{"id":401786,"date":"2026-08-09T10:43:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T10:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/401786\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T10:43:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T10:43:02","slug":"san-antonio-fc-offers-free-tickets-considers-major-league-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/401786\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio FC offers free tickets, considers major league future"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 60 million people in the United States tuned in to watch the FIFA World Cup Final<\/a> last month as one of the biggest sporting events in the world played out across North America.<\/p>\n

San Antonio FC is betting that some of those millions \u2014 whether they\u2019re old fans or new soccer fans \u2014 will be interested in watching professional soccer in San Antonio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This month, San Antonio FC is running a free ticket promotion, inviting fans to come see their first game at Toyota Field. The marketing effort comes as the team mulls its future in a changing U.S. soccer landscape.<\/p>\n

In 2028, the United Soccer League, or USL, is launching a new, higher-level professional league. The new division, called USL Premier, would be at the same level as Major League Soccer, currently the United States\u2019 top professional league.<\/p>\n

San Antonio FC currently plays in the USL Championship, a division of soccer teams below the MLS. The team is seeking back-to-back playoff appearances this season and won the USL Championship title in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve really worked at becoming one of the top, if not the top, division two team in this country. So it\u2019s something we\u2019re looking at,\u201d said Jose Lizardo, operations director at Toyota Field.<\/p>\n

Free tickets in August<\/p>\n

Lizardo said the team is letting fans who have never attended a game come to its USL Cup game against Miami FC<\/a>, the quarterfinals of an in-season tournament similar to the NBA Cup, on Aug. 12 or its regular season game against Oakland Roots SC<\/a> on Aug. 22. Tickets for these games range from $18 to $77.<\/p>\n

Lizardo said interested fans can fill out a form on the team\u2019s website<\/a>. Then, sales representatives from San Antonio FC will reach out with the ticket.<\/p>\n

The team timed its promotion to capture some of the energy and interest in the World Cup, Lizardo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of new eyes on soccer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe sat down and said when is the best time and it was after the World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

San Antonio FC is betting that fans who go to one game will come back, he added.<\/p>\n

A premier opportunity?<\/p>\n

In February 2025, USL announced its plan to launch a new, higher-level soccer league called USL Premier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USL has operated as a series of lower divisions or minor leagues for soccer in the U.S. since 2000. That is headlined by the USL Championship<\/a>, a 25-team league San Antonio FC plays in, and the 17-team USL League One<\/a> a step below. USL League 2<\/a>, with 158 teams, is the lowest tier.<\/p>\n

All of those USL leagues are currently ranked below Major League Soccer (MLS) by the U.S. Soccer Federation. MLS teams like FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo or Inter Miami, where global sports icon Lionel Messi plays, have bigger budgets, larger stadiums and tend to attract better players.<\/p>\n

But USL Premier<\/a> will soon have the same status as the MLS in the eyes of the U.S. Soccer Federation. At least three teams have already applied for USL Premier or announced intentions to apply \u2014 Louisville City FC<\/a>, Pittsburgh Riverhounds<\/a> and North Carolina FC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lizardo said San Antonio FC is considering its options.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique, very interesting opportunity that USL is working on for us. You know, we\u2019re looking at it in detail to make sure that it\u2019s something that makes sense for our club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Moving up a rung comes with new requirements. Lizardo said USL Premier could require increased expenditures and facility upgrades \u2014 U.S. Soccer requires teams in the top division to have stadiums with a capacity of 15,000. Toyota Field fits less than 9,000 attendees for soccer games.<\/p>\n

\"AA member of the press overlooks Toyota Field in January 2016. Credit: Scott Ball \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

There are also opportunities for increased revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur entire leadership is looking at everything \u2014 how that would affect the on field situation, any upgrades that may be needed to this facility,\u201d Lizardo said. \u201cThen we\u2019re looking at what the league is providing the teams, whether there is a TV deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time in the last decade that an opportunity for top-tier soccer has come to San Antonio. Spurs Sports and Entertainment collaborated with the City of San Antonio and Bexar County to try and bring an MLS team to the area starting in 2015.<\/p>\n

That bid failed. Austin ultimately landed an MLS franchise and the Spurs owners recently promised to pay $2.5 million<\/a> to upgrade the city- and county-owned Toyota Field as compensation for the failure.<\/p>\n

But San Antonio FC, which Spurs Sports and Entertainment started in 2015 to coincide with its MLS bid, has been successful over the past decade. The team has also established San Antonio FC 2, a developmental team that plays in the USL League Two.<\/p>\n

If San Antonio FC decides not to pursue the USL Premier opportunity, the door to top division soccer isn\u2019t closed. <\/p>\n

The USL\u2019s new system will mirror major European soccer leagues with a promotion and relegation system. The teams that do the worst each year in the USL Premier will drop down to a lower league, while the most successful teams in those lower leagues would be able to climb up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 60 million people in the United States tuned in to watch the FIFA World Cup Final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4805,20604,82,43043,84,83,731,45622,92,39610,3028,73649,140898,137427,94],"class_list":["post-401786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-icymi","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-fc","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-soccer","tag-spurs-sports-and-entertainment","tag-top-story","tag-toyota-field","tag-typedaily","tag-usl","tag-usl-championship-san-antonio","tag-usl-premier","tag-wc-750-1000"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}