Back in May, when it was announced that the city was officially negotiating with the Houston Dynamo about a stadium for the team, a mid-July deadline was set for the talks. Seeing as how today is July 16, you might be wondering what happened to that deadline. As is often the case in these matters, it got pushed back.
While much of the recent attention on Anschutz Entertainment Group’s Major League Soccer operations has focused on the Los Angeles Galaxy and their newest player, David Beckham, AEG president Tim Leiweke also is keeping tabs on the AEG-owned Dynamo and their plans for a new stadium in the Houston area.
“We’re trying to work through it,” Leiweke said Friday during a news conference at the Home Depot Center following Beckham’s introduction. “I’m hoping we are at a point in September to make an announcement.”
Oliver Luck, the Dynamo’s president and general manager, said the team and the city have agreed to extend an exclusive negotiating period that was to have expired today.
“We believe we have made some substantial progress, and we’re going to continue talking,” Luck said Saturday.
Luck said the Dynamo and the city are considering several potential sites, including several in downtown Houston to the east of Minute Maid Park and other sites elsewhere in the city. AEG would contribute an undisclosed amount toward construction of the proposed $70 million stadium.
I don’t see any other deadline mentioned in there – “a point in September” is a wish, not a cutoff date – so I presume this means they’ve decided to keep talking until they either come to an agreement, or determine that they’ll never be able to do so. Maybe it’ll be easier now that the pressure is off. Stay tuned.