^^^This, this is my mega theme. Look, a fan of the beautiful game perhaps would prefer the commentary be in their dominant language but if there is an intriguing game this weekend and I want to watch said game, the broadcast language means nothing to me. Ease of access to watch does! Wait, when the World Cup arrives next Summer, me and my buddies watch every game we can live! League games from the various leagues here in our Americas and over in Europe are more what you are speaking on I suspect Don.
Like you, world cup games have alway met that definition, along with all games of any type of my beloved USMNT.
Yesterday was the 20 year anniversary of our Houston Dynamo defeating the New England Revolution up at Robertson North to win our first MLS Cup Championship. What a day that was!!! DALE DYNAMO! and FOREVER ORANGE!!!
Texas 9-1-1 calls during World Cup will be answered with AI The North Central Texas Council of Government has reportedly approved a $200,000 funding to support "[Artificial Intellegence] software designed to support emergency dispatch operations," during the 2026 World Cup, according to Spectrum News' Michael Lozano. Why the AI implementation for the World Cup? Police in North Texas tell Lozano an AI dispatcher will be able to quickly identify a foreign language spoken on the phone—officials expect callers speaking between "20 and 30 languages,"—then place the speaker in contact with a proper translator. Yes, they misspelled intelligence!
It was actually the 19th anniversary. 20th Dynamo season but the first title was in November 2006. easy to get confused because of how the Dynamo FO marketed the 20th season of the club
Check Westie! Every expansion team has an owner that announces the club's entrance into MLS, to then drop the brand image with the team's crest, color scheme and uniforms for the first season. All this is done at least 1 to 2 years if not 3 or 4 years in advance. Thus, allowing the construction of a stadium and for fans to prep for Opening Day in Season 1. All of us in Houston were given 4 months to be told by AEG to show up in the 3rd Ward at The Rob for an MLS team in unknown crest and colors. What stands out for me and my buddies is that us in Houston did not know what our team's colors were going to be even by February 2006, to then be league champions just 9 months later in November of 2006!!!
Our legendary d-mid Ricardo Clark is now coaching with Seattle. Good on ya! Sounders FC Hires Ricardo Clark as Assistant Coach | Seattle Sounders
I think it was in this thread that some discussed the desire for a USL team to come to Houston. That USL v MLS thing is taking shape up in Dallas. The inimitable Jason Davis reports on it here: https://jason-davis-soccer-eagle.gh...llas/?ref=jason-davis-soccer-eagle-newsletter
From that article: Atlético wants to build an edgy, street soccer brand around its professional soccer effort and believes it can connect to the Latino soccer community in Dallas (hence, the club's name). Kyle Martino is involved as an investor and the club is making his Street FC pickup platform a part of its push into North Texas soccer culture. It's hard to know how much of a dent Aletico has made 14 months from putting a team on the field, but there's no denying their creativity in chasing a fanbase. Look at his rendering of a headquarters/bar/beer garden/soccer court the organization is planning for the Expo Park area of Dallas, just a few blocks from the Cotton Bowl
@CeltTexan You actually highlighted a part of that article I found remarkable because that is to some degree the strategy that HDFC has used as the core of the Dynamo brand. I've been critical of that strategy and attribute that decision as a big part of the failure of the Dynamo organization. Will be interesting to see if Athleti D can do it more effectively and have it work.
Sources: Kyle Tucker, Dodgers agree to 4-year, $240M deal - ESPN These payments numbers! Tucker's deal comes with $30 million deferred, a source told ESPN, confirming multiple reports. That gives it a present-day average annual value of $57.1 million, a record, beating Juan Soto's $51 million AAV with the Mets. Because the Dodgers are already on track to exceed MLB's highest luxury tax threshold in 2026, prompting a 110% average, Tucker will cost them $119.9 million annually. ..... New York Yankees combined. Their competitive balance tax (CBT) payroll finished at $417 million. With Tucker, they're projected for a CBT payroll of slightly over $400 million by season's end, according to Cot's Contracts.
It’s probably fair to say the Dynamo’s Futbolito in the City program did not live up to expectations. By and large, that seems attributable to where many of the pitches were placed. Several locations were in neighborhoods that demographic data shows is dominated by DINKs. The Bastrop Promenade pitch is the prime example, I feel. Its result was sunk cost with little use. For more than a year, it was a well-known illegal dumping site that I had to report regularly. It was eventually cordoned off with flexible plastic fencing, but I am told will be revamped by a non-Dynamo entity for WC 2026 events. The people in the area are more likely to gravitate toward Pitch 25’s footy nights. Kick the ball around with friends, grab a drink, and enjoy convos. By contrast, the 2018 revamp of the long-neglected hardcourt area at Eastwood Park in partnership with US Soccer and Target has been an undeniable success. The space is always in use, whether for soccer or other things. It's so well-used the Eastwood Park revamp master plan explicitly preserves the Dynamo’s initial idea: https://tirz23.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Eastwood-Park-Master-Plan-and-Cost-Estimate.pdf Another example, all three photographs on the program’s promotional page are from Eastwood Park (you can see the bright orange facade of the Refesqueria Tampico and the auto shop in the background): https://www.houstondynamofc.com/charities/futbolito Houston’s parks are largely maintained through conservancies, which are primarily supported by philanthropic donations, and those dollars tend to flow west. Resultantly, East End parks are underfunded, which shows while the Dynamo’s investment was small in dollar amount and tangible usable space, its impact was greatly felt. What was likely a really modest investment—resurfacing, paint, and goals—has become a genuine neighborhood asset. Kids and adults alike have an engaging space, and for a time it was adorned with Dynamo branding.
One more add, I was told the Dynamo's role was more presence, less financial. Target and US Soccer footed the bulk of the $6 million. It's incredibly on brand for the Dynamo to still promote the program as whole but not further integrate Eastwood Park, one area where this investment undoubtedly saw returns in terms of use, into its schedule. People showed up when they did events there, as the promotional photos show.
The Dynamo brand is half-assed commitments with a press release, video footage, and little cash behind it. This city really should have had a Liga MX team that was all-in for winning vs. the Diet Coke version of MLS we have in the Dynamo
If one was following MLS in the early years, the Dallas Burn played their home games at the Cotton Bowl located in the South Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. Which the team got traction with the Latino soccer fans as they showed in number and voice all things considered for those early years of the league. South Oak Cliff is akin to 3rd Ward. So when AEG informed us that The Rob was where we had to drive to, park, tailgate and watch our MLS team, to do this often at night, well, we all did! In solid numbers and more importantly, what was so awesome of our first years is how diverse the crowd was at The Rob. By 2010, we did not go in on the suburb concept with the Berry Center in Cypress or some Sugar Land stadium site and yet we have witnessed our original, our core fanbase spiral in attendance badly even when we became the first MLS team to build in a downtown area. Now our attendance issues are wide and deep, with the chase to win new fans in place these recent years, this for our other thread. Just before our expansion into MLS in '06, the Dallas Burn FO does the dumbest move and goes and builds a stadium way out of Dallas, way North in Frisco and that was it for their original Latino fan group. Their fans will openly speak of this. So if this Atletico Dallas club concept can make the downtown Cotton Bowl work in their early years to eventually build that "headquarters/bar/beer garden/soccer court the organization is planning for the Expo Park area of Dallas, just a few blocks from the Cotton Bowl", then they might hit paydirt.
FC Dallas/Burn got a good stadium deal. The Cotton Bowl area is near a sketchy area and there is a reason another new stadium or arena has not been built near there. I'll spare us all the rehashing of the merits of building a Downtown Houston stadium only to try and do it on the cheap and then not invest in the product or business enough such that they squandered the prime location. Seriously, they got a core Downtown location then built a Pearland-level type of facility. Still think they should have partnered with HISD (a challenge) to build a stadium at Delmar, which would have been a good location
I coached for a decade in HISD as a younger man and the very last thing any pro sports team with a brain would want to do is go into business with HISD district suits. They can't even pay their own teachers and staff timely and or effectively much less be trusted as a business partner. I did think the Delmar location was the ideal spot if we could not get a downtown site. I-10 finally got expanded and so would 290. Last time I was at the Cotton Bowl was for the Red River game and this in the mid 80's, so I thought that that State Fair are and Cotton Bowl Stadium were in the SOC neighborhood there in downtown Dallas. Guess not! HA!
Speaking of new soccer dealings up in Dallas. 'TopGolf-like soccer experience' bookings are available now and they're hiring, too, right before the World Cup comes to DFW The first TOCA Social venue opened in London to huge success and was recently named winner of the 2024 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards, TOCA officials said. A second venue opened in Birmingham, England in June 2024 and then a third location was opened in Westfield White City, London. TOCA Social Dallas is the beginning of a planned expansion across major U.S. cities, officials previously told WFAA, as TOCA aims to bring its unique blend of soccer and entertainment to a wider audience. In October 2022, TOCA football announced a 10-year partnership with Major League Soccer aimed at growing the sport and developing America's future players. TOCA Football operates five Indoor Soccer Training Centers in the DFW area: Mansfield, The Colony, Keller, Carrollton and Allen.
As an old inner city coach I found this video very interesting. Howard's 1974 championship soccer team | Watch
https://www.uslleaguetwo.com/news_article/show/1354187 Texas has both the Lone Star and Ranger USL2 divisions. Lone Star: AC Houston Sur AHFC Royals GFI Academy Hill Country Lobos Houston FC Laredo Heat FC Lonestar SC San Antonio FC 2 Twin City Toucans Ranger: Denton Diablos Fort Worth Vaqueros FC Lubbock Matadors SC McKinney Chupacabras FC Texoma FC West Texas FC
I know this doesn't really go in response to this list -- but it is appropriate to this one guy and it is soccer stuff not appropriate elsewhere. Looking at these clubs especially in that large Lone Star division with its namesake mega-club the Austin area's Lonestar SC. Lonestar was created years ago, I'm sure not by one guy, but by a Key guy named Hue Menzies. Hue lead that club in the early years and helped build it into the giant it now is before moving to Florida to be closer to his mother. Hue grew up in Jamaica. Hue is most known for answering a call from Bob Marly's daughter who asked him to lead the Women's Jamaican national team. He did it not only without pay, but had to put money in. He focused on getting his players into good situations to train and play away from the national team. His team, in 2019, became the first Caribbean team at the World Cup. Hue went to High School in Houston at St. Thomas High School on Memorial at Shepherd. This Saturday, a number of us that played with him at STH will join him for his induction into the STH sports hall of fame. He was the Rock central defender/holding MF on our 1981 team that won a State Championship. Here's to you Hue.
Interesting tidbit regarding MLS, posted by venerable Walt Tannenwald of the Philadelphia Enquirer, found in FIFA's annual report on player transfers: