Les is a good owner. He wants to win. In the 19 years he's owned the rockets, they've had like 3 losing seasons, and made multiple "splash" deals to try and get stars and build championship teams around them, even if it hasnt seemed to work out since his early days. There are certainly some synergies involved. It likely brings the Dynamo in easily on the cable channel. It also probably clears up some concert scheduling conflicts between BBVA and Toyota Center. It makes me nervous because you obviously dont want to change a good thing, but thats the only reason I'd worry about this. If I was dissatisfied with current ownership I would be extremely glad that this could happen.
Anderson beat me to it. Leslie is quite the donor to the liberal cause. Perhaps this is when Westside snaps and becomes a FCD fan. Hope his people know S. American and European basketball agents that also deal in footballers. Who did we like on Panathinaikos?
is he local. iow does he reside in Houston year round? If so I like the owner being nearby . I also like his willingness to spend. Leave Dom the checkbook with a few rules to make him feel good. And let Dom do his thing. We will contend every single year. How much more can we ask for. WE got a great stadium a great coach and a very very good team almost every year. the one thing i hope he will do is invest in scouting and RECRUTING players. we have to sell these foreign players from Europe on coming to Htown. We need to really learn how to recruit. My first suggestion is go hire Cuatemoc Blanco and pay him well, make him an ambassador for Houston Dynamo in Mexico.... second hire and provide a full time scouting director with a staff of scouts to find us the players we need. As every year goes by the competition for quality players is going to increase as more and more want to come over here in their prime a la tim cahill..... I THINK THIS IS A GOOD!!!!!!!!!
Since John Stockton hit a jumper to knock the Rockets out of the 1997 West finals, the Rockets have won exactly ONE playoff series in the last 15 years.
And if it's true, we lose Oscar de la Hoya as the most influential co-owner ever. We'll miss his huge impact on the Dynamo, and how useful he was in elevating this team. What a loss. So sad to see all his contributions to the Dynamo go.
This could be very good for the Dynamo and Rockets attendance too. I'd imagine that there'd be efforts to cross-market the teams at games and via contact databases. e.g. bundling Dynamo & Rockets season tickets at a discounted rate.
I'm afraid I agree. No-one in their right mind throws money at an enterprise without the expectation of eventually profiting from it. Alexander may very well be able to pony up the big $$$$$ for 1, 2, or 3 DP's but with that comes the specter of having to increase the price of season tickets. I don't believe that the money MLS gets from TV rights comes close to allowing a team to make a profit. Take a wander over to the Rockets site and check out the price of their season tickets - sure there are more games, but decent seats are in the region of $3-4K. We may just all wind up over in the EB/TA/BW area and take it over.
Hmmm....there are some things I like about this (semi-local ownership, spender), but I guess some things make me a bit reserved...his style doesn't fit who I'd want to own the team. I'd prefer a Drew Carey sort of person who really cares about soccer.
I don't think that's a fair comparison though, there's double the number of Rockets games and you're supporting a payroll somewhere in the $40 million neighborhood. Yes, I can see the potential for costs to increase over time, but I don't think we're going to see any kind of dramatic elevation that's going to price your average fan out of games.
Oh, so your local NBA owner is buying your MLS team with an eye towards getting cheapish programming for a regional sports network in which he has an ownership stake. That sounds familiar:
I just glanced at season ticket prices for LAG and NYRB, the two big-payroll, three DP, expensive market teams. I haven't compared every seating level - and, obviously, the stadiums are different - but their prices don't seem dramatically higher than ours. Higher, yes, but are the differences that much higher? (of course, what "much" means to you will vary)
It's hard to believe that Alexander would buy the entire team just to get cheap programming for the new CSN Houston channel. I'm pretty sure he could have gotten it pretty cheaply without actually buying the team. If he just wants cheap programming by buying a team he could just buy the Aeros. They would be way cheaper than the Dynamo. Add in the potential concert synergy with controlling BBVA and Toyota Center, then maybe, but I'm still not convinced. This looks more like a deal where Alexander can buy something that won't cost a lot right now, which pretty much funds itself, might offer some bundling and other increased revenue streams, and then let it appreciate in value.
This is more along my line of thinking. If he is seriously considering this purchase, my gut says it is all about the venue and less about the team. My fear is he spend no money on the team beyond what is necessary.
Stan Kroenke didn't have to buy the Rapids OR build them a stadium to get cheap programming for Altitude. And yet, he did, for all the reasons that you just listed. They're profitable, he now controls two of the Front Range's larger concert venues, and his investment is appreciating in value. And oh yeah, he has something to put on Altitude for "free" in the summertime, since the Rockies are ROOT Sports. Obviously, that's a different proposition than CSN Houston, which will be partially owned by the Astros and who will have Astros games in the summertime. That detail aside, this deal, in which the word "synergy" can be thrown around so often that it'll make a consultant's head explode, looks remarkably similar.
Have any of the more recent MLS investors, since say 2006, been among the cheaper owners? Maybe Lew Wolff in SJ, but he's in the process of building a stadium. I think most of the recent investors have been willing to spend money on DPs. I'm not sure the league is looking for new investors who aren't willing to spend, but maybe I'm inferring too much.
How recent do you want? The aforementioned Stan Kroenke hasn't exactly opened the wallet wide for the Rapids and he bought them in 2004.
AEG is going to sell the team sooner or later. The MLS does not want to see ownership with two teams. So the real question is if this guy is better than someone else.
That will depend on what you classify as cheap. SKC doesn't exactly have an expensive roster. Neither does Philly outside of Adu. Montreal is really to be determined because despite the DP signings, they had so much allocation money that nothing is coming out of the ownership. Plus if you really want to judge cheap you would have to look beyond salary at marketing expenditure, personnel, money spent on scouting, etc.