With negotiations for a potential downtown stadium progressing, Dynamo president / general manager Oliver Luck and Houston mayor Bill White announced plans for a partnership that would see the Dynamo first team and Academy teams train at the new Houston Amateur Sports Complex, to be built next to the Houston Community College campus located off of Highway 288 South.
Specific plans for the team's involvement are still being finalized, but Luck and White said they were looking forward to seeing the Dynamo practice at the new facility, scheduled to open late in 2009.
"We view this as a home for the Houston Dynamo, for our professional team in terms of training, as well as our growing youth program," Luck said. "We are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with the Houston Parks Board to make a very strong and sincere effort to raise the necessary funds to make this complex a reality."
Both Luck and White stressed that the complex will be used for multiple amateur sports, including but not limited to football and lacrosse.
"It will be a park and center with wholesome family activities," White said. "There will be a portion of a park along Simms Bayou where people can walk. We have a goal by the end of next year to have built two world-class soccer fields, and we want to see baseball fields and tennis courts, and even cricket was mentioned."
Dynamo Academy players were on hand for the announcement, made at HCC's Willie Lee Gay Hall, and the venue was praised as vital to the health of Houston as a city.
"We are a growing city," White said. "Especially during this time of year, when school is out, the council members that are up here with me today asked where are there places where there are youth recreation centers and where kids can go to learn sports, to learn teamwork and learn all those things that are important life skills to keep people engaged."
Luck said the complex will benefit the entire Houston community by providing facilities to be used almost exclusively for amateur sports.
"This is a very special moment for not only the sport of soccer and the Dynamo as a soccer franchise, but for the city and all amateur sports as well," Luck said. "This is a tremendous initiative, and there a number of other large, multi-use facilities outside of Houston, throughout Texas and the rest of the country. ... This is important because it involves participation at the amateur level and, of course most importantly, gives kids and adults the chance to participate."
