The WPHL, in conjunction with the Int'l Coliseums Co.
(ICC), announced an agreement with TX-based digital wireless
service company SOL Communications for naming rights to a
new facility to be built in Hidalgo, TX, in the Rio Grande
Valley. The facility will be called SOL Communications
Coliseum and is scheduled to open with an expansion WPHL
franchise as the primary tenant, in October 2001. The
Coliseum will be the first facility constructed under the
direction of ICC, formed jointly by the WPHL and Phoenix-
based Nu-Stadia USA to supplement the growth and development
of the league (WPHL). The sponsorship for the facility will
cover ten years and has "a projected price tag ranging from"
$20-25M, "depending on the number of seats." Seating
capacity will be anywhere between 5,500 and 7,500, and
construction of the facility is set to start this summer.
The Coliseum will hold 22 skyboxes. WPHL officials
announced in March that the expansion team will be named for
the Rio Grande Valley and a nickname will be chosen by a
public vote in the future (McAllen (TX) MONITOR, 4/27).
