Charles Kuffner posted some of his thoughts on Major League Soccer eyeing the Astrodome, and one of his commenters appears to be familiar with why San Antonio and MLS couldn’t come to an agreement:
The initial memorandum of understanding had SA spending $2.8 million on 14 more luxury suites at the dome, and another $3.7 million on a practice facility. In addition to this, we were about to give MLS a 5 year rent free lease (with four more 5 year extensions), the MLS would keep all revenue from tickets, parking and concessions, MLS would receive half of any revenues from events it co-sponsored (like the recent Mexico-Guatemala soccer match held here), the city would receive 5 (count it, five) percent from any advertising signage sold by the team in the dome, and the city would receive 30 percent of the naming rights payments if a sponsor was lined up by 2006. If the sponsor was signed up after 2006, the city’s cut would drop to 20 percent.
So basically, we were hoping to cut into the Alamodome’s operating deficit through the 5% advertising revenue, and the 30/20% cut we’d receive in naming rights. Talk about giving away the farm.
San Antonio’s bill for the “privilege” of getting an MLS team went from $6 million to $22 million — and that was just on the up-front costs!
Unfortunately, we all know Houston will agree to some kind of deal like this; it’s what Billy Burge and Oliver Luck do best.
