May 6--Here's something hotel guests are guaranteed to get a kick out of: the Hilton Hotel in Sunrise has built a professional soccer field 20 yards from its front lobby. 

"It's already been very successful," said Harve Rosenthal, general manager at the Hilton and the one who convinced the hotel's owners to fork out $165,000 for the field. 

"We're the host hotel to all the major soccer league teams. Now we have the ability to offer team practice adjacent to the hotel." 

The field sets the Sunrise Hilton apart from every other Hilton, if not every other hotel, in the United States. It also gives this Hilton, nine miles from the beach, a unique marketing niche. 

"It's the first of its kind that I'm aware of in the U.S. and Florida," said Scott Berman, a hotel industry analyst with PricewaterhouseCoopers. "It certainly is creative. Our weather and our entertainment activities appeal very much to not only the European market, but to that young crowd, so clearly the demographic appears to fit." 

Florida has long been a favorite for professional sports teams seeking winter practice space. Soccer teams, domestic and international, are no exception. Until now, bus trips between hotels and practice sites were standard fare, no matter where the teams stayed. 

The idea to build a soccer field at the Hilton came from Eddie Rodgers, who coordinates the Umbro Select all-star college and pro soccer tournament for men and women, held in Fort Lauderdale for the past six years. 

Rodgers routinely booked teams at the Sunrise Hilton because of its proximity to Lockhart Stadium, the tournament's site. 

Last February, while loading teams onto buses bound for a nearby practice field, Rodgers' gaze fell on a nearby empty field, owned by the hotel and used for spillover parking. 

"One of the biggest problems was field space, and loading buses is a pain," said Rodgers. "I had a survey crew come in and take measurements. It was an even fit." 

Rodgers pitched the idea to Rosenthal, who first balked but then relented when he realized the field could really bring in the green. Rosenthal won over the Hilton's owners, LNR Property Corp. Southeast, with his proposal, which carried an estimate that the field could bring in an additional 7,000 room nights, or $1 million, a year. 

The lot was landscaped by the Haverlind Blackrock Corp., creators of the field at Lockhart Stadium. At the Hilton site, Haverlind built a sand base for optimal drainage, laid 32 sprinklers and planted top-notch sod, seeded with Baby Bermuda grass, used on golf courses as well as soccer fields. 

The field's dimensions are 120 yards by 70 yards, meeting FIFA regulations, an international soccer standard, and it is intended to be used solely for practice. 

"It's a very high-quality field," said Brad Pursel, senior director of operations for Major League Soccer. "There's beautiful grass, a nice level field, a good drainage system. It's a beautiful pitch." 

Since its completion in March, the field has drawn six U.S. professional teams and one from Sweden. On Tuesday, England's Fulham Football Club, a top-ranked team owned by Mohamed Al Fayed -- father of Dodi, Princess Diana's ill-fated love -- will arrive for a nine-day stay. Teams from Mexico and Argentina and a professional U.S. women's team are looking into summer bookings. 

"I'm basically trying to get the general manager to move the team to Sunrise, to live at the Hilton and train there every day, and rename the team the Sunrise United," joked Ray Trifari, team administrator for the D.C. United football club, which practiced on the field for two weeks in March and is scheduled to return at the end of May. "That will give you an idea of how much we love being there." 

Rosenthal has also forged a partnership with the Miami Fusion, throwing them parties in exchange for their promotion of the field. 

"I think this soccer business will help us, despite the economic downturn," Rosenthal said. 

It remains to be seen whether other hotels will follow suit. Few hotels have extra parcels of land at their disposal and few hotels regularly host soccer teams. 

"You've got to give Harve credit as general manager, to take the risk as a hotelier to try this," said Rodgers, who has an office at the hotel. 

Maintenance costs for the field are expected run about $40,000 a year. The hotel's heavy-duty washing machines had to be reprogrammed to care for the scores of colorful uniforms. The kitchen staff reorganized to tailor meal requests. 

News of the field has spread by word of mouth. Rosenthal hopes the hotel will become a destination for teams from Latin America and Europe, where passion for soccer borders on obsession, and wants to further tap the domestic market, home to 12 men's and eight women's pro teams. 

"From a convenience standpoint, it's No. 1," Pursel said. "Teams can stay in nice hotels and not have to file into buses and vans to go to another field. They can walk out the front door; it's a luxury. I think there'll be some competition to see who books it first." 

Though the field can be used only by professionals who book the hotel specifically for its use, Rodgers allowed for one exception last winter. The band Boyz II Men, returning to the hotel late after a concert at the National Car Rental Center, talked him into letting them have a go on the field. 

"They were just kids wanting to blow off steam," Rodgers recalled. "They kicked the ball around, and they loved it." 

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(c) 2001, The Miami Herald. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. HLT,