HOUSTON—The months-long negotiations between the City of Houston and the Houston Dynamo have taken on a new dynamic with a request from Houston Mayor Bill White to the Harris County Commission. He’s asking the county to spend $10 million to help build the stadium.

White told 11 News his reasoning goes like this: If the stadium is built, then land values in the east-of-downtown area near the new stadium will skyrocket (they’ve already doubled in the last three years, he says). Because of that, the county could eventually raise hundreds of millions of dollars in extra tax revenue – and so it should make something of a down-payment on the stadium that would spur the development in question.

He says he made the request in a letter to county commissioners and Judge Ed Emmett three weeks ago. Emmett’s spokesman says the Judge may comment on the matter later today.

White has long maintained that the city will not use tax dollars that could be otherwise used for city projects to build a soccer stadium. However, White says he is willing to use what’s called “TIRZ” money to assist in the project.

A “TIRZ” is basically a fund set up for a local neighborhood to use only on economic development projects in that neighborhood. It gets its money by funneling the higher property taxes generated from any increasing property values back into that zone.

Under this plan, the city has offered to use money raised by the east-of-downtown TIRZ to pay for part of a new Dynamo stadium – arguing it could not be for anything other than economic development in that area—and now the Mayor is asking the county to set up a similar arrangement.

Dynamo CEO Oliver Luck tells 11 News that the team is offering to pay the “majority” of the estimated $105 million price tag for a new downtown stadium. According to Mayor White, the City expects the Dynamo will put in roughly $80 million, with the rest coming from dedicated tax-revenue sources such as a TIRZ. His request is for $10 million from Harris County to be funneled through a TIRZ and toward stadium construction, he said, and then the team would deed the property back to the City of Houston.

Arguing that because a stadium would raise the property values near downtown, the county would make at least its portion in property taxes. That is the same logic the city is using in its own offer to put millions into a stadium.

"My guess is this would be ripe for a decision within a month," said County Judge Ed Emmett. "My concern, as I've said from the beginning, is that this not cost the taxpayers."

On Wednesday afternoon, Luck characterized the negotiations as, “very positive. A lot of different pieces are falling into place.”