Hartford Athletic to Play Tampa Bay Rowdies at IMG Academy
Postponed fixture rescheduled for October 23rd as the Latics face a busy week to close out the season
The USL Championship has announced that the rescheduled match between Hartford Athletic and Tampa Bay Rowdies will take place at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Originally scheduled for September 28, the match was postponed due to the impact of Hurricane Helene in the Tampa Bay area. The game will be played on October 23 at 7:30pm, streaming live on ESPN+.
IMG Academy is a boarding school and training complex originally founded as the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in 1978. Acquired by IMG in 1987, it has undergone a series of expansions to serve a number of sports, with soccer added in 1994.
Until 2017, the Academy was home to U.S. Soccer’s full-time residency program for the U-16 and U-17 national teams, and key players including Oguchi Onyewu, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, and Jozy Altidore all passed through its doors. Hartford goalkeeper Brooks Thompson — currently on loan with Spokane Velocity — is the only current Latic to have been at IMG, training there in 2016-17.
Hartford Athletic also has another Bradenton connection, having partnered with the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau to make the area its spring training home for the past two seasons. The club spent four days training at the Premier Sports Campus in early March.
The Latics face a challenging conclusion to the season, crisscrossing the country with trips to Tulsa, Tampa Bay, and Orange County in the space of eight days, as Hartford seeks enough points for a first playoff trip since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Head coach Brendan Burke expressed frustration regarding the schedule congestion when speaking to the media on Thursday.
“I think the league dropped the ball in a big, big way there….I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something, I think it was badly mishandled,” he said.
Burke’s comments also come in the context of the third rescheduled game for Tampa Bay, which will see North Carolina FC trade a trip to Tampa for an extra home game at WakeMed Soccer Park. With Hartford and NCFC among the teams chasing the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, the difference between an extra home game and cross-country road travel might play a role in the final outcome.
In the meantime, Hartford are back in action on Saturday night as they take on FC Tulsa in a continuation of a series of must-win games.