEO Josh Hunt said the initial plan is for the team to play at Southwest University Park until a soccer-specific outdoor stadium can be built in or near downtown El Paso.

“MountainStar will make some improvements to the facility to make it more compatible for soccer. And as we look long term, the league has a desire for all its teams to be in soccer-specific outdoor stadiums and we will continue to work on those plans in the months and years ahead,” Hunt said.

MountainStar is the group that owns the El Paso Chihuahuas. The city of El Paso owns Southwest University Park.

Earlier this month, El Paso city council approved an updated five-year plan for capital projects at Southwest University Park. The original lease called for the city to set aside money for capital improvements. The new plan calls for about $300,000 more in funding. The city will now invest about $1.2 million during that time period. The new plans call for things such as extended safety netting, turf replacement, more concession stands and electrical upgrades.

It’s unclear if any of that money is going to be used to retrofit the stadium to accomodate soccer.

The ballpark is generating money through hotel and sales taxes, ticket revenues, rent charged to Mountain Star Sports Group and parking at the convention center during games. But it’s not enough to completely cover the debt payments. At least not yet.

City officials estimate taxpayer money will be needed for at least five or six more years to subsidize debt payments for Southwest University Park. During the past four years, the city has paid $2.2 million in general fund subsidies.

Margo said there is no negative to the soccer team coming to El Paso. When asked if he forsees taxpayers playing a role in the new soccer stadium, he answered “No, not at this point. We haven’t had any discussion related to that. This is a MountainStar Sports project. They bought the team. They are bringing the team in. We are providing as much support as we can for them.”

In September of 2017, ABC-7 learned MountainStar Sports Group approached the county and the city about the possibility of another public-private partnership. But no deal was ever made.

Hunt was asked if the MountainStar Group is still pursuing a partnership with the El Paso County or the city.

“Nothing to comment on there. I mean right now we are going to be focused on making Southwest University Park ready to play for 2019,” Hunt said.

“It’s going to be significant. It’s going to be like at the ballpark, there is almost something every night going on. So we are driving people downtown to take advantage, we get the Paso del Norte Hotel done, the Plaza Hotel, it’s a big positive all the way around,” Margo said.