El Paso Rhinos Uno Seis join Major Arena Soccer League 2 for 2023-24 season

The sixth largest city in Texas is the latest to join Major Arena Soccer League 2 for the 2023-24 season.

The El Paso Rhinos Uno Seis (16) will join the M2 Midwest Division, with their home opener set for Saturday, January 20 against the Kansas Bandits who will be in town for a weekend doubleheader.

Known as The Sun City, El Paso regularly has over 300 sunny days per year and is home to the longstanding NCAA Sun Bowl post-season college match up. The Rhinos Uno Seis will play at La Frontera Indoor Soccer.

“El Paso is a beautiful city with a strong Hispanic heritage that loves soccer,” MASL 2 Commissioner Chris Economides noted. “We welcome them to the league, and look forward to partnering with the ownership group there which is very excited and dedicated to tapping into the local talent to field what I think will be an extremely competitive team right from the start.”

“A lot of hard work is already underway to make sure January 20 is a special occasion for our hometown as pro indoor soccer returns to El Paso,” said co-owner Cesar Esparza Sr,  who will head the operation along with Cesar Esparza Jr. and Javier Rodriguez. “There have been some very good players come to El Paso through the years, and we want to make sure our roster reflects the best talent we can find and provide our fans with plenty of excitement starting with those first two games in January.”

The El Paso Coyotes played three seasons in the MASL, and featured such stars as Alex Caceres (currently with the Tacoma Stars), Christian Gutierrez who has played the last five seasons with the San Diego Sockers and Hugo Puentes who has played for the Chihuahua Savage for the past two years. 

MASL 2 will kick off its seventh season in early December, and concludes at the end of March. An eight-team “championship weekend” will be held at Hartman Arena in Wichita April 4-7 where a playoff title holder will be crowned.