Good lord NO! The Oilers name is dead and needs to remain that way. I would like to see a resurrection of the Houston Dynamos. I'm sure it will have something to do with Club America in the end.
I doubt they'll be the Houston anything with the trend of MLS going to actual club names such as Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas. I would also guess that it'll have something to do with Club America.
Two things to add to this... The name will probably be Club America Houston. Aguilas (spanish for Eagles) and Armada (sp for Army) have been leaked as possible nicknames for the club. You wont have to see soccer on artificial grass. If the Astrodome is fully renovated as the long term home for CA Houston, expect a roll out pitch that can move in and out of the stadium in 30 minutes. The field would be rolled out and housed in the parking lot directly east of the Dome near the light rail station. This solution has been used many times in soccer stadiums in Europe and Japan. The Arizona Cardinals will employ this feature in 2006 at there new retractable roofed stadium in Glendale, AZ. So in essence, the grass problem at the Astrodome is solved....for a mere estimated $50 million dollars, that is.
The only approved field types by FIFA, US Soccer, and the MLS are grass and field turf. I play on the field turf at an indoor place in Austin. It's great. There is some give. It takes some getting used to. The first time I walked on it it felt like walking on jello. They will not play on AstroTurf. CA Houston is a good name. I hope it's not Aguilas for the nickname. I already play against too many teams named Aguilas.
YES! YES! YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally! I was going to shoot myself if they didn't have a soccer team in Houston in the next couple of years. I miss soccer man! Alright, I am definitely a season-ticket holder, as soon as someone offers to pay up for me As for the name, I could care less, as long as they play in the Dome again and make use of it, I would hate to see it go to waste like it is now.
This is an awesome idea. How doable is this by the Houston Sport Authority is the team finally comes over?
That would be awesome! The jerseys would be sweet too. The light blue colors, kind of like Argentinas Uniforms.
Hell... with the way the grass grows at Reliant Stadium... they should probably incorporate a roll-out field there as well. The "tray" system seems to work only on paper... once they face the rigors of an entire NFL season, the field looks awful by the time we get to November (with several sections having to be replaced... and thus are easily recognized as different colors on a nice HD tv-set).
probably not very...because there's parking space necessary for the Texans where the "roll out" would be.
If they can still park cars there when the feild is inside they could just move it in during Texans games. I really hope Houston does get a team, I'll definately be getting season tickets when we do. It's unfortunate that San Jose will have to lose their team though.
can it be rolled out onto a parking lot?? does that work? doesn't look like that in the picture..but i'm with you, if that could be done it would be great.
I doubt it, that was mainly wishful thinking. Of course if they wanted to pay me to find a way to I could. It would involve lots of duct tape, some blue tarps, a few coat hangers, and some donkeys, but it'd work.
Close...armada means "navy" in Spanish, not army. Ejercito is army. I'm glad to see a soccer team in Houston, even though I probably wouldn't go to the games. Club America in Mexico really polarizes the country down there. Their fans are pretty die hard, but if you're not a CA fan, you absolutely hate their guts. There's no inbetween. Kinda similar to the Yankees here. by the way - Shamrock's dead.
When I first heard this on 610, one of the guys mentioned using Rice Stadium. Seems like a good idea to renovate that stadium because Rice needs a smaller venue as well and soccer in a dome seems a bit weird to me. What are the major problems keeping from Rice being used?
Yes it can, if designed correctly. The New York Mets have this "roll out" planned for a proposed retractable domed stadium in Shea's right field lots. When the roll out field rolls in place inside the stadium, parking spaces would become available for fans where the field was housed outside of the stadium. The parking lot/roll out field lot would be located underneath the roof in this pic. As for how doable this is, these are ideas that they have been considered for an expensive permanent renovation for the Dome LONG TERM, something that isn’t in the cards as of now. CA Houston is using the Dome to gauge how a soccer team would fare in this market. If there is success, expect grander renovation plans like this or a new fancy soccer stadium the would blow away the Delmar plan, which I doubt would happen anyways. They did have a great deal on the table for a new soccer stadium like Home Depot Center at the Delmar Stadium complex. But I don’t think the idea of sharing with high school football flew to well with them, especially when a venue of the likes of the Astrodome sits empty, waiting for a tenant. As I said earlier, Club America likes to do things grand. They are like the Yankees/ Lakers of Mexican soccer. I think part of this is due to the fact that they play in Mexico City, currently the world's largest city which would be a massive market that would make any franchise successful. I just cannot see how they (CA) would let a franchise bearing their brand name share a high school football stadium, not to mention playing on a consistently torn up grass field in the fall. This Delmar idea isn’t happening. If CA Houston succeeds, The Dome is home for this team, long term. As for Reliant, although there isn’t a plan in place, I think Reliant could also sport its own "roll out" field in the future. I have thought about this and I think they way the Astrodome complex was redesigned, especially in terms of the addition of Reliant Parkway and its placement, I think the Texans have planned on using a "roll out" field in the future. There is a perfect spot, immediately north of the stadium before Reliant Parkway that could house the "roll out" field, due to the sudden northward curve of Reliant Parkway. I believe its used for player parking right now but this would be a perfect spot that isnt too big or too small. As for parking, Reliant Arena could be scrapped and replaced with an expansion added on to Reliant Center into the red lot, making the facility stretch the length of the entire stadium complex. The spot that is left remaining could then be combined with the current orange lots and blue lot to form one seamless large plot of land for parking, stretching from Fannin to Kirby.The best thing about this idea is that it would unite everything into large sections (Parking/South, Stadiums/Middle, Convention/North) in the complex, which is a whole lot better then a bunch of smaller scattered out pieces. Unity in this complex could make everything run a whole lot smoother, especially when its needed on gameday.
This is pretty awesome.. alot of the European teams have names like FC... or AC.. and Dallas' team is called FC Dallas what exactly is FC? I kind of like the name DC United something to that tune, nothing like Houston 'insert animal here'
Football Club, or Athletic Club - a lot of the bigger teams in Europeare part of larger Athletic Clubs which also have basketball teams and such.