Dynamo Stadium Episode I: A New Home

How many games each year do we have where we will draw more than 22,000? Two, maybe three. And the attendance figures this year are loaded with the extra ticket for most STHs and other freebies.

At next year's ticket prices, we would not have drawn 25K in tickets distributed like last night. The incremental cost to build a larger stadium you can't pay back with only a few games each year filling those seats. I think the Dynamo right-sized it pretty well.

Of course, part of the design was to lower capacity to excite or create demand to buy the season ticket packages.

 

The last part I agree with, the top not so much. First, you are only guessing about the ticket prices. Since they don't have to share their gate, concessions, etc with UH, tickets might not be higher. And with a nicer stadium probably more people would come. And if we could have more Saturday night games, that helps with the 20,000 plus. Also, if you make tickets really hard to get, a lot of people may not try. Especially newbies.
I always thought 25,000 was a better number.

 

Well, on the bright side, early May is better than June or July.

Those long road game schedules for teams with new stadiums are brutal. Sure, teams get more home games at the end of the season, but they're already in such a deep hole by then that it doesn't seem to make up for the opening schedule hit. But if it's really early May, that shouldn't be too bad.

 

On a website somewhere, it stated that SOME home games could be played at Reliant Stadium just before the Dynamo Stadium opens.

 

Despite all the problems at Robertson I would much rather them play some of the early games in 2012 their than at reliant.

 

Hmmm. The economics of just opening the doors for business at Reliant are faily daunting for a stand-alone MLS crowd. I think it would be fun, but it would require some serious consideration from the Dynamo about the economics. Roberston sucks, but it at least provides a good home-field advantage.

 

I'm extremely skeptical of this. Aside from the cost, you have all the other events at Reliant Stadium. Next year the Rodeo is already there well into March and they have SuperCross already scheduled for March 31, 2012. The Dynamo would have to be scheduling dates now to be able to have games in there. Especially when you consider the prep time to switch it over to grass in the middle of their other events.

 

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/sports/local/100728-dynamo's-new-stadium-to-open-june_2012

 

OK. I guess it could happen but I'll believe it when I see it. I think a long road trip ala KC this year is more likely than playing at Reliant. I guess it depends when the actual completion date ends up. That article says June 2012. This winter the team seemed to be saying April/May.

The "big game" part seems even less likely to me. The MLS schedule is so fluid leading up to the season it is hard for me to believe that the Dynamo could schedule games at Reliant on that short of notice. Remember that our previous game at Reliant was a doubleheader and not until August 9. In August they have pretty much already switched the floor surface over to grass so it isn't as hard to host a soccer game. April and May are not going to be good dates to bring teams in for doubleheaders.

But we shall see.

 

That article is from 29 July 2010. Haven't things changed from then?

 

Canetti's European adventure

 

Pictures from May 21:

 

Pictures from May 22:

 

And pictures from May 23:

 

This article is a really good read. (It still makes me smile to see real, regular soccer coverage in the Sporting News.)

 

Pricing day will be the biggest day of the year economically for most Dynamo fans.

 

Supporter Sections!
Segregated seating?!?
Ze Germans provide their people a safe and yet festive footy experience!!!

Terrific, let's copy their Game Day operations as their footballing culture appears to be a win-win for owner and fan alike!

Ha.
Indeed.

 

First ticket pricing indicator - from the Supporter's Group article

 

So, we're looking at $700 normal season tickets in the ends in the lower tier. The sides in the lower tier will presumably be higher, although the upper tier will hopefully be more affordable for a lot of people.

The SG section pricing is clearly an outstanding deal. But you do have to know what you're getting into, which is a different thread.

 

Yeah my guess would be $660 for lower ends, $800 for lower sideline, $1600 for Club center line lower bowl. I upper bowl is a mystery but maybe starting at $550, $700, $1200 respectively.

TOTAL GUESS.

If that is close to true, it isn't a HUGE increase over my current seats.

 

I replied to WS the other day about this, I just don't see why they would raise the prices drastically, since one of the reasons for building the stadium was to keep the revenue for themselves. Without raising prices at all they will be making a lot more money on every ticket they sell, and they will be selling more per game. The money from the concessions will be theirs to keep. The naming rights for the stadium and the sponsors will be theirs. They will also be making a lot of money off the other events they will hold there. There is no reason to gouge their faithful season ticket holders. I know that sounds naive, but at least for the first year or two I doubt they will charge much more for their returning sth's.

 

While in principle what you say makes sense, consider they are also taking $60 million of new debt for the stadium. So while they certainly maintain most/all the profit in the new stadium, they have a new liability as well. Also, consider that it is an opportunity to increase margin as most will expect a bump in prices and not think about it.

I don't know if they will raise it drastically, but I think people should expect a 10-30% hike ($400 seats going to $500 is 25%) when the tickets are priced. I do think the premier seats (suites, club) will be substantially higher as the benefits will be astronomically greater (like a real club and real suites).

 

This part I do agree with, and maybe the revenue from the luxury boxes and suites will compensate for not raising the regular seats by much.

The description of the club area where members can hang with players while they're being interviewed post game sounds intriguing. Wish I were rich....

(and on the other hand, I hope they keep the regular fans meeting with players after game, that is really cool.)

 

I think 25-30% will be the floor on the increase, not the average. Remember, there is a pretty substantial season ticket discount embedded in the current prices vs. the gameday price. For example, you can sit in 204 now halfway up for I think $350 or so season ticket price. ANYTHING midfield anywhere is probably going to be $600 plus, maybe more.

So in theory, you can get tickets at only a 10% bump in the new stadium but you'll be sitting upper corner or ends.

The big adjustment will be comparing seating quality/views from Robertson to the new stadium. They should be better but that could be some debate.

Also, there is only going to be 8-10 rows in the lower bowl then suites so the upper deck seats may be a bit further away then the second tier at Robertson now is.

They really need to do an overlay of Robertson on the new stadium to give folks perspective of the seats views - I assume they will use some virtual viewer like most teams do.

But to sum up, this is the Dynamo's real chance to make a splash and grab cash and given the debt service on the new stadium, they need to do so. I understand the economic reality of paying for the new stadium on their nickel, which I fear most folks who are normal fans don't appreciate (They are probably looking at $5-6 million per year in debt service payments on a 25-year or so bond/debt on the $60M).

 

apparently UofH is replacing robertson with a 40k new stadium...as a canadian i have no scope for this (the enormity of college football / sports in america)