Alamo Stadium is a horseshoe-shaped

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in the

Monte Vista Historic District The Monte Vista Historic District is an affluent neighborhood of about 3,000 people located in Midtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. The district stretches from the southern area near San Antonio College (Ashby Place) to its most northern point along ...

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. Nicknamed "The Rock Pile" due to its primarily limestone construction it was completed in September 1940 as a

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

project. The stadium is currently owned and operated by the

San Antonio Independent School District San Antonio Independent School District is a school district based in San Antonio, Texas, United States. San Antonio ISD ranks is the 13th largest of Texas' 1,057 school districts. The District encompasses 79 square miles with a total population ...

as a high school football and soccer facility. It has a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 18,500, making it the 3rd largest high school stadium in the state of Texas. Soccer club Corinthians FC of San Antonio were tenants.

History

Early years

Initially proposed by SAISD trustees in May 1939, the stadium was constructed on the site of an abandoned rock quarry at a total cost of just under $500,000. The majority of funding was provided by the federal Works Progress Administration (project 65-1-66-30), with approximately $110,000 coming from district revenue bonds. 24,000 people were in attendance for the stadium's opening celebration, a high school football doubleheader. Corpus Christi defeated Jefferson in the first game 14-0. Brackenridge defeated (Houston) Reagan 19-2 in the second.

Modern day

The stadium is currently used by the high schools of the SAISD, including Brackenridge, Burbank, Edison, Fox Tech, Highlands, Sam Houston, Jefferson, and Lanier High Schools for mainly high school football games. It is also home to track meets hosted by SAISD, also home to the Region IV-4A & Region IV-5A track meets which occur in late April or early May. The Battle of the Bands is held there annually during Fiesta. The site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on September 8, 2011.

Future

In November 2010, San Antonio voters approved a $515 million bond which included $35 million for renovation of the stadium. Proposed updates include new bathrooms, plumbing, seating and repairs. Visitors in 2017 noticed improvements but questioned whether the noticeable improvements tallied $35M in value. A lack of adequate parking (particularly noticeable on the East side of the stadium) has been a recurring complaint, with no real options to expand given the surrounding area. In January 2011,

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Division ( ...

owner SS&E expressed an interest in bringing a professional soccer team to San Antonio, possibly playing in Alamo Stadium.

Stadium usage

High School football

The stadium has been home to numerous high school games, including the Chili Bowl, an annual football game between Fox Tech and Lanier High schools. It regularly sold out, and was consistently one of the highest attended regular season football games in Texas, averaging about 23,000 spectators. After the 2009 season, the Fox Tech football team was disbanded, ending the series. In 2002, the stadium hosted the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.Army's All-American Bowl has become a highly anticipated sports event in San Antonio
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College football

Alamo Stadium has also hosted college football games. When the stadium opened in 1940, two college football games were held at the newly constructed stadium,

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

's defeat of

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

, 41–6, on October 5, and Baylor's defeat of Villanova, 7–0, two weeks later, on October 19. The stadium was host to the

Texas A&M–Texas Tech football rivalry The Texas A&M–Texas Tech football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Texas A&M Aggies football team of Texas A&M University and Texas Tech Red Raiders football team of Texas Tech University. The series began in 1927 ...

for eight consecutive games from 1943 through 1950. It was also the home of the first bowl game held in San Antonio, the 1947 Alamo Bowl between Hardin–Simmons and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The game was a financial failure and a postseason bowl game would not return to San Antonio until the modern incarnation of the

Alamo Bowl The Alamo Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and the secon ...

that began in 1993 and has since been held at the

Alamodome The Alamodome is a 64,000-seat domed indoor multi-purpose stadium in San Antonio, Texas. It is located on the southeastern fringe of downtown San Antonio. The facility opened on May 15, 1993, having been constructed at a cost of $186 milli ...

St. Mary’s Rattlers

For the 1940 and 1941 college football seasons, the St. Mary's Rattlers played their home games at Alamo Stadium. Their first game at the stadium was a 51-0 win against

Daniel Baker College Daniel Baker College was founded April 5, 1889 in Brownwood, Texas, United States. It was named in memory of the Rev. Dr. Daniel Baker, a Presbyterian circuit-riding minister, who helped organize the first presbytery in Texas in 1840 and Austin ...

. The Rattlers final college football game was a 7-0 loss to Mississippi Southern.

Professional football

The stadium has been home to several professional football teams, including the

San Antonio Wings The San Antonio Wings were an American football team who played in the World Football League in 1975. The team started as the Florida Blazers in 1974, then moved to San Antonio in 1975 and became the San Antonio Wings. History The Florida Blazers ...

of the WFL in 1975, the

San Antonio Gunslingers The San Antonio Gunslingers were a professional American football team based in San Antonio, Texas, that played in the United States Football League (USFL) in 1984 and 1985. Owned by oil magnate Clinton Manges, the team played its home games in ...

of the

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

from 1984 to 1985, the

San Antonio Riders The San Antonio Riders were a professional American football team that played in the WLAF in 1991 and 1992. The team played at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio in 1991 and then were forced to move to Bobcat Stadium on the campus of Southwest Texas S ...

of the WLAF in 1991, and the

San Antonio Matadors The San Antonio Matadors were a professional football team that played in the Spring Football League (SFL) in 2000. The Matadors were undefeated before the league decided to cease operations. The Matadors were named co-SFL Champions along with t ...

of the

Spring Football League The Spring Football League (SFL) was a short lived professional american football minor league that existed for only one season in 2000. Spring football Founded by several ex-NFL players such as Eric Dickerson, Drew Pearson, Bo Jackson, an ...

in 2000.

Soccer

Alamo Stadium was the home of the

San Antonio Thunder The San Antonio Thunder were an American soccer team based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1975 as a member of the North American Soccer League, the team played two seasons in San Antonio before the franchise rights were moved to Hawaii. The t ...

for 1976, their second of only two years in the city. The team was a member of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

and moved to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

for the 1977 season.

References

External links

USFL stadium reference page

St. Mary's Athletics Timeline
{{Tulsa Roughnecks College football venues National Register of Historic Places in San Antonio National Premier Soccer League stadiums North American Soccer League (1968–1984) stadiums San Antonio Gunslingers stadiums San Antonio Thunder Sports venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas St. Mary's Rattlers football Tulsa Roughnecks sports facilities Trinity Tigers football United States Football League venues World Football League venues Works Progress Administration in Texas Athletics (track and field) venues in Texas High school football venues in Texas Soccer venues in Texas Sports venues in San Antonio 1940 establishments in Texas Sports venues completed in 1940