Tory reminds me that there were a couple of letters to the editor on Sunday that called for the stadium-seeking Houston Dynamo to be united with the purpose-needing Astrodome. We've been over this before, but let me reiterate the key reason why this ain't gonna happen: The Dynamo have no interest in using the Dome. The franchise relocated here from San Jose because they wanted their own stadium and couldn't make it happen there. They're putting up their own money to cover somewhere between 75 and 90% of the cost of that stadium. There's no way on earth that they will suddenly decide they're better off as tenants in a cavernous, out of date venue, no matter how much nostalgia there is for it. It makes no sense.

Now, if the Dynamo were seeking a publicly-financed stadium as our other franchises had done a few years ago, then I could see this. But given how much public opinion has turned against such largesse, don't you think Mayor White and Judge Emmett would prefer the Dynamo's mostly privately financed venture to a taxpayer-funded refurb/retrofit of the Dome for them? Maybe I'm misreading the save-the-Dome sentiment out there, but I don't think people have factored a multimillion-dollar expenditure into their thinking.

Finally, regarding the issue of air conditioning versus the Houston summer, I say the Dome's utility bills would be another negative from the Dynamo's perspective. Why pay to cool off 60,000 people when your high-end attendance estimates are in the 25,000-30,000 range? And as for the summer weather, I have two words: night games. They do open the roof at Minute Maid when the sun goes down, you know.

Seriously. Dome/Dynamo - not gonna happen. If the hotel idea won't fly for the Dome, they're going to have to think of something else.