Stadium haggling

Within perhaps minutes of the announcement that the team-formerly-known-as-the-Earthquakes was coming to Houston, there began talk of a new permanent stadium for the eventually-to-be-named-Dynamo. As we know, "talks" continue. Occasionally we'll hear something positive from Oliver Luck, but then someone from the soulless AEG conglomerate will speak out of both sides of his mouth. First they will say that they're fronting all the money, with only utilities being funded publicly. Next, they'll say they expect 35%-40% of the cost to be publicly funded. AEG may know numbers, but they sure are ham-fisted when it comes to dealing with people. It's amazing that they've been able to complete so many publicly-financed deals already, but maybe that's due to their effective use of relocation threats if not even more unsavory tactics.

Now they've got Don Garber writing velvety threats that insult the intelligence of everyone involved. Does the Commish really think the key players don't understand the ramifications of not getting a deal done? Of course not, he's just trying to be intimidating. Unfortunately for him, the MLS isn't really a heavyweight so his threats may do more harm than good.





If they keep this up they'll drive Oliver Luck, the best GM in the league, out of the footie industry in search of a less flaky organization. It's too bad that we can't find a local owner with class that matches the class of the team.

Mayor White doesn't want to use public funds for obvious reasons. But he also may not be able to do so. Restrictions on public funding were written into the Toyota Center charter. That seems mighty presumptuous of Les Alexander and the Rockets: "Give us public funds to provide infrastructure for my private venture, and sign this agreement forbidding you to help anybody else." Sounds like the City got taken on that one.

Luck has a better feel for the local situation that AEG's Tim Leiweke does. Luck has said: "Although we have not reached an agreement with the city of Houston, we are anxious to come to closure on the terms of a public-private partnership with the city and we are willing to assume responsibility for a much higher proportion of the costs than any other team owner has had to assume in Houston."

He also had to scramble to put together a save-the-face press conference, which didn't really say much, but was intended to sooth sore feelings.

At any rate, B-Fall states there isn't much news at the moment. Stayed tuned to The Chronicle. UPDATE: B-Fall has an article with more explanation, plus a blog post with some informal thoughts. Glenn Davis agrees that Don Garber fluffed the kick on this one. (I know, I know: Garber has never kicked a soccer ball in his life, but since he's the Commish of the national soccer league, I thought I'd use a sport-relevant idiom to sound clever and give me a chance to parenthetically state that Garber has never kicked a soccer ball in his life.)

Meanwhile, it looks like AEG is continuing with the design work just in case the company's relationship-building impediment doesn't kill the deal. The project manager for the stadium, IKON, is basically a subsidiary of AEG. As integrated as AEG is into the MLS, it's no surprise that IKON is behind several of the MLS stadia: Home Depot Center, Toyota Park, Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Red Bull Park, Real Salt Lake's stadium, and numerous non-MLS stadia in and out of the US. Here in Houston, IKON has apparently selected a short list of firms to design the new stadium. The article also says that the MLS "is close to working out a deal with the City of Houston which is close to finalizing the acquisition of a chunk of prime acreage near Minute Maid Park for the $80 million stadium, which could open as early as 2010." Well, we'll see about that.

The fact is, everybody is posturing right now. Soccer fans should feel lucky that Oliver Luck is the proxy mediator between the politicians and the corporate suits. If anyone can see this thing through to the finish, it's Mr. Luck.