Veterans Stadium (Connecticut)

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Veterans Stadium
Veterans Stadium
Data
place Willow Brook Park, New Britain , Connecticut
United StatesUnited States
Coordinates 41 ° 38 '54.4 "  N , 72 ° 46' 21.6"  W Coordinates: 41 ° 38 '54.4 "  N , 72 ° 46' 21.6"  W.
owner New Britain , Connecticut
operator New Britain , Connecticut
opening 1982
surface Natural grass
capacity 8,448-8,500 seats
Societies)
Events

The Veterans Stadium , with full name and Veterans Memorial Stadium is a 1,982-opened multi-purpose stadium in New Britain in the State of Connecticut . At the opening, it was dedicated to the veterans and victims of many wars with US involvement, above all the victims of the Vietnam War .

history

The construction of the stadium, which is suitable for soccer and athletics as well as football, was commissioned by the city of New Britain in the early 1980s and opened in 1982. It has always served the resident New Britain High School, but also other local schools, primarily as a venue for their soccer and football games, but is mainly used by the high school's sports department. From 1993, the stadium also served the local professional football franchise Connecticut Wolves with a natural playing surface made of grass as the home stadium. Until the club was dissolved in 2002, the franchise played all games in the stadium, but also allowed other institutions and schools to be used at the same time. In addition, the Connecticut Crush women's soccer team from the National Women's Football Association played their games at Veterans Stadium for some time . Since 2006 the women's soccer club SoccerPlus Connecticut has also been located in the stadium. Around the soccer field there is an eight-lane running track dedicated to coach Irving S. Black in April 1992. The grandstand, which is located on both sides of the pitch, is divided into seven sectors of 27 rows each and has metal benches that extend from one broad side of a sector to the other broad side of a sector. While the sector in the middle and the two adjacent sectors are the larger, the width of the remaining sectors decreases to the end of the grandstand. There are also three floodlight masts behind both stands, all of which are symmetrically arranged. The stadium is part of the Willow Brook Park , also still the the ballpark New Britain Stadium and the second and smaller baseball field Beehive Field hosts. The stadium is located directly on New Britain Road and also has ample parking between Veterans Stadium and Beehive Field, as well as additional parking spaces across the street from New Britain Road.

In 1988 it served the US national team to host a friendly international match against Poland , which the home side from the US lost 2-0. In June of the following year, the United States completed another international match at Veterans Stadium. This time, however, on the occasion of the qualification for the 1990 World Cup against Guatemala , where the Americans left the field victorious 2-1 after goals from Bruce Murray and Eric Eichmann . After that, however, it took almost seven years before the United States Soccer Federation played another international soccer match in the stadium. On May 26, 1996, the USA met Scotland in a friendly , where they could win the game again 2-1. Exactly 14 years later, the stadium was again the venue for an international soccer match, but this time without the participation of the Stars & Stripes , as the US national team is called. In this encounter Northern Ireland faced opponents Turkey , where the Turks won the game 2-0.

In 2007 it served as the venue for the semi-finals of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup between the Carolina RailHawks and the MLS franchise New England Revolution , which was won by the Revolution in extra time. In 2008, the Revs returned to the Veterans Stadium, where they cleared the Richmond Kickers 3-0 in the third round match of the US Open Cup . Just a week later, the Revs played again in the stadium, this time against the Crystal Palace Baltimore franchise , against which they only narrowly won on penalties and thus advanced to the semi-finals. In 2009 another cup game was played at the Veterans Stadium. This time the Foxborough , Massachusetts franchise lost 2-1 to the Harrisburg City Islanders .

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