According the ticketmaster website (accessed from the Houston ticket depost link from the MLS website), the Houston club will be playing at Robertson Stadium, on the campus of Univeristy of Houston.
Excellent. More reason to come by and visit my Alma Mater when I travel back to Houston for business next year. Now that Houston has MLS, my trips from Chicago to Houston will be way more fun . . . especially when the FIRE come to town to whoop their A$$es.
During the press conferance did they mention anything about the financials of Robertson? Are they getting a better deal there then they would have got at Spartan Stadium?
Or more importantly, what are the financials moving forward? I had trouble connecting with the press conference early on, so if they discussed what the plans for a new or redeveloped stadium are, I missed it.
I tuned in during the middle of UH athletic director Dave Maggard's speech and he was talking about he was looking forward to "saving you money" or somesuch when he was addressing AEG.
Are we going to have to deal with games with football lines on the field? Does anyone know if they even plan to address this?
A few months ago, this deal at Robertson supposedly involved AEG paying for new Fieldturf. I hope somebody saw the light here and doesn't ruin the soccer experience by doing that. Not to mention the blistered feet during a Houston summer. Remember Southlake?
There surely will be Football lines but from the pictures that sure looks like the kind of stadium the rest of the league calls a SSS. Intimate 32K. Also looks like they can expand the endlines on all sides to meet the larger field size desired by Soccer. It will be interesting to see just how this plays out since the UH wants to make the deal attractive and fiscally attractive. I'm a Rev fan and we share The Razor with the Patriots. The Football lines have not been a problem---the size (68K) has. Robertson looks like an ideal size (32K) for an MLS franchise.
Maybe to you the Football lines aren't a problem, but to this Revs fan I hate the field after August 1st. I agree the size sucks.
Capacity: 32,000 with 20 luxury suites Surface: Grass PLEASE DON'T QUOTE THE PICTURE because it would stretch the page that you are replying. I apologize for stretching page 1, but the picture must be post.
Just make sure tha the Earthquakes bring along their grounds keeper on their move to Houston. I thought he/she did a good job in painting over the football lines.
The Earthquakes didn't have a groundskeeper. They rented from Spartan Shops. And FieldTurf will be different.
Too bad about the Fieldturf with permanent American football markings and lines on it. Maggard has got to be kidding if he think MLS would keep a team there permanently, especially with Fieldturf and football markings. (At least New England plays on real grass.)
FIELD TURF! http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3530277.html "Grass at John O' Quinn Field will be replaced with FieldTurf. AEG is likely to pick up the tab for the installation as well as other improvements to the stadium." Unwatchable. I can take narrow fields, muddy fields, but Field Turf changes the entire game, making it more like hockey or something. No through-balls and no slide tackles means a different game. Houston EQUALS Southlake. Field Turf and football lines. And this is for three years at least, through the 2008 season. Have fun with the blisters, DeRo.
Wow! The only things lacking there are revenue and date control. It is nice enough, and the right size. With the right control-sharing deal it could work indefinitely. Certainly the best temporary option yet if that's how it turns out.
The Fieldturf and American football markings will also not be encouraging to the players making the move to Houston. For those not under contract, they will surely factor it in to their decision on whether to re-sign with MLS and, assuming they do re-sign, for how long and other pertinent terms of their contracts.
Because part of the deal with the school is that AEG will be paying to have the turf put in and the stadium is for the pointy ball team.. It has to have the markings when they put in the turf I believe though someone said they can make ones that can be removed and replaced.. I've never seen that.. Has anyone?
Salt Lake City, i.e., the field on which RSL plays. And just about every other Fieldturf field in the U.S. that is used primarily for American football and secondarily for soccer.
I see this a lot. I just don't get the hang up with football lines. It's not preferable, but it's not uncommon in American sports where teams share stadiums. The Phillies played for three decades with football lines on the turf at the Vet. I see football/rugby lines on soccer games from Europe and Mexico. Robertson Stadium is a temporary solution for 2006. At the very least, it won't be a repeat of the purple endzones at Southlake.