This came completely out of left field. Turns out that a private company has approached the Dynamo about building a stadium just outside the Galleria Link Here is a Google Map of the area. The open lot on the right of Rice Ave. Houston Chronicle Link As for the "old" stadium, still no news on that except that it is "60-90 days" away from being a done deal
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership The reporting is either bad or something up/wrong with the other site. For the sake of the locals and MLS in general, let's hope that one of these comes to fruition, and fast.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership What benefit is it to the people who want to build it? if the dynamo have to pay rent, then that pretty much defeats one of the main purposes for having your own stadium, doesn't it? dynamo control their own revenue and it is also used as a concert venue, maybe?
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership It seems like these developers want to use a stadium as an anchor to spur more development. And none of the recent major league stadiums have involved ownership by the team, since teams have realized they could let someone else (like city/state) own the facility and have them pay for the maintenance. And then, use their status as primary tenants to bargain favorable rent and control over certain revenue streams. So I dont think this is a big concern. In fact, only Crew Stadium, HDC, and Red Bull Park are owned by MLS teams. The rest are owned by cities.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership Two options can't be bad when there are other clubs without any options. It would be nice to see DC finally get their own home also, 4 time league champs with about 12 trophies and no stadium to call their own yet, and New England is also the other club of the original 10 in MLS without a great stadium situation and lacking a great soccer atmosphere.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership KC was a pleasant surprise. This would be off da hook. Can't D'hoya smack someone around, or are the punches to lightweight?
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership That is a killer location. I can imagine traffic would be rotten though.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership Almost a full page and not a single crack about "dynamos"? Sheesh. 30 acres would be a pretty small site. Your average MLS SSS has a 10-15 acre footprint, and most are on sites well over 50 acres with parking, other fields, etc. Any public transit here? Because otherwise it looks like you'd have to share parking with Sam's Club or Home Depot or something. Nice to see Bubba's Texas Burger Shack next door though. -Edited to say that yes, I see the bit about the light rail line. Do people use it?
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership The reporter lady mentioned it would be right on a light rail line for what thats worth.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership HUGE benefit. http://www.nassaubay.com/redevelopment_TIRZ.htm Basically as a TIRZ, any increase in tax revenue to the city because of the developer improvements gets reimbursed to the developer for a period of years, or reinvested in more improvements... So if they already own a bunch of land, they are just fronting the initial investment and as long as it takes off, it gets improved on the public dime. It's actually a pretty awesome plan as far as it looks at first glance. But sweet jesus... reading the comments section on that article is worse than wandering into "Rivalries" on BS! There are some goddamn lunatics wandering around the Houston interwebs.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership Don't forget St Louis! They have 2 options that want SSS built.... and all they have is the brother of a famous dude for a coach, and some letterhead with the team logo.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership The Downtown site is roughly 12 acres. The Dynamo have long planned a training facility/extra soccer fields in Pearland, which is in southern Houston. I imagine that it hasn't been built because the stadium hasn't. When the latter goes up, so will the former. Besides, there just isn't any room in downtown Houston (and the Galleria might as well be a 2nd downtown for all intents and purposes) for a Dick's style stadium. Yes, people use it. The probably ATM is that the current rail only connects Reliant Stadium to downtown and the medical center. The only people using it are those who live in the area (not too many people) and those who travel between the two during the day. Once the additional lines are put in (to UH, Galleria, etc), I imagine it'll get more and more use. Traffic already sucks balls there. IIRC, the streets are two lanes each way with a median and some sidewalk space to work with (the buildings aren't flush on the road). However, that's based on memory and someone should drive on by to confirm that. Add 59 @ 610 has got to be one of the worst freeway intersections in the country.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership if there is any team in the MLS that deserves a real stadium is the Dynamo. I hope you guys get it soon- its a shame to watch you guys play in that crappy-ass field.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership First thought - I sure hope this proposal is serious, because it might just torpedo any progress on the public, downtown deal.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership I grew up in Spring Branch and that location is quite central to everywhere (with the lone exception of the newer northern suburbs like Kingwood and The Woodlands which didn't really exist when I grew up).
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership Seems like that's already happened from what I've read. The support for the needed public money for the downtown stadium had already dried up which was why the stadium was stalled. Still hopefully this does turn out to be real. A privately financed stadium is much easier to get through and more likely to be built assuming they can line up the private financing. Only downside is that with no public money there's little public input during the process and thus little news for folks like us to talk about.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership Judging by the map, this looks central enough for the region--right off the 610which is an inner-loop freeway. Traffic won't be an issue unless there are weekday games. If there is a light rail stop that's icing on the cake.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership that really was a serious question, not trying to poke sticks in anyone's cages. thanks for the serious reply. that's good/interesting to know
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership Bubba's Texas Burger Shack! Sounds like they need to be on Triple D Houston away trip!!!
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership Yeah, the "Taco stands on every corner in the galleria" remark is one of the most overt racial remarks I've read in some time. Simply awful. As to the story, I think having multiple options is a good thing. Just ask DCU fans, who at the moment have zero options.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership I did a 6-year tour in Georgia, and 11 years in Virginia... I don't mind the overt racist nearly as much as the liberal-wannabe closet racists that roam the streets round these parts. It's particularly the blindness, wrongness, and sincere animosity that strikes me. I just imagine these people as Wile E Coyote crashing into cliffs with painted-on tunnels, all throughout life... steadfastly believing that next time there will be a tunnel... and probably the last one was too, just Wile E don't remember too good. My point here is that if you're ANTI- A) soccer B) Mexican C) gov't money for stadiums, and D) the illegals that attend those gay soccer games, ALL OF YOUR GOALS ARE ACCOMPLISHED. A) If you hate soccer... well they're going to play it no matter what. Since the location is somewhere you don't want to go anyway, best keep it there. B) If you hate Mexicans... That's great! Because all the new development will drive those broke illegals back into even worse hovels, possibly even across the border (cross your fingers!). What's the point of community investment if it doesn't lead to gentrification? C) There's no .gov money! Oh sure, tax reinvestments on revenues they wouldn't have had anyway... blah blah. It's privately funded, and if you don't visit there, you don't pay a cent. D) The #1 A+ Best Fans in All of America, if not Earth, are in Seattle-- among the top 3 rated Whitest places to wave the red, White and blue. Sure there's a bunch of gays here.... but if Houston wants to be on top, a stadium is the lube that will let the fans there drill new revenues all throughout the bowels of that proud American Football City.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership i was reading some of the post from the article and wow i feel like there are a bunch of idoits that dont realize that soccer is for everyone no matter what race , creed, nationality, or gender. you dont hear about mls players getting introuble with the police for dogfighting, guns, murder, or steroids. Yet all these people are panicing.
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership Seriously, why do they even put sandwiches on the menu?
Re: Dynamo Offered New Stadium By Private Ownership I kind of think that those people posting are not actually from Houston. Because Houston has a pretty big Mexican population, and already has "a taco stand on every corner" and already had them for the last 30 years, if not longer. And most of them are pretty good. I used to live in Dallas, which is now 50% Hispanic, and for the most part, most people are pretty proud of the long history of Hispanic heritage in Texas. Some people are concerned about the illegal immigration, but most everyone has Mexican friends and appreciates the general contributions that are made to the society by Hispanics. And I am talking primarily about conservative Republicans. Sure there are some crazy wingnuts out there, but they are far from the mainstream, and my gut tells me that the people posting this stuff are not Texans, nor Houstonians.