Points in Favor of Soccer Stadium

I pulled these off of BigSoccer, but many are originally from Glenn Davis:

1. The Dynamo organization will pay for most of the costs. The Dynamo are not asking the city to pay for the stadium construction. That's different from what the other sports teams in town did.

2. The new stadium would enable the Dynamo to bring more international games to Houston, thereby elevating Houston's international profile. All of Houston benefits from a higher international profile. The other sports teams in town can't really provide that benefit to Houston.

3. The Dynamo appeal to a diverse fan base. Houston is extremly diverse and it's good for the city to unite that diversity in support of the Dynamo.

4. The new stadium would allow the Dynamo to control scheduling of games. They can't do that at Robertson.

5. The Dynamo also needs to be able to control revenues from things like parking, concessions, and signage to function as a business. That's a reasonable need. They can't really do that effectively at Robertson.

6. The new stadium would host many other events to Houston, such as college and high school sports and special events like all-star games and championship games.

7. The stadium in the East End would promote economic redevelopment in that part of town.

8. The role of the city in this deal consists of the sort of things that the city should be doing anyway in that area: infrastructure improvements, roads, lighting, etc. Nothing that the city would do would be considered outside of the normal activities of municipal government.

9. There are no new taxes for this stadium. The Dynamo organization would pay for most of it and the city would mostly just be doing infrastructure work. The city's expenditures would come out of the existing city budgeting process.

10. Acquiring the land is a good deal for the city. The city could lease the land back to the Dynamo. It would also help spur economic development in the area which would benefit the city revenues over the long run as a result of improving the tax base.

11. This deal is nothing compared to the earlier deals with the other pro sports teams. The Dynamo are picking up most of the costs. There are no new taxes. The full costs are pretty small in comparison. This is actually all pretty cheap.

12. It's not just soccer fans who will benefit. The facility will host concerts, high school and college football, and other events.