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.
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
First, in response to Edwin, in NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM SHOULD DANIEL SNYDER EVER HAVE ANYTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH D.C. UNITED! AT ALL!
Sorry for the caps but the idiot owner of the Redskins has been nothing but sleazy bad news for the team ever since he bought them. He has alienated & gouged the loyal fanbase for everything they’ve got, has run the team into the ground and is now suing a local indie rag (the City Paper) for the having the temerity to report and index the vast catalog of his sins (http://mirror.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/40063/the-cranky-redskins-fans-guide-to-dan-snyder.html). He’s probably the worst owner in major league American sports and certainly the LAST person who needs to be involved with DC United. Will Chang may not have Snyder’s deep pockets but any fate is better than being owned by Snyder. As a DC United supporter I’d honestly rather see the team move than be bought by Snyder.
By the way, DC United HAS been in talks with city officials since the new mayor (Vincent Gray) has come on board. There are 2 major sites under consideration, neither in Poplar Point, and the possible stadiums would be smaller and closer to downtown. At this point it’s probably DC United’s last best chance at staying in town and finally getting out of RFK. (http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/8882/dc-united-eyeing-buzzard-point-florida-market/). Now that Fenty is gone and the economy is slowly crawling back to life (and was never as bad in DC as most of the rest of the country) there may FINALLY be some real momentum to get a stadium built. One can only hope.
Yeah pretty much, they had to cave in to get the local Judge and County Commissioners as well as Council to get on board with the project 2 of the crucial bureaucrats are alumni of TSU so it was kind of a given, lets hope they make their programs succesful and they end up needing to go to the Robertson stadium or the renewed Robertson once they renovate? Although at their pace TSU might not have athletics wit all the budgetary nightmares that are currently in place
A buddy of mine works for the Dynamo and he has told me that the paint they use for American football lines will be a polymer based paint that can be whisked off the field when its time for a Dynamo game.
QWest is the best stadium in the world to watch a football game.
Both kinds.
Leaving there would be dumb and is not going to happen.
Noooo. Get rid of those stupid lines. This stadium is built with the heart of Soccer.
I hope you’re right.
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And this Dynamo/TSU stadium partnership is a permanent thing right?
Congrats to the Dynamo and their fans. It’s great for their team and the league that they are getting a soccer-specific stadium. As a RBNY fan, I can tell you that having a SSS makes a world of difference.
I don’t know but I sure hope someone gets it, doesn’t seem like Dan Snyder should just buy DC United and fund his own stadium? Seems like between guys like Haynesworth, Stubbafield and also Spurrier and others, he could of not only bought DC United outright, but funded his own 200 million dollar Soccer Specific Stadium.
I believe the 24-30K stadium they initially proposed was 200 million and located centrally. I think for sure he would make more money than just wasting all those hundreds of millions of dollars on bad Redskins signings, if he does this and hires a good GM he MIGHT just let the Redskins win? lol
Got no argument here.
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!! What makes you think people are peeing on the corners? lol
It will be okay, because they will take care for the field, you have to irrigate it properly and do all kinds of detail work to get it prepared for Soccer after NFL Football, but U of H have been horrible landlords to the Dynamo the last 2+ years.
Specially that 09 season, god it was bad, it was like a sand pit out there for the season opener that took place in Houston for the Dynamo, then there were more instances when the UofH football team played there for Spring games I guess and it just really messed up the pitch. It was never like that for us at the Rose Bowl during the early years of the Galaxy, yes you could see the paint for the 1st few months of UCLA’s season but the grass was kept in good condition.
I can see the Dynamo playing a few 2 week or 3 week road trips in September and October and same with TSU.
If Dynamo play 1 week, the next TSU but the next both are away with the Dynamo going on a 2 week road trip that gives you time to get it right, specially if they’re smart and get TSU to play shortly after Dynamo, it will be okay
Is the Poplar Point ‘dream’ dead for DCU? I mean you can still find articles on it written even a few days ago…One can only hope, they deserve it.
Also for all those that live in the greater DC metro area here’s an online petition to sign urging Mayor Fenty to make a move:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dcunited
The Revs are making money because their ownership group controls the stadium they play in. The same is true in Seattle though they make more money because of their large crowds. The problem for the Revs is fan access and the cavernous size of the stadium. Since they’re financially sound in Boston, these things aren’t likely to change. That’s unfortunate because our game really benefits from the intimacy of a smaller park.
Looks like a smaller version of the main venue of the World Cup on South Africa. Why are the people peeing on the corners of the stadium?
Oops heh. My college football ignorance showing there. The point still stands 🙂
I did say “relatively” cheaply. Also, while not 30-50 years off, it would certainly be well down the road since no one with the Sounders has so much as hinted they’re even thinking about an SSS. And of course it doesn’t really matter if the league makes money, only if the Sounders make money—which they’re already doing hand over fist.
This is great for Houston and great for the league! It definitely will keep the buzz and momentum going for MLS in 2012.
The Krafts know what they need to do, they just don’t want to do it. It’s very clear that they don’t want to invest in the club — neither players nor stadium.
SODO Link station at Landers, thats a good one. They need some revitalization there too. Only if they could convince those owners to sell. Probably 30-50 years from now when the league is making money.
Well considering that San Jose is just a matter of time and with the Economy picking up it will get closer and closer as each yearly quarter goes by, I think SJ is pretty much a slam dunk just need to wait for the groundbreaking to be announced and take place after they sign the contracts.
So who you might ask? DC without a doubt, I think the most successful franchise that use to battle the Galaxy for best attendance in MLS needs a new home so they can give their fans a proper experience in a decent stadium.
Not to mention be profitable and start having more revenue to grow the team.
Plus I think once DC gets it, Kraft will have a lot of pressure to follow suit
Hurry up SJ & DC!
RE: affordable land. I bet there’s land to be had “relatively” cheaply down by the SODO Link station (@Lander St. & 6th).
Actually the Seahawks got lucky with current location with train and bus stations conviently within walking distance and it is surrounded by freeways coming from the North, South and East. When the Kingdom was there, there was a huge a parking lot surrounding it and they built Qwest right next to it. Now I don’t think theres a place close to the inner city that you would like. Like Mike said it’ll be outside of the city limits.
How much do you think it should cost? The building of the stadium it self is actually more like 80 million dollars. And even that pushes it a bit because it includes improvements to the surrounding areas’ street lights, sidewalks, drainage etc etc.
The land cost the City of Houston 15 million and remember, it’s in DOWNTOWN Houston, that is key!
Yeah – I guess that was kind of my point. They shouldn’t build one for the sake of doing it, because it would likely take them to the ‘burbs/a neighboring city, which can have damaging effects.
Is there any chance the league could force Kraft to sell the Revs? They won’t spend any money on players and can’t seem to get a stadium deal going at all. Its sickening to see team after team get a stadium while all we get are idle promises and no action
Mike is right, if anything they just need to keep growing their fan base, an MLS Cup Championship or a CCL Championship to go with the appearance at the FIFA Club World Cup could do that. Getting a higher Profile DP when Kufo is moved or no longer plays which isn’t exaclty too far away could do it too. Also how long can Alvaro Fernandez be a DP really? I thought he was a DP mostly because of his transfer fee?
But anyways, once they get their fan base above 50K I think you can start to seriously lobby for a grass field. Or at least get grass and then lay the turf down come end of MLS season, Seahawks would only deal with this for like 2 months?
But Qwest is too good to move unless they could build a stadium IN the inner central part of Seattle?
One of the reasons they built Qwest field was for dual purpose like football and soccer. The voters got burned for building Safeco and Qwest stadiums and they will not vote for another stadium again like the now departed Sonics.
Yeah Jason is right, removable seats.
Just like the Trails Stadium for Sporting KC, I still can’t get used to that, if you look at the web cam well not right now because it’s dark snowy and I think the server of the web cam is down but you can see there’s a section of seats and bleachers missing from the stand where the scoreboard is directly above it.
so when you’re looking at the interior web cam is the stand all the way to the right