Indoor soccer arenas are prevalent around the city and the fan base is growing. With sessions of seven teams with five but sometimes six players each, these Futsal arenas bring practicing players in from outside and offer a quicker, and sometimes more individual style of play. Offering league play for those who register, all San Antonio arenas are operated in divisions as well as publicly with open arena play.
Northwoods Ice Center, also used for hockey, golf and ice skating, has its own turf ground for cleats or shoes and indoor soccer. With drop in events every Friday for $10 and 3 divisions, the rink brings in a lot of local athletes. The high school drop-in schedule is from 6:30 to 8:30PM and adult drop-ins are scheduled from 8:30 to 10:00PM and 10:30 to 12:00 AM.
All the arenas are competitive, but teams greatly vary. Some Fridays there are more opponents than others.
“[All the players are] very competitive, and many teams come from clubs and schools. Anyone can register in the indoor tournaments close to home. Sometimes the floor is so crowded we only get to play three games, while on other nights we may get to duel with two or three teams total,” said junior Pablo Gutierrez.
Artificial turf is sometimes preferred in the arena, with the advantage of being able to wear cleats or flats and being similar to outdoor play.
“The turf is nice, and wearing cleats is great to kick the ball around on,” Gutierrez said.
Aztec Indoor Soccer is located off of 9870 Marbach Road on the west side of Lackland Air Force Base and has a turf ground to play on, with open play from Wednesday through Friday with varying times because of their league schedule. Inside Aztec, side games offered on the in-fill turf include flag football leagues, karaoke, volleyball and dodgeball.
Although they seem far apart, each sportsplex offers something the other does not. One thing is for sure, that is, that soccer greats come out of Futsal from all portions of the world, from the Americas to Australia, skill training makes the best of soccer players.
Alamo indoor soccer is at 4934 Golden Quail on the opposite side of IH10 from Huebner Oaks. With open play every Friday night from 8:00 to 11:00PM and throughout the weekend, the court’s texture is different than at Northwoods. Soft flat ground is better for flats, or indoor soccer shoes, and the court is run in sets of two games. In two hours, you may even get up to six games for only five dollars a session. Around the air conditioned warehouse there are even batting cages for other pursuers, but the older crowd remains mostly around the Futsal arena.
