USL News Release
Friday, August 17, 2007
RICHMOND, TX -- United Soccer Leagues announced Friday that Juan Carlos Hernandez has acquired the Premier Development League franchise rights for the greater Houston area. The new club, Houston Leones, will begin play in the 2008 season.
The new PDL team will play at its own stadium, The Soccer World Center, in Richmond, TX. The 17-acre facility with three fields, including a 4,500-seat stadium field that is expandable to 8,000-10,000, was built by team owner Juan Carlos Hernandez, a leading real estate and construction figure in the Houston area. Hernandez, who came to the country from Mexico in 1978 at the age of 16 and worked his way from landscape laborer to respected owner of two construction companies, the award-winning JC Hernandez Construction and Debo Homes, completed the facility in 2003. It has played host to numerous teams from South America, El Salvador and Mexico.
“We are proud to welcome such an established individual into the USL family as the new owner of a PDL franchise,” said USL Executive Vice President and COO Tim Holt. “Hernandez’s ties to the greater Houston community are outstanding, and his contributions to the area through the construction of the SWC complex are unrivaled in the league. With ownership that is so closely tied to the Hispanic community, we feel that the Houston Leones will find the same success in Richmond that the Laredo Heat and El Paso Patriots, two leading PDL organizations, have in their communities.”
The Houston Leones will be the first sports entertainment franchise located in the historical city of Richmond and county of Fort Bend, for which it serves as the political center. Richmond, one of the first 19 cities originally incorporated in 1837 in the Republic of Texas, a sovereign state that existed from 1836-1845, is part of the Richmond-Rosenberg-Sugar Land area. The county is home to approximately 500,000 Houstonians.
Hernandez’s son, Juan Carlos Jr., was a standout goalkeeper in high school in the Houston area and was part of the Cruz Azul youth development teams. The young talent, however, gave up his dream of playing professionally while with Cruz Azul to return to college and will now serve as the club’s Director of Operations.
The expansion side is expected to announce its full coaching staff at its upcoming press conference.
Owner Juan Carlos Hernandez will hold the introductory press conference to officially announce the Houston Leones to the Houston area on Friday, August 17th, at the Fox News Grill, 5175 Westheimer, Houston, at 6:00 p.m.
