The
Chronicle is once again serving as Houston's leading
stadium pimp:
And Houston, arguably the premier stadium city in the United States -- besides being, by every indication, a soccer hot spot -- also has a conspicuous void.
Yeah. An NHL team. Or a well-run city government. But I digress.
"The stadium's the key," said Chronicle soccer columnist Glenn Davis, who played for the Houston Dynamos in the mid-1980s and now does MLS play-by-play for Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's cable sports network. "With the right place to play, soccer has a very high ceiling in Houston. The surface has barely been scratched."
Quoting a
Chronicle columnist in a Chronicle column? Bad form.
But at least the first baby steps have been taken for MLS to gain entrée into the vibrant Houston market -- and to assure Houston of a niche in professional soccer's fold.
Note the gratuitous use of French.
Toward that end, Harris County-Houston Sports Authority head Oliver Luck has been proactive, recently forging a partnership with the Houston Independent School District to investigate a possible redevelopment of the 60-acre Delmar Stadium complex to accommodate an MLS-caliber soccer venue.
You mean we can rip off Houston's schools
and build another taxpayer-funded boondoggle
at the same time? What a deal!
Reliant? The consensus is it's a little too big and a little too costly to operate for MLS games.
A little too big? That's an understatement. Reliant Stadium seats
69,500 fans. Average
MLS attendance in 2003 was 14,898.
With a full complement of bells and whistles properly befitting the early 21st-century spectating experience, Dallas' stadium will seat 20,000-plus -- a size judged ideal for MLS games -- and will be surrounded by 17 fields for use by high school and kids' leagues.
See above comment.
"We've been to Mexico City to visit," Luck said. "Every indication is that when they're ready to make a move, Houston would be their choice."
Gosh, if we could only be as world class as Mexico City!
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