HOUSTON – Houston Dynamo team president Oliver Luck told 11 Sports Wednesday that the team is considering a location just south of the Galleria for the team’s new stadium.
“Over the course of the last couple of years, multiple proposals have come to my attention and the attention of the city,” says Luck. “The one difference here is that in this proposal you have a very well respected developer in the Midway Companies that is behind it.”
For the past two years, the team has been in discussion with the City of Houston and Harris County Commissioners about building a new stadium behind the George R. Brown Convention Center, on the east side of Highway 59. Luck says the city has agreed to participate in the plan, but it is the county that is still mulling for its part of the deal.
“We are bringing the vast majority of the capital to the project, well over $55 million into this building,” says Luck. “We’re asking for some government support, $10 million from the city and $10 million from the county, and we think that is modest request given the amount of capital that we’re bringing to the table.”
So, in the meantime, county commissioner Steve Raddack proposed a new location, about a mile south of the Galleria, which the team can consider for the new stadium.
“We do not want to be in one of the far flung suburbs because our fan base comes from all over the city,” says Luck. “We want to be central and we want to be like every stadium, very easy to reach.”
The talks surrounding the new site are still in preliminary discussions, but Luck says it would be a good place for the stadium to be located. However, there are still some things the east-end site offers that this new one does not.
“It’s key to determine can this new site offer the same flexibility as the east -end site does,” says Luck. “The parking and access are very important. That is one of the things we have to study about this new site.”
The new stadium would be located just west of Loop 610 on a plot of land by the Westpark Toll and South Rice Avenue already owned by Midway Companies.
"We'll certainly give it the attention it deserves," says Luck. "I'm sure in a matter of weeks we'll have a sense of whether this site will work or not."
Luck added while the new plan is being considered, the team has not abandoned its east-end location and plans to continue to work with both the city and county to try and get a deal in place.
