Losing an ally with Lopez departure

[Wildcatter Orange]

You may have read that John Lopez is leaving his columnist position at the Chronicle to pursue an opportunity in private business -- he is joining a company that provides private charters to sports events.

I would link to the blog post but it appears it has been taken down. Shame on the Chron for that.

Anyway, John was a great asset to soccer and to the Dynamo ... often writing about the sport and the team in a knowledgeable, professional, straight-forward way. He was one of a few columnists at a major U.S. paper who understood and enjoyed soccer, and who covered the sport as an equal to basketball or football rather than as a joke or an easy target.

He will be missed ... but he is keeping his radio gig so all is not lost.

[DrLudicrous]

The blog entry is still up.

http://blogs.chron.com/lopezblog/archives/2007/08/_30.html

[Wildcatter Orange]

Thanks, Doc. I missed it when I went to the site and thought it had been removed.

[truthandlife]

Wow, big loss for the Houston soccer community. It will be interesting to see if the Chronicle changes its soccer coverage because of his departure.

[anderson]

At least he'll still be on the radio. Lopez has been pusing soccer in Houston for years. Best of luck to him.

[CeltTexan]

Yep, I recall JL writing about many moons ago how well an MLS franchise would do here in Houston and that it needed to be done the right way.
JL knows that there are some MLS owners that can take a powerful market like Houston and pull a Colorado on the players and supporters that stifles growth in the original years.
That is what has been such a success in our first 16 months now....our media has backed, for lack of a better word, us Houston fans and it has delivered what is fealt down at the Rob come kickoff. Ultimately our Coaches and players have gained the most cuz they had to go thru the move process.
John knew Houston had the potential. His insight on the soccer culture as viewed from a Houston sportswriter will be greatly missed. I really enjoy reading from a U.S. sports writer that actually knows our U.S. sports psyche and what the world sports scene is talking about. O sea, a guy his age that knows what hitting for the cycle means and how tough that is and also knowing how tough a natural hat trick is to pull off.
See you 'round amigo.

[TX Bill]

Well that stinks.

Hopefully his "replacement" will be on the bandwagon also.

[Jasonian]

I've lived in 4 MLS markets since the league started (New England, NYC, San Jose, Houston) and Houston has by far the best media coverage of MLS. It's really not even close.

Hopefully John can still give some love to the Dynamo on AM 790. And we still got Glen Davis and Craig Roberts.