Laredo Heat is an American soccer team based in Laredo, Texas, United States. Founded in 2004, the team plays in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. They were members of the USL Premier Development League from 2004 to 2015. The club was on hiatus for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Javier "Chicharito" Hernández playing against the Laredo Heat Soccer Club on May 24, 2006
Laredo is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and seat of Webb County, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Founded in 1755, Laredo grew from a village to the capital of the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande to the largest inland port on the Mexican border. Laredo's economy is primarily based on international trade with Mexico, and as a major hub for three areas of transportation: land, rail, and air cargo. The city is on the southern end of I-35, which connects manufacturers in northern Mexico through Interstate 35 as a major route for trade throughout the U.S. It has four international bridges and one railway bridge.
Downtown Laredo
Laredo Center for the Arts in the downtown square
Though the facility has been closed since 1999, the marquee of the Plaza Theater in downtown Laredo has been renovated. A citizens committee, including restaurateur Danny Lopez Jr., of the Danny's Restaurant chain, sought without success to establish a private–public partnership to reopen the Plaza as a live-entertainment venue. In 2018, the city council sought private entities, nonprofit organizations, and an architect to make the facility useful again.
NASA satellite image of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo (2007)