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EDINBURG — UTRGV football finally has a place to call home.
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley held a news conference Wednesday announcing its acquisition of H-E-B Park in Edinburg, which is now named UTRGV Stadium and will serve as the primary home field of UTRGV football.
The Vaqueros will also play one home game each season at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.
UTRGV Vice President and Athletic Director Chasse Conque, UTRGV President Guy Bailey, Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza Jr. and UTRGV head football coach Travis Bush made it official right outside the main entrance of what is now UTRGV Stadium, the site where the Vaqueros will kick off Division I football in the Rio Grande Valley on Aug. 30, 2025.
“Today is a huge piece of the puzzle for our football program. It’s been a multi-million dollar question of where we’re going to play,” Conque said. “We know we are going to play one game a year at Sams Stadium in Brownsville, and we know that this beautiful stadium here is going to be our primary home for home games in the Upper Valley. We’re blessed, we’re grateful, and certainly very excited.”
UTRGV Stadium has a capacity of nearly 9,800. The UTRGV Stadium complex also features 20 acres of festival grounds, a 43-foot-by 24-foot LED video board, an amphitheater with seating for up to 2,500 people, 30 luxury suites and eight patio suites.
“UTRGV Stadium gives both our community and football program immediate access to a premier facility, while also providing additional possibilities for our university,” Bailey said. “Its location off Expressway 281 also ensures convenient access for our fans, as well as visitors who make their way into the Valley for games.”
Formerly known as H-E-B Park, the stadium originally opened in March 2017 and was the home of the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros of the United Soccer League Championship until December 2023, when the organization ceased operations.
“Now, with the acquisition of the stadium, it’s going to have over a $100 million economic impact for the city. It’s really a game-changer for us,” Garza said. “It’s going to help us bring possibly new development opportunities, but more importantly for us, it will help improve the quality of life here for our city.”
UTRGV used H-E-B Park as the site of Coach Bush’s introductory news conference in December 2022, but the path to UTRGV officially acquiring the stadium has been in the works since then. Bush said he’s excited to let the Vaqueros’ 2024-25 signees know they’ll make history at UTRGV Stadium.
“Since December of ‘22 in our first press conference in this stadium, we’ve visualized gameday thousands of times by now and it’s a beautiful sight,” Bush said. “It’s truly the perfect environment for college football, not just here in the Rio Grande Valley, but anywhere in the nation, and we wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. I know who the most excited people are going to be are those 75 dudes that are going to be making history here Aug. 30. … We talked about this a little bit, but we never told them this was going to be our final home, but for us, it’s the final piece.”
UTRGV has already collected more than 2,800 season ticket deposits for the 2025 season. Season ticket deposits for UTRGV football’s inaugural season are currently being accepted for $25 per ticket at GoUTRGV.com/Tickets.
“This has been the goal since day one, and it’s the final piece of the puzzle for UTRGV football,” Bush said. “This stadium adds to our facilities that are under construction as being the best in our conference and on top of FCS football, which will only help us continue to recruit top talent to UTRGV. It will be the perfect college football environment for the Rio Grande Valley, and we can’t wait to see it packed with fans wearing orange.”
