The cost of keeping dreams alive

By NINO CARDENAS
LAREDO MORNING TIMES

The lifeblood of any sports franchise comes in the form of the ticket purchaser, simply known as the fan.While the Laredo Heat's players work for free, expenses still add up across the board from stadium fees to transportation and housing.

Since the Heat's inception, Laredoan Shashi Vaswani has absorbed the financial losses in order to provide the city with his dream of converting the busiest port in the nation into a booming soccer town.

"I would be lying if I say no to giving up the dream – me and my wife do say this sometimes because it has taken a lot out of us emotionally," Vaswani said. "The financial commitment is not to be disregarded, but when you give up your time and energy, something that cannot be replaced, it takes its toll. However, we hopefully will get to a stage where things get easier and that does not look like it can come soon enough."

The process has involved sanctioning the team's youth clubs with the South Texas Youth Soccer Association in an effort to coordinate and establish a linear soccer academy to bringing in Mexican professional teams to town in exhibition matches.

For Vaswani, the Heat is both a business and a vehicle to help the sport of soccer grow into a viable option for kids around Laredo. Both phases are still churning along. and each is expected to get better as time goes by.

"The business plan is still not on track," Vaswani said. "We need to get more people involved and more people believing that we are just not another entertainment sports franchise but actually are doing something worthwhile for the community.

"Once we get the masses to recognize this, we can have their support both emotionally and financially to help bring this organization to the next level. The personal Plan is achieving success at a faster pace than anticipated. To give our youth an opportunity to excel in this sport and use it for a vehicle to get an education or a sound career is illustrated already on various fronts. Felix (Garcia), Arnoldo (Presas) and Frank Lara are examples."

All three players are and were key reasons to their respective schools capturing the District 29-5A championships, Garcia and Lara at LBJ and Presas for United.

Vaswani has fed and kept his dream alive, and in the process, he managed to put together a Premier Development League team that has had the golden touch since its inception.

The Heat advanced to the Southern Conference finals in its first year and won the Mid South Division the two following years.

After earning its first division championship in 2006, the Heat fell to the Michigan Bucks in the PDL Championships.

The next season, the Heat took that bit of knowledge and experience and faced the Michigan Bucks again, this time succeeding and bringing Laredo its first soccer championship at the amateur level.

The national exposure not only placed the Laredo Heat on the map for soccer enthusiasts, but officially made the team household name in Laredo.

Gaining as much name and brand recognition as the Laredo Bucks and fellow newcomer the Laredo Broncos, the Heat has enjoyed a steady growth in fan attendance over the years.

"Fan support has increased 30 percent and we feel that slowly but surely everybody that goes out there returns and brings in new people," Vaswani said.

The Bucks are still the undisputed king when it comes to attendance, and it's likely to stay that way, but their season comes to an end just as the Heat's begins, offering Laredoans year-round professional sports along with the Broncos.

With the fans' wallets already stretched out, both the Heat and Broncos offer affordable pricing.

Helping the Heat garner the attention of more fans was not only the quality of soccer on the field, but the sale of alcohol and a move to a more soccer-friendly stadium.

The Heat attendance escalated from an average of 542.38 fans in 2005 in their eight home game schedule to 636.25 then 736 and finally the jolt to 960.17 (two home games are remaining).

Around the Mid South Division, the Heat ia a distant third from second place El Paso with 1,289 fans per game and leader Austin at 1,357, partially because Austin and El Paso more than triple the population of Laredo.

Laredo is estimated to have over 217,000 residents, while El Paso registers over 609,000 and Austin surpasses the 709,000 mark.

With that in mind, the Heat is doing better then its bigger brethren at capturing a higher percentage of its population, but it could be better.

"I see that fan attendance has grown somewhat, but we are not satisfied with the growth," Vaswani said. "We still feel that for this size city, 2,000 fans per game is what we would be happy with. The masses of the soccer community has disappointed me the most, as vocal as they are about wanting fields, one perfect way to make a statement is attending all our games."

Laredo's highest regular season attendance. In 2005 when the Heat played the Austin Lightning in the final season game there were 1,204 fans in attendance and this year when the Heat hosted the Baton Rouge Capitals two weekends ago they matched their franchise high.

The El Paso Patriots' high mark this season was 1,599 fans in last Friday's game versus the defending champion Heat. Their second highest total, interestingly enough, came in the following game with 1,473 fans in the stands.

The Heat also drew the Mississippi's Brilla highest attended home contest in which they had 1,127 fans in the stands. The Brilla average 889.83 fans per home contest.

The Baton Rouge Capitals, which average only 381.6 fans per game, had 372 onlookers when they hosted the Heat. Their highest total came against state rival New Orleans at 542 fans.

In Dallas, the Heat's presence did nothing to help out the 358.6 fan average but did bring in twenty more supporters at 378 fans that day.

Home or away, the Heat is bringing out the fans across the Mid South division. Laredo has yet to play Austin and Houston at home, and New Orleans had no information available as to what there fan attendance has been this season.

In the end, it looks as if the Heat is fittingly burning brighter and brighter. The potential is there, but plenty of good seats are still available at the Texas A&M International Soccer Complex, keep in mind that fans can be as fickle as the flames.