http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2994500 Harris County-Houston Sports Authority head Oliver Luck on Thursday at a Houston Independent School District board meeting presented a non-binding resolution declaring the interest HISD would have in redeveloping an existing district facility into a professional soccer and high school football stadium. The resolution was passed unanimously. With MLS considering the Houston market, a venue that is geared toward soccer is key, along with finding an ownership group or individual investor here.
In the present environment, I think talk of expansion has pretty much stopped. There's just so many other things for us to talk about right now. Besides--can't you buy non-binding resolutions on rolls at the grocery store? I think some even have little flowers printed on them.
I listened to Glenn Davis today on "The Soccer Hour" and he had Oliver Luck on. They got a little into the details of the stadium issue and the stadium development they are talking about with HISD is Delmar Stadium (off of 610 and 290). Oliver Luck said there is a lot more work to do to get this done but HISD agreed to pitch in "their share" whatever that means. Delmar Stadium would be an unbelieveable location! It would be very close to the suburbs and not to far from the inner city. I hope things get done.
For it to work with HISD, it would have to work for football and soccer. It would also need to have field turf for all of the action it would get during high school football season, plus high school soccer is going on at the same time. You can now get the field turf systems in the 8x8 feet trays, so they could buy a soccer and a football system each, so we wouldn't have to see soccer on those lines. I love football, but I can't stand watching soccer on a field marked every ten yards. peace bford
Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale was also used for HS football. What was the condition of that field in the fall crossover months? If my memory serves me right, they used Bermuda grass there which is hardier than other types.
From today's Glenn column in the Chron: Also: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3026399 I also recall a report a couple of months ago about the HISD board approving finds for FieldTurf at Delmar. The facility apparently gets pretty worn with football in the fall and about 60 soccer games in the spring.
As a native Texan that played both codes of football growing up here in Houston IMHO Texas High School football IS a religion to many. To many that immigrate to Texas, the beautiful game is a religion. This idea is the worst ever for a future MLS Team Houston! Merging two faiths into one stadium for the sake of "piggybacking" or shared interests is a huge pitfall to be avoided. IMHO too many diehard fans on both sides will see MLS at a High School Football stadium as not fully giving the beautiful game its rightful place. O sea a Temple of its own where the supporters can congregate and worship their faith. Mixing the two faiths, even with best intentions is a shot in the dark right now. Frisco is being built and we can see via FCD what the turnout will be like, what the atmosphere will be like and what gridiron lines will be visible from Sept. to December for FCD matches. The Dallas Burn went to Southlake and its was a flustercuck from the get go. Field Turf can reach 120 degrees surface temp in August. Soles melt and slidetackeling gets to be a nasty adventure. The Burn players had a terrible time on that playing surface while at Southlake. Delmar, with all its football games from August till March is a must for Field Turf if they go with this proposal. So what happens with the quality of play? What does a MAJOR LEAGUE franchise gain by playing at a renevated High School stadium. Our old Hurricanes played there and BTY the HISD operators like the beautiful game less than Jim Rome does. I'll leave out his name, but Mr. X over there at Delmar went out of his way to change playing dates for HHFC after he had confirmed the dates as "ok" when I had to send in to the League office our scheduled playing dates. For High Scool soccer matches Mr. X refuses to turn on the scoreboard for Varsity HISD matches saying it costs too much money to turn on the scoreboard lights! Soccer hater if there ever was one alive amigos!!!! Doing a deal with these type is like shaking hands with the soccer religion's Devil. This work by Oliver Luck is well conceived....but to mix two religions at the same temple for mutual benefit reminds me of communism.....communism sounds great on paper but applied in real life and it falls flat on its face! Again, its Reliant and its field tray system with actual grass or a Columbus Crew type stadium that gives MAJOR LEAGUE soccer its rightful place for the knowledgeable footie die hards here in Clutch City.
Lo siento Caddman. I tried to listen to the show but where I was at watching the small matter of the Super Bowl, Glenn's show got bumped before I could here anything different than what we have heard before. We both need to listen to the web stream. We also must get on Glenn to get a USA-Mexico watch party organized over the air. Us BS die hards have been over this time and again and i for one would really like to be around some other Houston USA fanatics if we score to celebrate or if we lose to drink more heavily with. I'll shoot him an email about getting together at a centralized watering hole. You in partner???
Just FYI - Glenn's radio show on Sunday is archived at www.kpft.org. Click on Archive and scroll down to "Soccer Show" for the day you want.
I'm in, though my hard drinking days are over I had no idea about the web stream or the archives. Very cool. I had to work during the super bowl, though I was more interested in the soccer hour
Soccer Hour with Glenn Davis on 90.1 FM at 5 p.m. today features part of an interview with MLS commissioner Don Garber. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/soc/3036522