Loubriel Stadium : baseball out, soccer in

[Bxl Boy]

Gustavo Schödlbauer, team director for the new Puerto Rico Islanders soccer club, announced today that the remodeling and reconstruction process in the Juan Ramón Loubriel Municipal Stadium in Bayamón is transpiring without incident, which puts them right on schedule to complete the tasks with time to spare for the beginning of the A-League season.

The Juan Ramón Loubriel Municipal Stadium in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, will be the venue that the Puerto Rico Islanders will call home during their 14-game home schedule when they debut in the A-League of the United Soccer League as one of two expansion teams. The other expansion team is the Edmonton Aviators.

"Everything related to baseball has been removed from the Loubriel Stadium (the stadium used to be the home to one of the baseball teams of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League) to make way for a ground leveling crew, who brought the facility up to the rigorous specifications demanded by FIFA, since in baseball, ground elevation varies," said Schödlbauer.

Schödlbauer also added that the field has been sown with grass seeds, and that they should start growing within the next two weeks, with the field being ready for use In between 9 to 10 weeks.

"The first blades of grass should be above ground in about two weeks, and we should have almost complete coverage by the fourth week. Finally, in about six or eight weeks we should have the entire field covered in grass, which would allow us to use the facility to practice," commented Schödlbauer.

The Mayor of Bayamón, Honorable Ramón Luis Rivera, Jr., who attended the final day of the Islanders' open try-outs in Salinas, also said that, besides completing the ground leveling portion of the remodeling process and sowing the new grass field, workers have also started work on remodeling existing facilities for use by the Islanders.

"The Puerto Rico Islanders soccer club will have complete and unconditional support from my office in order to make their debut season in the USL a successful one. Besides receiving the facilities contained within the Loubriel Municipal Stadium, the Islanders will also receive help in terms of logistics, as well as an economic incentive," said Rivera.

Also, Rivera stated that Bayamón will be reconstructing their youth soccer leagues with the help of the Islanders, where the team's players will be able to instruct a new generation of soccer fans.

"The grounds in Loubriel Stadium will be divided in half: one half will contain a full, FIFA-regulation soccer field, while the other half will contain three mini-goal posts where kids and their families will be able to play, as well as other amenities for the fans. Our goal is to provide families with a complete entertainment solution," added the Mayor of Bayamón.

The Puerto Rico Islanders debut in the A-League on April 17 when they host the Toronto Lynx at the Juan Ramón Loubriel Municipal Stadium. This will be the first of 14 games to be played at Loubriel Stadium, with the remaining 14 away games to be played in the United States and Canada.