Pharr mayoral candidate pushes for football at UTPA

EDINBURG — Bringing football — not to mention a stadium bigger than San Antonio’s 65,000-seats Alamodome — to the University of Texas-Pan American would be a challenge, Lupe Chavez Jr. admits.

He said UTPA President Robert Nelsen told that it would cost about $30 million to build the program and another $5 million per year to maintain it.

But that’s not stopping Chavez from trying to garner community support.

“Money shouldn’t be the end-all to every idea,” the 33-year-old said.

On Thursday, the Pharr mayoral hopeful sat down with UTPA students, trying to sell them on the idea.

His dream is to have a 75,000-seat stadium that would be used for college football, soccer and other entertainment.

By bringing in college football, communities throughout the Rio Grande Valley would benefit because it would encourage people to shop, eat, buy gas and spend time in Pharr and other localities either en route to the stadium or on their way home from an event there, he said.

He’s looking to students to help him start the grassroots effort to tap alumni, business and community leaders and others to raise money for the project.

The best place to start garnering support is with the students, because if students are for it, others will follow, he said.

Some of the students asked Chavez how he planned to raise money for such an endeavor, especially since the university recently announced it was cutting its spending by more than $7 million — a little more than 5 percent — for the next two years.

Other students asked whether the millions of dollars it would take to start up such a program might be better spent building more academic facilities.

As far as the university is concerned, a college football program won’t be coming anytime soon.

The university has other areas of its athletics program it needs to solidify before it can begin adding more activities, said Chris King, the university’s athletic director.

And the idea of a 75,000-seat stadium is far-reaching, because the size of the community would not be able to support it, he said.

But he doesn’t criticize Chavez for wanting to bring football to the area.

“You can never say anything bad about anybody who has a dream and a vision,” King said.

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Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.