Lockhart Stadium – historical stadium description

New stadium in northern Fort Lauderdale was built in 1959 to provide American football and track & field facilities for four local schools. Academics remained in charge of it for nearly two decades, until Fort Lauderdale Strikers moved in as secondary tenants.

The football/soccer team began a very rich history of this discipline in Fort Lauderdale by early 1980s, hardly matched by any other venue in the US. Though Strikers relocated several times to other places, in 1998 thorough reconfiguration of the stadium to ‘soccer-specific’ was done. Back then for the soon-defunct Miami Fusion MLS team, later for the Strikers again.

The redevelopment made Lockhart Stadium the first one in the US to become soccer-specific, preceding the new home of Columbus Crew by several months. In 2015 some seats were replaced by new ones in yellow-red colours, matching those of the Strikers.

Named after former city commissioner H. Y. "Doug" Lockhart, the stadium also played host to various other soccer events, including officials games of the USA like that against Mexico in 1980, when the hosts managed to beat southern rivals for the first time in 46 years.