Lockhart Stadium

History of Lockhart Stadium

Constructed in 1959 alongside the Fort Lauderdale Stadium baseball park, Lockhart Stadium was originally built for local high school sports. It was designed to host football games and track meets for four area schools: Fort Lauderdale, Stranahan, Northeast, and Dillard. Named in honor of former city commissioner H. Y. “Doug” Lockhart, the stadium officially opened with a dedication ceremony during a football game on September 18, 1959. For its first two decades, Lockhart Stadium mostly hosted high school football games and track meets, along with occasional state championships and soccer matches.

The Fort Lauderdale Strikers

The stadium’s deep-rooted connection to soccer truly began in 1977 when the Miami Toros of the North American Soccer League (NASL) relocated to the venue and rebranded as the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. On April 10, 1977, the Strikers kicked off their franchise history at Lockhart Stadium with a 2–1 victory over the St. Louis Stars. They went on to dominate the 1977 regular season, topping the American Conference’s Eastern Division with a 19–7 record, tying the league record for the most victories in a single season.

Attendance surged during the inaugural season, averaging 8,148 fans per game, a 165% spike compared to the club’s final year as the Toros. This successful campaign also brought individual accolades for head coach Ron Newman, who was named the NASL Coach of the Year. A historic highlight for the venue occurred on November 23, 1980, when the United States men’s national soccer team secured a 2–1 World Cup qualifying victory over Mexico, marking the U.S. team’s first win against their rivals.

Following a string of losing seasons, team owners Joe and Elizabeth Robbie announced the franchise’s relocation to Minnesota, where they were rebranded as the Minnesota Strikers. However, the move failed to turn their fortunes around, and this new iteration of the Strikers ultimately folded in 1988 after four unsuccessful years.

In October 1987, the American Soccer League announced a Fort Lauderdale franchise awarded to Joe Robbie. Robbie, who also owned the Minnesota Strikers, intended to revive the historic Fort Lauderdale Strikers name and hired Wim Suurbier as the head coach. Basing operations out of Lockhart Stadium, the team dominated the ASL in their inaugural season. They finished with a league-best 14–6 record before ultimately falling to the Washington Diplomats in the championship finals. The team would later merge with the Orlando in January 1991 after the Broward School Board denied the team access to Lockhart Stadium.

Post-Strikers Era

Once the Strikers left, Lockhart Stadium largely reverted to hosting local high school sports for a few years. Its only major professional use during this period came in the late 1990s, when the Miami Dolphins used the venue for training camp scrimmages.

A major turning point came in 1998 when the venue underwent a $5 million renovation to welcome the Miami Fusion of Major League Soccer (MLS). The project expanded seating capacity to 20,000 and remodeled the field specifically for soccer. At a time when every other MLS franchise shared massive American football stadiums, this was a highly unusual move that ultimately sparked the league’s nationwide transition toward soccer-specific stadiums.

Throughout this era, Lockhart Stadium remained a premier soccer destination, notably hosting D.C. United’s memorable 1998 Interamerican Cup triumph over Vasco da Gama. That chapter closed in 2002 when Major League Soccer contracted the Miami Fusion. The following year, the venue was repurposed for gridiron football to accommodate the Florida Atlantic University Owls, who called Lockhart home until moving into their own on-campus FAU Stadium in Boca Raton in 2011.

Beyond sporting events, Lockhart Stadium also served as a notable cultural venue, hosting Billy Graham’s final South Florida crusade in 1985. Later, it became the alternate site for the 2007 Broward County Caribbean Carnival after the event’s initial proposal was rejected by Miramar.

Abandonment

In 2009, Miami FC relocated from Miami to Lockhart Stadium, officially rebranding as the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in 2011. The team remained at the venue until 2016, when they announced a move to Central Broward Regional Park. While ownership blamed the departure on necessary stadium renovations that the city refused to fund, underlying financial struggles were widely considered the true catalyst, as the franchise folded shortly thereafter.

A proposed $70-million Schlitterbahn water park was slated for construction at Fort Lauderdale Stadium. The design planned to repurpose portions of the old stadium into a castle-like entrance featuring lodging, dining, and shopping facilities, with plans to expand the park around Lockhart Stadium. However, the project ultimately stalled following a lawsuit from the nearby Rapids Water Park.

In March 2017, a court ruled that Schlitterbahn’s lease was invalid because the city had bypassed its own charter by bypassing a competitive bidding process. Premier Parks LLC ultimately won the subsequent bidding war with plans to construct a Wet ‘n Wild water park on the site. Although the agreement required Premier Parks to renovate Lockhart Stadium, the deal collapsed when the company was unable to finance the stadium upgrades.

Demolition

In late January 2019, Major League Soccer expansion club Inter Miami CF announced plans to acquire the Lockhart Stadium property. The team envisioned the site as a comprehensive training hub for its first team, youth academy, and USL League One reserve squad, Fort Lauderdale CF. The project featured a brand-new, 18,000-seat stadium designed as a permanent home for the reserve team and a temporary venue for the MLS squad while Nu Stadium was being built. The city council unanimously backed the proposal on March 19, and the City Commission authorized the demolition on April 2. Under the agreement, site clearing had to begin within 180 days, and crews officially started tearing down the old stadium on May 8.

On July 9, 2019, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission unanimously approved a 50-year lease agreement with Inter Miami CF for the Lockhart Stadium grounds. Under this deal, the City of Fort Lauderdale retained ownership of the land, while the club took full responsibility for constructing, operating, and maintaining the new facilities. The new venue serves as a temporary home for the MLS squad until Miami Freedom Park opens in Miami, fulfilling a core condition of the expansion franchise’s approval.

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