For the fifth consecutive season, the Laredo Heat Soccer Club is hosting portions of the Premier Development League playoffs, continuing this weekend with the PDL quarter- and semifinals at the Texas A&M International University Soccer Complex.
The Heat itself plays Bradenton Academics of Florida Friday at 8:30 p.m.
Teams are coming from California, Florida and Washington state, bringing players, staff members and various other supporters to Laredo, where they will do much more than put on a soccer show.
“Any sort of recreational sporting event that draws athletes, spectators and family has a strong economic and collateral impact on the hotel/motel and retail industries, as well as service providers,” said Timothy Franciscus-Timm, industrial development specialist for the Laredo Development Foundation. “It’s a huge positive. They aren’t coming to invest, but they are spending their disposable income that they otherwise would have spent elsewhere.”
Added Miguel Conchas, President and CEO of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce, “It’s extremely positive. We welcome anything and any organization, whether it be a private group or a city organization, that brings in visitors. It has a tremendous impact on the economy. We have a number of sports events here throughout the year, and the Heat is certainly doing its share.”
But the benefits of the Heat’s hosting duties don’t end with economic impact.
“We’ve inherited this very negative image that is really unfair,” Conchas explained. “There was some violence in Nuevo Laredo years ago that has moved on, but the stigma remained. Any time visitors come to the city and see that it is not a city of crime, that it’s actually a very hospitable city… I think it’s a very good thing.”
Franciscus-Timm agreed.
“People who would not normally come to Laredo will take this opportunity to visit and hopefully leave with a positive image,” he said.
That positive image is something the Heat is happy to portray to the league and those who follow teams to Laredo.
“We call Laredo home, and we want to introduce people to the city,” said President Shashi Vaswani. “We had to supercede what other teams have to offer, and this was the toughest year to bring to bring it here. We had to make them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
“We tend to play better on the road, but bringing people to our city is a great thing. We want to put it on the map.”
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