Aveva Stadium is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

stadium in Houston, Texas,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

as part of Houston Sports Park and is the home of the

Houston SaberCats The Houston SaberCats are an American professional rugby union team based in Houston, Texas. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby, the top-level rugby union competition in the United States and Canada that played its f ...

of Major League Rugby. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on July 24, 2018. Naming rights for the stadium were purchased by British information technology company

Aveva AVEVA Group plc is a British multinational information technology consulting company headquartered in Cambridge, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The company started as the Comp ...

, and was opened on April 13, 2019. Aveva Stadium is the first stadium in the league built specifically for use by Major League Rugby, and the second rugby-specific stadium primarily for professional competition in the United States.

History

Planning and funding

Aveva Stadium Construction, February 2019

Aveva Stadium - West Side Stands with Fans

In March 2017, local rugby organization and predecessor to the Houston SaberCats, the Houston Strikers publicly announced their plans to build a stadium at the Houston Sports Park located roughly three miles from

NRG Park NRG Park, formerly Reliant Park and Astrodomain, is a complex in Houston, named after the energy company NRG Energy. It is located on Kirby Drive at the South Loop West Freeway (I-610). This complex of buildings encompasses of land and consists ...

and eight miles from Downtown Houston along the South Freeway. The group also released several other key details such as early renderings, an estimated cost of $10 million, and a 5,000 person initial capacity. Leading up to the inaugural season of the team, the City of Houston agreed to partially fund a permanent stadium with a contribution of $3.2 million in February 2018. The ownership group expects to invest an additional $12.0 million of their own funds to construct the 3-field, multi-use facility. Details of the deal, outlined in Houston City Ordinance 2018–0085, also confirmed the construction on city-owned property in south Houston at Houston Sports Park, with the city maintaining ownership and leasing stadium grounds back to the team for a 43-year term.

Design and construction

On July 8, the Houston SaberCats released new preliminary architectural drawings and a groundbreaking announcement for July 24, 2018 via Instagram and then via press release several days later. On July 17, the SaberCats announced naming rights were awarded to

. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on July 24, 2018, with the

mayor of Houston The following is a list of people who have served as mayor of the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. Until 2015, the term of the mayor was two years. Beginning with the tenure of Bob Lanier, the city charter imposed term limits on offi ...

Sylvester Turner Sylvester Turner (born September 27, 1954) is an American attorney and politician who is serving as the 62nd mayor of Houston, Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, Turner was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1989 until 201 ...

, representing the city.

Opening and current use

Construction was still ongoing as Aveva Stadium opened on April 13, 2019 with a game against the Seattle Seawolves. After its inauguration, previous games were played before the grand opening, which was postponed and took place on May 29, 2019. The Houston team played against the Glendale Raptors. Beginning in 2022, Houston Dynamo 2, the reserve side of MLS club Houston Dynamo, began playing home matches at the stadium.

Other events

Aveva Stadium has hosted non-MLR events. It 2022 it hosted both the

Collegiate Rugby Championship The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC is the highest profile college rugby sevens competition in the United States, with the tournament broadcast live on NBC from 2010–2017, on ESPN News an ...

XVs and the

United States national rugby union team The United States men's national rugby union team represents the United States in men's international rugby union. Nicknamed the Eagles, it is controlled by USA Rugby, the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United Sta ...

in a match against the French Barbians.

Facilities

Aveva Stadium's overall facilities include a 1,200 parking lot and two secondary fields for multipurpose use. While seating capacity exceeds 3,000, the stadium features up to 4,000 maximum capacity by utilizing standing room only areas. The venue is primarily the home of the Houston SaberCats professional Rugby team but can accommodate other sports and non-sports events due to the large size of the fields. Both the east and west side stands of the stadium are grandstands with individual seats. The south side stands feature a mix of

bleacher Bleachers (North American English), or stands, are raised, tiered rows of benches found at sports fields and other spectator events. Stairways provide access to the horizontal rows of seats, often with every other step gaining access to a ro ...

and individual seats, while the north side stands are uncovered bleacher seating. Also located on the south end of the stadium, below the video board, is a full-service bar known as the "Cat's Den" and two

berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a border/ separation ...

s. Both the bar area and berms allow for general standing.

References

External links

Houston SaberCats website
{{Houston SaberCats Houston SaberCats Houston SaberCats stadiums Major League Rugby stadiums Rugby union stadiums in Houston Rugby union stadiums in Texas Rugby union stadiums in the United States 2019 establishments in Texas Sports venues completed in 2019 Soccer venues in Texas