According to the Chron‘s David Barron, the Houston Dynamo have found the perfect model for their own stadium/complex:
As the Dynamo prepare to play the New England Revolution on Sunday for the championship of Major League Soccer, the apple of every Dynamo fan’s eye and the object of his or her fondest flight of imagination is sleek, colorful Pizza Hut Park, the 2-year-old, 20,500-seat stadium that will host Sunday’s game.
But as Dynamo president Oliver Luck strolls the grounds this afternoon, he will give equal attention to the 16 soccer fields that surround the stadium on the 118-acre campus. And he will, no doubt, consider whether Pizza Hut Park’s combination of professional and developmental soccer venues is, as MLS officials suggest, the ideal blueprint for Houston’s future.
The Dynamo have enjoyed instant on-field success in their first year in Houston, where the franchise moved from San Jose, Calif., while playing home games at the University of Houston’s Robertson Stadium. The team will continue playing at UH at least through 2008 under the terms of a three-year lease signed this year.
But league and team officials have their eyes fixed on a new, soccer-specific stadium complex for Houston. And officials with Hunt Sports Group, which owns the FC Dallas team in MLS and manages Pizza Hut Park, don’t think Houston will find a better example than the venue where Dallas-Fort Worth, at least for the moment, has outshone Houston in terms of stadium and arena planning and development.
Houston-area taxpayers need to be wary of Dallas-envy. It’s very expensive:
Located 23 miles north of downtown Dallas, Pizza Hut Park and its surrounding fields were built for $81.5 million, including $55 million from the city of Frisco, Frisco Independent School District, Collin County and other entities. Hunt Sports Group paid for the rest and has a 20-year agreement for $100,000 per year to lease and manage the complex. Pizza Hut will pay $25 million over 20 years for naming rights.
Oh boy. Do you think the city of Houston can get $50 million out of the street and bridge repair fund? Can this be coded as an airport improvement? Will HISD be pressured to give up land or money for the new complex? Will HCTRA funds be raided to help build a world-class soccer complex?
In the end, it is highly likely that elected and unelected officials from local governmental agencies will decide that taxpayers need to pay for a new soccer venue. That’s just the way these things seem to go.
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