As Dynamo fans well know, we are working with the City of Houston to develop a downtown soccer venue. Over the past few days there have been a number of articles and television reports about the joint effort. The publicity has generated some emails, both positive and negative, and as with every communication to me I enjoyed responding.
One of the emailers wrote that we should "stop whining" about a new venue because "the level of the other Houston sports teams is way above the Dynamo". Naturally, I responded to the writer that we are not in any sense of the word whining about a new venue. We have had productive discussions with the City of Houston and while we still have unresolved issues, there has never been any statement from us that could be construed as whining. I reminded him that other sports teams in town readily played the "we will move out of town" card when they were pushing the municipal authorities for new stadiums. Of course, my old employer, K.S. "Bud" Adams, did just that with his football team.
However, the gentleman's comment that the other sports teams are "way above the Dynamo" got me thinking and reminded me of a short history lesson that I would like to share with you. Here goes.
There was once a professional sports team in Houston that appeared in the city in a year with an "0" and a "6" in it. Houston had never seen a professional team in this sport. This team had no other choice but to play its games on the campus of the University of Houston.
Much to everyone's surprise, this team played extraordinarily well and not only won a championship in its first year but followed it up with another championship in its second year. The city became excited about the team and it was just a few short years later that this team was playing its games in a state-of-the-art facility financed by the local government.
Well, any guesses as to the identity of that team? Of course, it is the Houston Oilers! One of the original members of the American Football League in 1960, the Oilers played at Jeppesen Stadium (today known as Robertson Stadium) and won back-to-back championships in 1960 and 1961 behind the throwing and kicking of George Blanda. After a short stint at Rice Stadium, the Oilers moved into the 8th Wonder of the World, the Astrodome, a stadium that was built by Harris County using public funds. As they say, the rest is history.
Close to the same time there was another new professional sports team that suddenly showed up in Houston. This team had been playing its games in sunny California (sound familiar), but unlike Dynamo this team struggled both on and off the field in its first couple of years in Houston. In fact, in its first year in Houston this team averaged fewer than 5,000 fans at its home games on the campus of the University of Houston (are you noticing a trend?).
Nonetheless, at the start of the team's fourth season in Houston, this team moved into a brand new state-of-the-art arena built by the City of Houston with public dollars. Of course, this team was the Houston Rockets and the arena was The Summit, now known to us as Lakewood Church, and the year was 1975.
My point is this: Dynamo in the year 2007 is much further ahead of where the other major professional teams were early in their tenures. In fact, based on our attendance figures, television ratings, merchandising and media exposure, I would argue that we are certainly closing the gap with the other major sports teams in terms of the marketplace today.
There is simply no way to deny the fact that soccer will continue to grow in this city, state and country. With the demographic changes that we are experiencing throughout the region, coupled with the fact that there are now far more kids playing soccer in the Greater Houston area than any other sport, it does not take a crystal ball to realize that soccer will soon be at the level of our traditional sports.
Folks, we know that soccer is the world's sport. The game has been No. 1 on God's green earth for well over a century and shows absolutely no signs of decline. Rather, under the leadership of FIFA, soccer is making strong inroads in India and China, the globe's newest economic tigers. Does anyone seriously believe that soccer will not succeed in the U.S.?
