The Hangar, officially known as Lancaster Municipal Stadium and formerly known as Clear Channel Stadium, is a

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 completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Lancaster, California Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the popul ...

, United States. From its opening in 1996 to 2020, the stadium was the home field of the

Lancaster JetHawks The Lancaster JetHawks were a baseball team located in Lancaster, California. They were named for the city's association with the aerospace industry and played their home games at The Hangar. From 1996 to 2020, they were members of Minor League B ...

, a now-defunct minor league baseball team of the Advanced A California League. In 2005,

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

entered into a 10-year, $770,000 naming rights deal with the JetHawks and the City of Lancaster, who divided the revenue between them. The deal was planned to run through the 2014 season, but Clear Channel Stadium signage was removed in 2012. The stadium was then renamed The Hangar, its nickname since the stadium opened in 1996, as well as Lancaster Municipal Stadium. The Hangar is located near State Route 14 west of downtown Lancaster. The Lancaster Sound Breakers of the

Pecos League The Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs is an independent professional baseball league headquartered in Houston, which operates in cities in desert mountain regions throughout California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, ...

played their 2023 season at the Hangar. Lancaster Municipal Stadium has been reconfigured into a

soccer-specific stadium A soccer-specific stadium, mainly in the United States and Canada, is a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-purpose stadium whic ...

for

USL League One USL League One (USL1) is a professional men's association football, soccer league in the United States that had its inaugural season in 2019 USL League One season, 2019. The United States soccer league system, Division III league is operated ...

AV Alta FC AV Alta Football Club, commonly referred to as AV Alta FC or Alta, is an American professional soccer team based in Lancaster, California. First announced in 2023, the team plays in the USL League One since 2025. Their home field is Lancaster M ...

from 2025 onward.

Features

Because of the area's aerospace legacy, the stadium has a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

F/A-18 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a Fighter aircraft, fighter and attack airc ...

mounted on display at the front entrance. The $14.5 million facility offers luxury skyboxes, a video message board, and an old-fashioned manual scoreboard. The stadium's

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 ...

is listed at 6,860, but can accommodate over 7,000 fans and features slightly over 4,500 permanent full chair stadium seats. Two grass berm general admission areas are available when all seats are sold out. The stadium is also used to accommodate special events such as local high school graduations, charity softball games, concerts, and the Field of Drafts (an annual brew festival by the City of Lancaster since 2013). Before the

started each new season in April, they played an exhibition game against the local

Antelope Valley College Antelope Valley College (AVC) is a Public college, public Community colleges in the United States, community college in Lancaster, California. It is part of the California Community College system. It is operated by the Antelope Valley Communi ...

Marauders baseball team. However, for the last three JetHawks seasons, they played their exhibition games against the local University of Antelope Valley Pioneers baseball team.

Conversion to a soccer-specific stadium

In 2024, the Lancaster City Council approved expenditure of over $17 million to convert the Lancaster Municipal Stadium into a 5,300-seat

. The renovations will include the addition of a 1,000-seat modular grandstand on the east side, and a 500-seat safe-standing supporters' section with a canopy, which will be occupied by supporters groups such as "The 661" (a reference to the phone area code of the Lancaster area). Other major renovations will be done to the field dimensions, existing seating, and stadium infrastructure such as LED lighting and a 16-foot wind wall. The west and south grandstands from the existing baseball configuration will be rebuilt to align with the soccer field and improve sight lines for the rest of the existing seating.

References

External links

City of LancasterLancaster JetHawks

''Ballpark Digest''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hangar Sports venues in Greater Los Angeles Minor league baseball venues Baseball venues in California Buildings and structures in Lancaster, California Sports venues in Los Angeles County, California 1996 establishments in California Sports venues completed in 1996