San Antonio City Council approves UTSA Football Alamodome contract

[UTSABA06]

I can hardly wait to tailgate outside The Dome with all the UTSA fans! How do you all think this will affect downtown?

SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio City Council approved Thursday a contract allowing UTSA to play its home football games in the Alamodome during its first five seasons.

The contract ensures the Roadrunners will host contests in the 65,000-seat facility beginning with its inaugural season in 2011 and extending through 2015. The contract also includes a provision for two one-year renewal options.

“We are extremely pleased to be playing our home games in one of the best football stadiums in the country,” UTSA Director of Athletics Lynn Hickey said. “Our contract with the City is a true partnership in bringing big time college football to our community.”

Mayor Julian Castro and members of the City Council joined Hickey in praising the partnership to bring a permanent football tenant to the Alamodome.

“This is a fair and strong agreement for both the City and UTSA, Mayor Castro told the San Antonio Express-News on Wednesday. "It will bring football to the Alamodome and make a great difference in enlivening downtown."

Under the contract, UTSA will receive revenue primarily from tickets, merchandise, sponsorships and program sales. The City will be reimbursed for its expenses and will retain all concession and parking revenue.

UTSA will receive all revenue from 40 of the Alamodome’s 52 suites and the City and UTSA will split revenue from 10 suites and the City will retain two suites for internal use.

UTSA will host six games in 2011 [Northeastern State (Sept. 3), McMurry (Sept. 10), Bacone College (Sept. 24), South Alabama (Oct. 8), Georgia State (Oct. 29) and Minot State (Nov. 19)]. For a complete list of future games scheduled, click here.

Fans may purchase season tickets by calling the UTSA Ticket Office at 210/458-UTSA (8872) or by visiting goUTSA.com.

[oldmanshirt]

Glad that the games won't be played out in the burbs and that 25,000+ college kids will get a regular diet of downtown

[kornbread]

It should be positive. The dome will be used.

How much this will impact downtown depends probably more on how well alumni support the team. It should help Sunset Station for sure.

[miaht82]

Positive that the dome is being used, especially for football. So now the Dome has the Roadrunners there 6X, the AlamoBowl, the Army All-American Bowl, and now the NFLPA will play the college football all-star game there too. With all of that and the HS FB playoffs, the Dome will probably have the turf out more next year than it has in the last 10.
It should be good for DT; the visiting team has to stay & eat somewhere and I'm sure some people will wander around before/after the games to beat/avoid the traffic.

[FastFerrari82]

Its nice to see that the dome will have some regular use, but the only thing is that 42,000 of those seats in the dome will be empty.Check out Tulane games. Maybe SA will surprise me if they-SA football fans-show up in big numbers,like for HS FB/Alamobowl ect. This could show the NFL, SA's ability or lack there of, to support a team. Just please no fair weather fans!

As for Downtown, Its gonna be a win win senario. Maybe some USTA stores will pop up in the Sunset Station area, along with eateries,bars and what not. And think how UTSA will benefit from the TV exposure, and influx of money. In 5-10 years I can see the whole southeast corner of 1604 & I10 belonging to UTSA. Now in a perfect world A&Ms southside campus would open with a football team and a thus the rivalry is born!!! Hey I can dream!! By the way is A&M still planning that campus??

[jaga185]

This is awesome news!

^^^ Construction has already started on the campus :-)

[oldmanshirt]

UTSA has been accepted into the Western Athletic Conference (most notably the current home of Boise State), along with Texas State. The WAC is an FBS Div IA conference

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/U...107306274.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5792840

[FastFerrari82]

Very very good news. Watch out Longhorns!!!