Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Dynamo want soccer stadium by 2009

The new MLS Champions are enjoying their victory with a block party at city hall this evening from 5-7pm. This tops off a wonderfully successful first year for the club.

Next up for the club's owners, a new soccer specific complex. Their goal is to be in a new home by 2009.

As anyone who followed the team knows, it was the lack of a stadium that 'forced' the team to move from San Jose to Houston in the first place. The team's owners want a complex that "could be used for other entertainment venues, such as concerts as well as international soccer matches."

It seems they have talked with a number of cities around the area including Sugar Land, Webster and Pearland (see underlined areas on map).

Their current home is Robertson stadium, which is located near downtown Houston on the campus of the University of Houston. They will continue to play there for two more seasons.

It would be great to have a stadium in the city on the team's jersey, but that is a rarity in any sport these days. I don't know much about the area, so I can't say anything good or bad about any of them. However, if they really want to have a stadium opened in 2009, they will need to make a choice soon since it will take about 16-20 months to build it.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Pitch to Pub said...

Pearland is about 15 miles south of Houston. It is an afluent community primarily boasting new housing subdivisions and all of the home depots, best buys, walmarts, targets, and other suburb supporting establishments you heart would desire. My sister in-law teaches in Pearland.

Sugar Land is about 25 miles southwest of Houston. It is very similar to Pearland. Afluent community. Most of the neighborhoods there are about 5 years older than those of Pearland. Basically, once the builders built out Sugar Land, they moved to Pearland.

I lived in Houston for a total of 14 years broken up in a 12 and 2 year stint, and I had to look up Webster on the map. I'd never heard of it. It is very close to NASA about 25 miles South East of Houston down I-45 on the way to Galveston. This community (like NASA) was booming in the 70s. Its a sleepy place now, and it would be a mistake to put a team here.

Of these 3 options, Pearland would get my vote. It is the easiest to get to from most parts of Houston (unless you live up North of the city in areas like Kingwood or The Woodlands which has the non-hispanic demographic MLS is after).

Both Sugar Land and Pearland are a lot like Frisco Texas, home of Pizza Hut Park. Pearland is probably a tad closer to Houston than Frisco is to Dallas. And Pearland is probably less than 10 miles from Reliant Stadium, home of the Texans and the Hosuton Rodeo in the Spring (which is a huge event - you wouldn't understand if you never lived there).

As a side note, I was in Frisco for the MLS Cup. The Dynamo fans are as good as they come. It was a great atmosphere. I just watched some of the game on Tivo and was glad to see the atmosphere came across in the broadcast.

P2P

10:04 PM  
Blogger Mike H said...

P2P,

Great to hear from you again. Thanks for all the information. It will be interesting to see where the stadium ends up.

I too was impressed with the Dynamo fans in Frisco. They really brought a great feeling to the game. I also have to hand it to the New England supporters. There were nowhere near as many, but they will giving it everything they had.

2:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pearland area around 288 and the beltway is a perfect location for the stadium you can come down the beltway, 288, or gulf freeway to get to the stadium. compare to Sugarland were you would have to drive 59 south with all the terrible traffic. best bet for the dynamo is Pearland there is land and the city needs a soccer complex. Matter of fact the city of pearland soccer assocition is allright working with the Dynamos.

1:04 AM  

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