South Texas soccer fans got a special treat in June 10th, on the eve of the World Cup tournament, when the minor league baseball stadium in Corpus Christi transformed from a baseball field into a soccer stadium to host a Houston Dynamo vs. Laredo Heat game, the first ever match south of San Antonio to feature a Major League Soccer team. With all of this taking place in Stripes’ home market of Corpus Christi, they wanted to get involved not only as a sponsor of the Dynamo/Heat game, but also through a big promise to the next generation of potential World Cup stars. With soccer being the #1 sport played by youth in the U.S., and with almost 5,000 kids involved in soccer leagues in the Corpus Christi area alone, Stripes saw an opportunity to support soccer at the community level. Stripes donated red and white striped soccer nets to the Coastal Bend Youth Soccer Association, the area’s largest youth soccer organization, to be used on goals for practices and games for all the teams in the association. In addition to donating nets to teams across the city, Stripes granted one lucky youth soccer organization in Corpus Christi the ultimate wish.

Stripes worked with the Corpus Christi Hooks baseball team to expand the club’s existing Field of Dreams program, to develop a Soccer Field of Dreams. The idea was to solicit applications from youth soccer organizations in and around Corpus Christi whose playing fields were in need of a makeover, and then use the actual turf from the MLS game to transplant onto the winning field.

Stripes chose a big stage to reveal the Soccer Field of Dreams winner – taking the field at halftime of the Dynamo/Heat game with coaches/teams/leaders from Padre Soccer League to announce they would receive the new turf. It looks like Stripes has found a way to tie-in to the excitement of World Cup and also bring smiles to the faces of youth soccer players all across Corpus Christi.