| Follow The Money |
| By Bob Dunn |
If the Houston Dynamo pro soccer team is serious about wanting to start the 2009 season in its own stadium, it needs to choose a dance partner within three or four weeks from among four cities vying to provide that new home, a source close to the team said Thursday.
And while it might seem unlikely that a small city could outgun a major metropolis in the hunt for a professional sports franchise, Sugar Land likely will emerge as the logical new home for the 2006 Major League Soccer champions unless Houston comes up with a stunning Plan B almost immediately.
That’s because, for starters, Sugar Land is prepared to offer almost exactly what Dynamo President and General Manager Oliver Luck has said the team wants – a complex like Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, a 21,000-seat stadium complex that includes 17 soccer fields.
While Sugar Land has made no formal proposal to the team, it purposely showed its hand to the Dynamo in a recent public meeting, in which the possibility of building a 20,000 to 25,000-seat outdoor stadium, 16 soccer fields and a 7,000-seat indoor performing arts center were discussed. City Councilman Russell Jones acknowledged Friday “those things are not out of the question.”
Observers close to the Dynamo discussions say Webster and Pearland – both of which are trying to lure the team – can’t match such an offer. That leaves the nation’s fourth-largest city, which you would expect to up Sugar Land’s ante. But complications seem to have arisen in Houston – due in part to roadblocks that involve the city’s other pro sports franchises.
Jumping The Hurdles
Sources close to the hunt say Houston has been fixated on the idea of putting a soccer stadium downtown – most probably on one of the parking lots outside the Houston Astros’ Minute Maid Park. Astros owner Drayton McLane is said to be cool to that idea – so cool that mollification might require significant, um, persuasion.
Even with McLane’s support, adding a downtown stadium and simultaneously subtracting parking logically would require a new parking garage. Parking garages are expensive.
A source close to the Dynamo suggests a stadium built to hold 21,000 people would require at least 6,000 parking spaces. Estimates vary, but sources of transportation cost information such as the TDM Encyclopedia show that the cost per space in an urban multi-story parking garage is about $8,000.
That means a 6,000-space garage might add $48 million to the cost of putting the Dynamo in downtown Houston.
That is, if Houston could legally make a proposal to build the Dynamo a subsidized downtown stadium to begin with.
Instead, it turns out the City of Houston, along with the Harris County Houston Sports Authority, signed an agreement in 2000 with Rocket Ball Ltd., a.k.a. the Houston Rockets, that appears to make a downtown Dynamo stadium deal difficult to do.
Under the agreement, the Rockets agreed to manage Toyota Center. In return, the city and sports authority agreed to a non-compete clause that says they may not “directly or indirectly, finance, subsidize, provide any incentives for, or otherwise assist any venue…which could compete with the Arena for events of a type appropriate for the Arena and generally targeted at audiences in excess of 5,000…” that are located within 10 miles of Toyota Center.
That non-compete agreement would almost seem to make allies out of the Houston Rockets and the City of Sugar Land, and creates a high hurdle for Houston as far as any downtown Dynamo deal is concerned.
Miles To Go
Not that it’s time for jumping up and down in Sugar Land yet. Councilman Jones, notes, for instance, that the city not only has no formal proposal on the table, it hasn’t even gauged the public’s reaction to having a pro sports complex in its midst.
Public support would be key to any Dynamo deal, since an election would be required if a stadium either were going to be funded through the issuance of bonds or through a venue tax on soccer tickets or parking, Jones said, adding that the latter would be likely.
The timing of an election also becomes a factor in this hunt for pro sports. Because of the political and administrative processes involved, “we have to get moving pretty soon – and I’m talking the next six weeks,” in order to put a stadium financing proposition on the November ballot.
If that can’t be done, the whole deal might have to be put off for an entire year, thanks to a “wide-open mayor’s election in May,” which Jones said could turn a stadium proposal into a major political issue.
And if the whole deal has to be put off in lieu of a November 2008 election, that means the Dynamo’s contract at the University of Houston’s Robertson Stadium would be up before the team could move into a new home.
Fat Lady Hasn’t Sung Yet
So both the Dynamo and the City of Sugar Land have an incentive to speed the negotiation process along – if the soccer team really is serious about the possibility of moving to the suburbs.
“Sugar Land does not want to be put in a position of having no role in this other than to help them get a better deal in Houston,” Jones said of the Dynamo.
Yet, as was almost inevitable, that appears to be where things stand.
Houston clearly took notice of Sugar Land’s proposal preview a few weeks ago, and surely understands it’s time to put up or shut up.
A conversation with Harris County Houston Sports Authority Executive Director Janis Schmees indicates Houston won’t let time run out without at least taking a shot at creating that better deal for the Dynamo.
If the city and the sports authority weren’t involved in the purchase of land for a downtown soccer stadium, or in its construction, then would the Toyota Center non-compete clause really be a factor?. And if the City of Houston already had plans on the books to build a new parking garage to accommodate needs of downtown visitors and workers, would that meet the legal definition of a stadium incentive?
Look for those questions to be answered soon.
And while it might seem unlikely that a small city could outgun a major metropolis in the hunt for a professional sports franchise, Sugar Land likely will emerge as the logical new home for the 2006 Major League Soccer champions unless Houston comes up with a stunning Plan B almost immediately.
That’s because, for starters, Sugar Land is prepared to offer almost exactly what Dynamo President and General Manager Oliver Luck has said the team wants – a complex like Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, a 21,000-seat stadium complex that includes 17 soccer fields.
While Sugar Land has made no formal proposal to the team, it purposely showed its hand to the Dynamo in a recent public meeting, in which the possibility of building a 20,000 to 25,000-seat outdoor stadium, 16 soccer fields and a 7,000-seat indoor performing arts center were discussed. City Councilman Russell Jones acknowledged Friday “those things are not out of the question.”
Observers close to the Dynamo discussions say Webster and Pearland – both of which are trying to lure the team – can’t match such an offer. That leaves the nation’s fourth-largest city, which you would expect to up Sugar Land’s ante. But complications seem to have arisen in Houston – due in part to roadblocks that involve the city’s other pro sports franchises.
