After clearing the final hurdles to get the project approved, the Houston Dynamo will officially break ground in its new stadium on Saturday, between 2pm and 4pm local time in Houston.
The $95 million stadium, which will be built on Houston's East End and is projected to be completed in 2012, should provide a major boost for a soccer market with a strong fan base, but a fan base that has endured watching the Dynamo play in a tattered Robertson Stadium.
Here are more renderings of the stadium.
What do you think of this news? Excited to see another beautiful stadium being built by an MLS team? Which team would you like to see start a stadium project next?
Share your thoughts below.
SSS means rectangle stadium sport. It is soccer specific, not absolutely soccer only.
Being grass seed capital of the world in Oregon does not make it magically easy to maintain a grass that is going to be below the water table. It has been mentioned the drainage system will need to have a pumping and retaining system to ever work. Poor lighting conditions because of the sunken grade level and tall buildings nearby. Not to mention this is a Civic Stadium. Meant for multiple users and events.
Correction. TSU, not Rose Bowl winners TCU.
Only kidding.
Fine I see plenty of lower division teams in all of Britain not just England an in Europe with Grass where the weather is not the best, why can’t they do it in Portland?
I know it costs money to maintain grass but you gotta try to be a professional club in a pro league then be ready to do so. Toronto finally figured it out? You don’t see them paying 60K Pounds a week do you? And forget rain, snow kills grass, KC is doing it? Why not Portland, after the next WC Garber should push for the teams playing in their own stadiums they don’t share to get grass. Seattle should try it, is not like they don’t make money and people will love them more for it and will keep setting the bar for best stadium & atmosphere
They still want 2 maybe 3 more players. A creative central midfielder, a speedy forward to complement Ching and Bruin and even Weaver and Garey since they are all big target striker like guys except for Bruin who has some pace I hear.
And I think Dom wants another CB to have in Bobby Boswell, Eddie Robinson and Andrew Hainault. I think Freeman might start at LB with Chabala at back up and we’ll see Kofi at RB and Hainault go to CB which is where he was meant to play to begin with, I believe it’s his natural position
95 mil!!! it does even have a roof!! i guess it’s a good economy for the winning contractor to build it.
Bit unsettling that TCU will play there, but I suppose six games isn’t too bad. RBA hosted three rugby matches one day and from what I hear it did a bit of wear on the field. And that didn’t even involve paint. Well, the stadium looks beautiful. Good for Houston Dynamo.
Seriously. I want to take road trips to a packed Boston stadium when they’re playing NY. You guys need to get in on the NY/DC/Philly action more.
“Which team would you like to see start a stadium project next?”
Who do you think?
That would be great, but location is everything. I think it’s been proven before that building a SSS for the sake of building a SSS can have negative consequences (the only land available/affordable is way outside the city, which can cripple your fan base). If Seattle could build their own stadium in Seattle, that would be awesome, though.
Don’t understand why you’d say that. So far there haven’t been any conflicts between the Sounders and Seahawks. The Sounders have always had priority during the MLS season, and they’ve always managed to remove the NFL lines for Sounders games in the fall.
I think Qwest is a great venue for soccer. All they need is real grass and it’d be perfect.
You guys gotta get more people to the seats, and write and pressure the teams FO, write to Kraft family and their CEO’s, President of Operations, Team Presidents and GM’s if you have to, hell pressure the Patriots guys if you need to! LOL
But they need to start investing in players, a nice DP would solve some problems they picked a great player in Soares and Cochrane should help some. IF they have 1 more bad season I can see them picking up a great offensive GA threat in 2012 with a high pick
“If they do it in EPL they should be able to do it in Portland.”
Yep. Just like how they should be able to pay 60,000 GBP per week in Portland since they do it in EPL. It costs a *ton* of money to maintain fields like that in rainy climate. Especially if the field is below grade near a river, like the one in Portland.
I don’t get why Portland is doing it? Does the rain really affect the maintenance of the grass that much? If they do it in EPL they should be able to do it in Portland.
If Vancouver can get 22K+ to 27K at Empire Field and then over 22K+ at BC Place I will deal with it until they get their new stadium which if they keep growing their fan base and land a nice DP or Canadian star I can see it happening like in Seattle.
As soon as DC gets their stadium and Vancouver we can try to force NE to do the same lol
I agree the team should be much improved this season. Dynamo needed a major overhaul and did exactly that — got a lot younger and faster. Should be fun to watch.
I was thinking more like TSV 1860 Hüston.
So what, the potential 1st year contributors Kofi Sarkodie, Will Bruin and Josue Soto don’t do it for you? Not to mention Alex Dixon who should bring pace but much better accuracy and crossing than Oduro?
A more seasoned Danny Cruz? With Colin Clark to compete for that right wing service and Kofi providing the wide runs since Clark likes to cut in to his left? Danny has learned to execute with both of his feet too when crossing.
Also Garey and Graye along with Hunter Freeman?
Not only is there good rookies, but you have some great new additions to give depth at FW and RB/LB plus Soto was a 2nd round guy they got as a homegrown that’s HUGE along with Dixon, don’t be surprised to see him and guys like Ashe & Navas be better with the reserve league. Oh and Geoff healhty?
Dusty it would be best to get on board again this season before the tickets go on sale to the general public. Will get you seats before they go on sale to the general public.
Good on Houston and good for the league. So hard to grab a larger audience with teams playing in disasters like Robertson.
And I love that they went for something besides faux-brick facades or seas of exposed concrete.
Finally! Wish I could be there in person to watch Chingy take the first kick. Vamos Naranja!
Smacking, the HDC is not that bad.
I have had Season tickets for the Galaxy the last 2 seasons on the side you can see on TV, in 09 even with the South Goal (in other words the one to the right on TV or the one with that Stadium Club/restaurant you can see above the fans by the Riot Squad where Beckham always gets in trouble at lol, by the entrance tunnel) & last year DEAD SMACK in the middle of the field. Just offset enough where I can take perfect pics of Kick offs, you can see me as a white and blue blur in most highlight videos of the games when they do kick offs at mlssoccer.com lol
I also had Chivas USA 4th row seats right by the bench. It’s fine but I get the feelingit gives them more versatility to use in other events. Is not that much different on the TV side I do wish the sideline was not about 15 feet from the video displays but it is better for player safety when running out of bounds.
Yeah, there is. The press release made it sound like it will having seating on top of it for matches, though, which is great.
Another thing that will really make the stadium more magical is when the Dynamo play night games. The entire stadium will glow ORANGE. At night with the downtown city scape to the west of the stadium will look amazing.
Good. Tired of teams coming into the league with the fake sh*t. Now we got two more with Portland and Vancouver.
Dusty, I don’t know if you listen to Glenn Davis’ show “Dynamo All Access” or “Soccer Matters with Glenn Davis” on Sports talk 790 AM but Chris Canetti the President and now CEO of the Houston Dynamo has come on they said they have priority on when they will play their home games and will tell TSU when to schedule their games accordingly, and they mentioned the use of Food Coloring or water based paints to mark the NFL lines, Probably won’t see any end zone paint or Logos just TSU most likely and a small not so bold logo in the middle.
Is not going to be like in 2009 when even in April at the start of the season the Field was basically sand pit. Or how for the playoffs vs Seattle they didn’t take care of it and it was coming off 2 NCAA Football games. the grass will be more like what we saw in Dallas, I know this year late there were some lines showing but for the most part it looked great!
i dont like the stadium but they need one
I’ll be there Saturday!
Forever Orange!
Yes.. Dynamo pretty much can’t stand the fake stuff.
Congrats Houston!
With the omni present Boston v NYC rivalry spanning across the sports scenes in both cities….& with Red Bulls Arena being a fantastic facility…..Mr. Kraft needs to get on the ball & build a soccer specific stadium for the Revs on his available land around Gillette and retail destination Patrio Place. Gillette sucks for soccer & he shouldn’t be outdone by NYRB. He as the $, he built up Patriot Place to be an expansive entertanment destination for Pete’s sake….now build a footie stadium damn it! It’ll be packed with Nicol’s Army.
It is soccer specific. It was built specifically for soccer and wouldn’t have been built otherwise. The team controls the stadium and revenue generated by it.
Seattle needs a 40k seat SSS. Qwest is great but Sounders will always play second fiddle to the handegg team.
Seconded. Revs game attendance is headed downhill fast and the owners are doing nothing to bolster it (no new stadium closer to Boston, no big acquisitions for a bottom 3 team). I’m having trouble convincing myself to buy tickets this year…
+3
Yeah, sounds like a great idea. God knows they haven’t switched names/logos/cities/potential names a lot already…
is there a concert area at one of the ends? can only see 3 stands, and cant make out whether or not the seating encircles the full field ..
Oh, you mean like Houston 1836?
I’m happy they’re getting a stadium, but I wish there was something more distinctive about the stadium… like the mountain top look of the roof thing at Colorado, or the rounded edges of Red Bull Arena, or the grass area at Home Depot. This one looks a bit cookie-cutter, but let’s hope there’s some style and flash built in later.
The stadium will have orange seats. TSU will use it for 6 days out of the year. It is owned by the Dynamo and they will get the revenue from parking/concessions. This is very much a soccer specific stadium.
You must be trolling
too bad this isn’t a soccer specific stadium. i despise the orangecicles but they have a great fan base that deserves their own stadium without throwball lines.
I’d love to see a new Revs stadium plan come to fruition, but I’ve given up on that dream. DC United will get a new stadium before Robert Kraft ever gets anything going.
I hope they rebrand to really bring 2012 in with a bang. Something traditional like Atletico Houston…or the Houston Manchester Uniteds.
Always like seeing more SSS’s in the leauge. Looks like it could be pretty nice, too.
It’s grass? Right?
Yep when TSU plays their 6 home games a year in the winter there will be.
As a Dynamo fan I was disappointed with today’s press conference. They didn’t say anything that hasn’t already been said in the newspapers, websites, and TV.
All I can think of is 2011 will be a rebuilding year for our squad and the front office will probably not put too much into this season and will try to make a huge bang in 2012.
The stadium pictures, although I want more, give me goosebumps. It will be so magical to have our own stadium and not Robertson. I predict that at least for the first season we will see a huge attendance bump. I myself haven’t been a season ticket holder since 2007 but I think 2012 will be my next purchase of full season tickets.
I know it’s just a rendering but why are the seats so far back from the field lines. The HDC is like that. RBA seems to be closer, but the seats are rather high compared to field level. Watching EPL games has me longing for up close and personal.
Regardless, good for Houston, good for the League .
Will there be football lines during any part of the season?
Its good for Houston and good for the league.