Wolff speaks, stadium drawings, and a threat to Houston

We didn’t know that the folks from GolTV were in town last weekend, but they must have paid us a visit because they recorded a stellar segment on the Quakes which included an interview with Lew Wolff.

Thanks to YouTube user TubeMonkey29, you can see the segment right here.

Pretty nice, huh? Those fleeting glimpses of stadium drawings really call for some screen captures, don’t they? Fortunately, BigSoccer user futbol monkey (who may be the same user who provided the video to begin with, considering their shared fondness for “monkey” names) has provided those as well.

There’s not much to say after that, is there? The team is back, Wolff has an agreement in principle to buy the FMC site for the purposes of constructing a stadium, and all is right with the world. But wait, there’s more.

Someone once said something like this: “It is not enough that I am doing well — my opponents must also be doing poorly.” And so we now move our attention to Houston, a city blessed two years ago with a championship-caliber MLS team and, uh, its owners.

For all the good things that AEG has done for American soccer (like keeping MLS alive through some rough years early on, for which we thank them sincerely), Quakes fans know better than anyone that they are not always effective in reaching their stated goals. (Yes, we’re being diplomatic.) Many of you will recall their efforts toward building a stadium here for the Quakes, which consisted largely of offering to bless a city with their presence if that city was willing to pay the vast majority of costs for a new stadium. That strategy might work in some states, but it was never going to fly here, where even a team as popular as the S.F. Giants failed three times to get a ballot measure passed for public money for their stadium project. Well, AEG is at it again, and this time they’re working their magic in Houston.

TV station KHOU broke the story yesterday with their piece titled, Dynamo stadium deal at impasse. They sum up the status of negotiations in these three sentences:

The impasse is over money. The Dynamo want millions of taxpayer dollars to help fund construction. The city won’t do it.

Does that sound at all familiar?

What makes the situation even more interesting is that Friday, Houston Mayor Bill White was given a copy of a letter from MLS Commissioner Don Garber, addressed to the Dynamo’s ownership group. You can find the whole thing here (PDF), but here’s a sample:

As you will recall, the decision to grant (AEG’s) request to relocate the San Jose Earthquakes from the Bay Area to Houston was made after significant deliberation among the members of the MLS Board of Governors. Though the team was successful at the gate and had a passionate fan base, the lack of a suitable stadium prevented the team from ever having a viable business.

The relocation, the first and only in MLS history, had a traumatic effect on the League at a crucial time in its development. Our approval was based on assurances that an appropriate soccer stadium would be built in the Houston market in a timely fashion. A suitable stadium is a requirement for all MLS teams, which is no different than the stadium requirements in all other major sports.

Fortunately, the San Jose Earthquakes re-joined the League as our 14th team this season. Ironically, after much work with the public sector, specifically the City of San Jose, our new owners now have a suitable plan in place to construct a soccer-specific stadium. The fact that such a deal could be agreed upon in the most difficult region in the country for public-private partnerships is a credit to the new ownership and its relationship with the City.

I am concerned about the lack of progress in your discussions with the City of Houston. Even in the fourth largest market in the country with a young and dynamic demographic that embraces soccer, the Houston team will continue to lose money without a public-private partnership on a new soccer stadium — a fact that presents significant issues for the League. It is inconceivable that MLS will allow the team to continue playing as a secondary tenant in a college football facility, particularly after the League moved the team due to the challenges at San Jose State.

While another relocation would be equally traumatic, we both must consider our options to ensure that the team has a path to economic success. We learned an important lesson in San Jose: a passionate fan base is not enough to support the economics of operating a professional sports team. The team needs a soccer-specific stadium to ensure success.

Did you ever know anyone who put themselves in the same bad situation over and over again until they finally realized the lesson they were trying to learn? Besides playing in a college stadium, in front of passionate fans, do you know what else Houston in 2008 and San Jose in 2004 have in common? Yup, AEG.

Getting back to that quote, we really don’t need to see our opponents do poorly — doing well ourselves is good enough for us. But San Jose fans have been where Houston is, and looking at them now, we think local fans will appreciate even more just how good they have it. If losing the team for two years was the price Quakes fans paid to get AEG out of the local soccer picture, it may well have been worth it.