Armada will play home matches at UNF this season

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After two seasons of playing home matches at the Baseball Grounds, the Jacksonville Armada will play home games at Hodges Stadium at the University of North Florida.

The team will host 16 home matches in the 2017 North American Soccer League season. The stadium has a capacity of 9,400, larger than the soccer configuration for the Baseball Grounds, which was called Community First Park when the Armada played there.

"Hodges Stadium is a fabulous soccer facility and will provide Armada FC fans an excellent game day experience,” said Armada FC senior vice president of operations Marshall Happer. “It has hosted many top events in its history and our team looks forward to hosting its fans at the new home venue. The stadium's close location to our fan base will be an added bonus for the club."

When the U.S. Men's National Team played in Jacksonville, they used Hodges Field as their practice field. When the Super Bowl was played in Jacksonville in 2005, it served as the Philadelphia Eagles practice field.

The 2017 NASL schedule was also released Monday. The Armada will open their third season in the North American Soccer League on Sunday, April 2 at 4 p.m. against FC Edmonton at Hodges Field at UNF.

The NASL season begins the previous weekend, but the Armada will have a first week bye.

The spring season features 16 matches, eight home and eight away.

After opening the season on April 2, the Armada go to Edmonton the following Saturday before returning home on April 15 to face the expansion San Francisco Deltas for the first time at 7 p.m.

After a road match at the New York Cosmos on April 22, the Armada return home for back-to-back home matches on April 29 against Indy Eleven and May 6 against the Cosmos. Both matches kickoff at 7 p.m.
Three road matches follow, first at North Carolina FC (formerly the Carolina RailHawks), then a Friday night match at San Francisco before a return trip to New York.

The Armada return home to Hodges Stadium for a pair of matches, the first being Sunday, May 28 against North Carolina at 4 p.m., before hosting Miami FC for the first time this season on Saturday, June 3 at 7 p.m.

After road matches at Indy and Miami, the Armada are back on the First Coast on Sunday, June 25 for a 6 p.m. kickoff against Puerto Rico FC, followed by a July 1 home match against FC Edmonton at 7 p.m. After that, the team finished the spring season on the road at Puerto Rico and Indy Eleven.

The fall season schedule for the Armada includes two Wednesday home matches, five Sunday home matches and one Saturday home match

Jacksonville opens the fall season at home on July 30 at 6 p.m. against San Francisco. After matches at Puerto Rico and North Carolina, the Armada return home for two matches in four days. Wednesday, Aug. 16, the club will host Puerto Rico FC, then Miami on Sunday, Aug. 20 at 6 p.m.

Following a two-game road trip to Indy and New York, the Armada return home Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. against Indy. They don’t play again until Sunday, Sept. 24 against Miami. Back-to-back road games against Miami and Edmonton are followed by a three game home stand, the longest stretch of the season, Sunday, October 15 against North Carolina FC at 4 p.m., Wednesday Oct. 18 against Edmonton at 6:30 p.m. followed by the home finale on Sunday Oct. 22 against the Cosmos at 4 p.m. The team will finish the fall season with a road match at San Francisco.