Chicago returning to their red kit is solid. Nashville has a good look. Columbus looks like Charlie Brown. Ours still looks odd to me in all purple and then orange Adidas stripes.
New for 2024 @ShellEnergyStdm, anyone with a ticket can now hang and chill at what was the Heineken Bar. New name, no wristbands starting Saturday #Hustlin4More pic.twitter.com/J1ChE4DszZ— maggie mckethan (@maggiemckethan) February 20, 2024
That catchy line there of "anyone with a ticket can hang and chill" is awesome in its historical resonance! I mean at our old Rob, anyone and everyone that wanted to enjoy their Dynamo soccer was always welcomed to hang and chill in our supporters section. No wristbands required. This allowed so many newbies to the beautiful game to purchase s ticket at the Rob, find their seat and sit down but eventually take notice of that fun and rockin' section. So they and their friends would get up and wander over. Then get a taste of standing for soccer, singing for their players to play hard and after that game day experience, many would be hooked on the fun they just had! For our FO, they hit pay dirt with this ease of endearing new Dynamo fans as the sport sold itself. However, once we moved downtown the FO came up with this odd concept of wristbands and not allowing fans to purchase a ticket and just be free to join in on the fun. Years on and our FO at least has it half right once again, let people wander over and meet up to have fun.
This YouTuber named Da Bronco ranks all the new MLS threads. I found him funny. His take on HDFC purple (Move your mouse to reveal the content) His take on HDFC purple (open) His take on HDFC purple (close) Houston culture? Sheeeet. I’m snitchin on that. That DRUG culture Dude.
From the HBJ - two notes (1) the STH sales claim could be taken two ways either up 20% in total STH or 20% increase over 2023 STH off-season sales. I wonder what the base was actually down to since we were last in MLS in attendance last year and the announced figures were clearly goosed up and (2) Dynamo all in on the revenue yield model with no discounting they are adopting the practice of squeezing more out of existing customers than trying to grow the base, which is what a lot of companies seem to be doing today. “Ahead of the Dynamo’s MLS 2024 season home opener on Feb. 24, season ticket sales are up 20% year over year, HDFC President ofBusiness Operations Jessica O’Neill said. That increase is a direct result of the Dynamo’s performance last season and the investmentsmade into the stadium, she said. Additionally, the club shifted some of its ticketing strategies last year to drive more value for season ticket holders. That included halting almost all discounted tickets and flash sales. O’Neill said that the increase in the season ticket base is an early indicator that some of those ticketing strategies are having a positive impact.”
Told ya! I was one of the first to bring up the lean connection and most of y’all, the Reddit nerds, and other Dynamo fans thought I was crazy. I’m only “street” adjacent and I knew about the purple stuff. Even then I have never ever had anyone offer me lean. Weed, coke, moonshine, x, yes. Glorified NyQuil with sprite, never. It inadvertently proves my point that the majority of Dynamo fans aren’t in the same Venn diagram as Houston 90s drug culture and it’s a stupid attempt at being relevant to a market segment that ain’t going to buy tickets. As opposed to something corny like the HLSR, Astroworld, the Oilers, the Coogs, Be Someone, NASA, breakfast tacos, kolaches, BBQ, hurricanes, MedCenter, the skyline, the bayou that is relevant to all Houstonians no matter the hood, race, or socioeconomic level.
“in the last 5 days, they Dynamo have seen an over 100% increase in ticket sales over 2023 to groups that contain members with multiple non-violent misdemeanor drug charges or currently out on zero cash bond from the Harris County Jail”
We should just stick with the space theme. Everyone loves NASA, it is a source of American pride. You ever heard anyone say, "hell no I hate NASA!" I remember 1 year the Rockets had that whole "light the fuse" theme, man that was an awesome pre-game hype video. Someone could design a little space suit for Diesel to run around in, nachos in space helmets, a little cartoon of HH kicking a ball to the moon for Diesel to collect and score. Shit like that would be cool. Oh, and invite the astronauts, everyone likes them. Little kids would want to meet them and shit, good wholesome fun for everyone.
i personally would like white/light blue in terms of tradition and for the heat. i personally think the "spain" 3rd jersey is the best thing they ever did. i think the purple is generally fine, not too busy as often they are, and would be ok as a third jersey that didn't have to fit a scheme. what i don't get is changing the road color every 5 years, other than to work the cash register. what about tradition. also, and this is a small beef, but they should have the logo match the purple and orange scheme. the black logo doesn't fit. it's like you sewed an old badge on a new shirt. we have done "black and orange" logo stuff for the black jerseys. so do a recolorized version of the logo with the purple and orange to blend with the jersey. or are we sufficiently insecure on the (forced) rebranding it can't be touched.
That’s not a bad idea for an away jersey. I agree the crest can be done differently on the purple jersey. They can’t really change the color but I’ve seen adidas is an element of the crest as the whole crest for certain jerseys. Philadelphia has the snake as the crest in their current road jersey, Manchester United has the devil isolated as the crest in their current third jersey. I think you could have isolated the “HD” against the purple backdrop.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/houston-dynamo-release-new-secondary-jersey-2016 this is an example. the original logo has the ball/explosion/lettering in white. so they turned it orange. the difference would be the old logo background was black, which fit the color scheme tweak, and here black is what doesn't match the color palette. which is what happens with jersey color of the month. i'd say turn the background matching purple then have the script and whatnot orange. and i like your idea too. why not just a logo, you don't need a crest. yeah the trend almost seems to be towards hypersimplicity, you could just use the script HD. i always thought HD Houston Dynamo was redundant for a logo anyway. logos are meant to be shorthand, and at least when the old logo spelled it out, it didn't also use initials.
Adidas could have easily made our crest purple background with an orange star. Houston Texas soccer minimal crest.
This is an interesting Dynamo FO/stadium post. I Gotta say this is what I expect at this point and they’ve never gotten this right in the last nine or 10 years. Nothing they promise ever seems to work correctly and then it almost seems like they don’t care that it didn’t. This is why I just can never be a season ticket holder again there’s always money left on the table for something you pay for or they promise you that they don’t come through with. While this is fresh on my mind, I want to vent. I have had people in the FO complain to me before that I am too negative about the Dynamo, but I always think I’m generally the most positive person on Dynamo Twitter. But last night everyone in the SportsDeck was pissed..— Web 🕸 Tilton ☮️🚴🏼 (@webtilton) February 25, 2024
On last nights game: - I have not seen an attendance figure, not on MLSSoccer.com or elsewhere; would guess they will announce like 17,000 but it probably was like 12,000. Lots of sections of empty seats. Think Rodeo does impact this. - The Sportsdeck complaints are in the twitter thread in the prior post. As I said, completely unsurprised, I remember they used to give like a free popcorn or soda to STHs a decade ago and if you brought the coupon to the concession stand they treated it like it was an advanced calculus problem. Those are really cool seats up there though. - This will sound like a complaint but maybe more of an observation, but I think they've oversold the East Club a bit compared to its functional capacity (not the fire marshal limit). Its not sold out but the field seats now have access and its fairly crowded in there with longish lines for food at various times and not a ton of seating. if sold out, it would be pretty crowded. I know early in the year they do give out some freebie tickets to some possible buyers. But given the price of those seats at face value, the price-to-value ratio is marginal. Food is OK, its really more of a volume play for someone trying to get value out of those seats. Seats are really jammed in with the high backs not giving a toon of room. Plus is AC in the summer and you can watch from the windows. When I get these free, its all good, but if I was paying full price I might be annoyed. What a beautiful night for soccer it was! Can't get any better than that
I know you’re not a fan of Web, but he’s probably the biggest supporter and friendliest Dynamo fan on the planet. If the F.O. really thinks that of him that’s very telling. I don’t have twatter. What’s was the complaint.
Think @DynamoManiac explained it in the game thread. Usual FO screw up. I used to think much of this was just incompetence, staff stretched too thin, turnover, etc. - now I feel like its almost planned failure and keep the incremental revenue or take the money and manage the complaint on the back end after you already have the cash.
Sports deck ticket holders must pay for $30 of concessions in advance. Use it or lose it. None of the concessions would/could honor it.
It is preposterous that this is the way the club treats it's member. Those are premium seats, advertised as such, sold as such. There is simply no excuse. How can a club be this poorly run? I have said it before, but this is why I will never buy premium seats, they are always playing around with them. Also, how do we not have our membership boxes already? This should be simple stuff. If I paid what those people in the Sports Deck did, I would be livid.
Recall that when AEG made the decision to relocate San Jose to Houston, those in charge of this process had no business model in place to capture this new market they are moving to. I mean from December 16th of 2005 to Opening Kick on April 2and 2006 was so little time for us fans and supporters to get all our ducks in a row to celebrate our new players and coaches. For example, Toronto had four years lead up time to launch their club just one after us there in 2007. It shows how well they launched with giving their fans and supporters much say in the launch. Which we all did such a good job as well in Houston coming together to show the league Houston Texas. However, our FO, specifically marketing a sales just had no clue coming in from California on what Houston was all about. Our diversity, our youth scene and just how soccer savvy our fan base is. Then once they began to engage with local businesses the feedback was raw and many talked about how late our club was in submitting payments and just planning their days out in front of them. This appears to be some long time thorn in our club's side even though AEG is now long gone. The blueprint for success was inbeeded into our FO staff, stick to highballing our club's most ardent fans and resort to gimmicky sales that promise much but in real world experience, the fan is left wanting if not frustrated and eventually pissed off at this treatment over the years. Our FO finds ways to bleed season ticket holders.
Listen buddy. You need some re-indoctrination by the uber-smart sports management professionals. You need to accept your role as a fungible sports fan, expected always to be completely loyal, who should be grateful for whatever our HDFC overlords deem to let us have. You are being sent to Nashville to be a Predators fan until you are able to correctly express appreciation and support for the pro-sports franchise that allows you the grace of supporting it.
this club is “Forever Transactional” in that no matter how much they push the “membership” angle and loyalty it’s is all about the spreadsheets - which I get to a certain point but a little bit of humanity and customer service would go a long way
Apparently they announced 18,818 as the attendance Saturday night - this implies about 90% seats sold, but there wasn’t 60% butts in seats. Did 5,000 folks just eat their tickets? This is what I always question these announced figures since whole blocks of seats had no one in them
When I worked in the FO of our old USL team, our budget was so stretched thin that if anyone gets it on the importance of spreadsheet data for a pro soccer team in this nation it's someone that has been there with the owner and the spreadsheet come to Jesus hour! Yet all us Houston folks are for the most part very easy to please fan base and easy to work with at all levels from casual fans, to corporate suits to the family dad with kiddos to die hard junkie, just treat all of us decent like and we all will keep returning as long as nothing drastic is tossed our way, i.e. massive ticket price increase after consistent losing seasons, poor treatment at game day, cutting away hand outs and special events and certainly do not go blaming us fans for the ills at the FO. Don't piss on our hats and tell us its raining!!!
I’ll sum it up this way as a lapsed STH: man I really love soccer and want to support it but this club really doesn’t give a shit about me. Now, I will add that under the Brener/Canetti regime the club was just purely cheap; Segal has spent good money on the roster and has made investments in the stadium, but wants to see an equity investor current return on that investment. Which is fair.