From the weekend: Anschutz Entertainment Group has turned down Rockets owner Leslie Alexander’s offer to purchase the Houston Dynamo and the 30-year lease on BBVA Compass Stadium, effectively ending any further negotiations between the sides. “Ownership evaluated the offer,” Dynamo president Chris Canetti said. “At the end of the day, they determined that they’re not [...]
Posts Tagged ‘soccer’
Bring the USWNT to Houston
I’m in. If you love the beautiful game, you should want to help Jen Cooper. Cooper has been on a crusade for women’s soccer in Houston for almost two decades. She’s on a mission again. Cooper is one of the key figures leading an Internet campaign to get Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and the rest [...]
Les Alexander on the verge of buying the Dynamo
I like the thought of this. Rockets owner Leslie Alexander is in the final stages of negotiations to purchase the Dynamo and secure the 30-year lease and development agreement on BBVA Compass Stadium, three officials with knowledge of the process said Thursday. The deal is not complete, but the sides are close, said the three [...]
FIFA may face up to reality
The world of international soccer may finally adopt technology to help officiate its games. The most powerful man in soccer called goal-line technology a “necessity” Wednesday, only hours after Ukraine was denied what appeared to be a legitimate goal in its must-win match against England at the European Championship. “After last night’s match GLT is [...]
BBVA Compass Stadium
Dynamo Stadium gets a new name. When the Dynamo first approached BBVA Compass before breaking ground on their new stadium, the two-time MLS Cup champions were looking for a loan to help finance the construction of the club’s venue on the East End. Now, the bank will have its name and a note on BBVA [...]
Shunning A&M
It’s not just the UT-A&M football game that’s on the endangered list. The SEC-bound Aggies have said they’d love to keep playing UT as a non-conference foe, but Longhorns athletic director DeLoss Dodds has said the school’s football schedule is full at least through 2018. That isn’t the case for all sports, but so far [...]
Saturday video break: The only thing that was missing
Surely you’ve seen Abby Wambach’s amazing last-minute goal that enabled the US Women’s National Team to come back against Brazil: It was called the most dramatic goal in World Cup history, topping Landon Donovan’s last-minute goal last year against Algeria. It must be noted, however, that the Donovan goal had one thing that the Wambach [...]
The Women’s World Cup
I’ve been enjoying the Women’s World Cup this year. Being on vacation during the first week of group play meant I got to see more games than I otherwise would have. One thing I’ve noticed is a distinct lack of wankeriffic complaints about how the women’s game is so vastly inferior to the men’s game; [...]
Dynamo Stadium groundbreaking today
I presume things will be sufficiently de-iced for the ceremony today at 2 PM at the stadium site in the East End. The stadium will have 22,000 seats, and the expansion capacity will be 30,000 over 340,000 square feet. Populous, which was previously called HOK Sports, also designed Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and Reliant [...]
The Dynamo Stadium rebate plan
Well, this is interesting. The city is poised to strike a 30-year deal giving back $3 million in projected sales tax to the Houston Dynamo as they prepare to construct their $60 million stadium. City officials say the tax rebate always has been a part of the deal that kept the team from leaving Houston, [...]
How many soccer leagues are there?
I happened across this story about a new professional soccer team coming to San Antonio, and was struck by this bit: [Team owner Gordon] Hartman and Aaron Davidson, CEO of the NASL, said that efforts by Spurs Sports & Entertainment to field a United Soccer Leagues franchise in San Antonio, also by 2012, won’t be [...]
Dynamo Stadium lease deal reached
We didn’t get the World Cup, but soccer fans here had something to celebrate this week. The Dynamo have agreed to pay $76 million to build a professional soccer stadium in downtown Houston and then lease it from the city and county for $65,000 a year. The board of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, a [...]
No World Cup for you!
Bummer. In a mild upset, tiny but oil-rich Qatar was awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup only a few minutes after Russia was awarded the 2018 bid in a process that was decided by a vote of FIFA’s 22-member executive committee today in Zurich. [...] The Go Houston Bid Committee held a private viewing breakfast [...]
World Cup locale decision time
We’ll know by tomorrow if Houston is still in the running to host the World Cup in 2022. Houston’s soccer, business and political communities will join the rest of the international soccer community in anticipation as FIFA announces the host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup on Thursday in Zurich, Switzerland. Former President [...]
Dynamo Stadium on the agenda
The Sports Authority will meet this week to try to hammer out a lease agreement for the Houston Dynamo in their future stadium. The Sports Authority will meet Dec. 2, but it won’t meet again until February, which is partly why the lease topic was placed on the agenda. [Sports Authority Chair Kenny] Friedman said [...]
Dynamo “Your Name Here” Stadium
In a conversation with the Chron, Tim Leiweke, the president of Dynamo co-owner AEG, discusses the next big item on their to-do list: The naming rights is the next task at hand and it will be a hot priority, but we expect to be under construction at the end of the year. And believe it [...]
Dynamo Stadium coming along
A very brief update from the Chron: Tim Leiweke, the president of Dynamo co-owner AEG, told the Chronicle that the Dynamo’s negotiations for a new stadium are completed for the most part and that he expects to break ground at the end of the year for the East End stadium scheduled to open in June [...]
There may be hope for FIFA yet
Maybe. We’ll see. But it’s a start. With pressure for video replay mounting after two blatant missed calls at the World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said soccer’s governing body will reopen the issue after the tournament. Blatter said Tuesday that FIFA deplores “when you see the evidence of refereeing mistakes.” It would be “a [...]
Tell me again why there can’t be instant replay in soccer?
Item one, Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal for England against Germany: Note how utterly out of position the official’s assistant was for this. Seems to me that if you’re going to have a camera in the goal, you may as well use it. As they say in that ESPN clip, FIFA refs are already using technology [...]
Dynamo Stadium design
Wondering what the new Dynamo Stadium will be like? The Chron has some early information. “We hope to be on site with a shovel in the ground by the end of this year,” said Dynamo general manager Oliver Luck, who took the primary role in lobbying county and city officials to help fund the $95 [...]
Don’t play ball with the state of Arizona
What Kevin Blackistone says. About 10 years ago, the NCAA made one of its most bold and upright decisions: it refused to allow any more of its postseason tournaments, like March Madness, to be held in South Carolina until the state stopped flying the banner of the long defeated racist Confederacy in the face of [...]
One last time for the Dome and the Dynamo
I suppose now that the Dynamo have finally gotten an official commitment from all relevant parties to go forward with their downtown stadium idea that it was inevitable the question of why didn’t they just use the Astrodome came up again one last time. The answers really should be obvious, but let’s go over them [...]
Council approves Dynamo Stadium deal
Two down, one to go. The Houston City Council unanimously approved an agreement this morning that is expected to pave the way for a new professional sports stadium for the Houston Dynamo and the Texas Southern University football team. Although some council members voiced concerns about the finances of the $95 million public/private project, many [...]
Dynamo Stadium deal tagged
While City Council was able to complete the Lakewood Church sale, they were not able to vote on the other major real estate deal on their agenda this week, as Council Member Jarvis Johnson put a tag on the Dynamo Stadium deal. Johnson said he delayed the vote out of concern the stadium could put [...]
Sports Authority to become Dynamo Stadium landlord
One of the items on the to-do list after the city and county struck a deal on Dynamo Stadium was for the team to negotiate a lease for the stadium. The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority was proposed as the landlord, and now they have formally agreed to take that role. The city and county asked [...]
Dynamo Stadium deal finally struck
Took ‘em long enough. The city of Houston and Harris County have struck a potential deal on a new stadium for the Houston Dynamo and Texas Southern University’s football team, agreeing to jointly pay for $20 million in infrastructure upgrades if the soccer team follows through with a commitment to foot the bill for the [...]
Sports Authority to the rescue?
After many months in limbo, there may finally be a way forward for Dynamo Stadium, though it’s a somewhat convoluted path. The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority board is scheduled on Monday to discuss becoming the landlord for a professional soccer stadium in Houston’s East End. [...] [Harris County Commissioner El Franco] Lee repeatedly has said [...]
Bellaire officially opposes Dynamo Westpark Stadium
Bellaire City Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday night that opposes the construction of a Dynamo Stadium on Westpark. “To ignore it and not speak up for our residents would be the wrong thing to do,” said Mayor Cindy Siegel, after introducing the resolution, which stated: “Whereas, the proposed Midway stadium site is not compatible [...]
East Enders appeal to El Franco
As we know, the main holdup with the proposed East End location for Dynamo Stadium is that County Commissioner El Franco Lee, in whose precinct the stadium site mostly sits, has not indicated that he intends to put the issue on the Court’s agenda. At this week’s meeting, he heard from some constituents who want [...]
Bellaire versus Westpark Stadium
Still more on the proposed Westpark location for Dynamo Stadium: The Mayor of Bellaire doesn’t like the idea. [Bellaire Mayor Cindy] Siegel has scheduled an executive session of the Bellaire City Council Monday following the 7 p.m. State of the City address and indicated she’s optimistic other councilmembers will join her in opposing the 20,000-seat [...]
More on the Dynamo’s Westpark option
Here’s an updated version of the earlier story about the Houston Dynamo and the possibility of their stadium being built on Westpark. “The deal downtown started stalling a little bit. We started wondering if that stadium could make sense at this property,” said Brad Freels, chairman and CEO of Midway. Freels envisions a 21,000-seat soccer [...]
The Dynamo contemplate their options
Is the future of Dynamo Stadium on Westpark? Could be. Dynamo President Oliver Luck is in talks with a developer about building a soccer stadium on private land about a mile south of the Galleria. The Dynamo have not abandoned plans to build on a 12 acres of city-owned land downtown, Luck said. But the [...]
Dynamo fans rally for the stadium
There was a rally by Houston Dynamo fans over the weekend in support of getting the stadium deal done. Hair Balls and the Chron’s Glenn Davis have coverage. From what I can see, it looks to me like the ralliers have the right idea. From the Chron: “This is the best stadium deal that has [...]
World Cup bid update
Houston will be on the short list of cities to be included in America’s bid to host the World Cup. As reported last week: The USA Bid Committee will conclude its eight-month host city selection process by unveiling the list of 18 cities to be included in the bid Tuesday. The bid is due to [...]