Another Stadium Being Constructed In Houston

During the early part of the 2Ks, new stadiums and arenas went up for almost all of Houston's professional major league sports teams. 

The Astros in 2000 opened Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston followed two years later by the opening of Reliant Stadium next door to the Astrodome for the Houston Texans.

In October 2003 Toyota Center opened up downtown just south of the George R. Brown Convention Center and Minute Maid Park for the Rockets and Aeros.

So what team didn't get a stadium in the early 2k's?   The Houston Dynamo, our Major League Soccer franchise.  The Dynamo didn't exist until 2005.   Houston got an expansion MLS franchise which was stocked with players from the dormant San Jose Earthquakes team.   The Dynamo currently plays its games at UH's Robertson Stadium and won MLS titles in 2006 and 2007.

But playing at Robertson Stadium was always considered a temporary arrangement until a new soccer specific stadium could be built.   

That finally came to pass when ground was broken for the Dynamo's new 22,000 seat soccer specific stadium on February 5 just to the east of Minute Maid Park on the opposite side of the Eastex Freeway..

Actual construction started on it in March with a scheduled completion date of April 2012.  It will also become the home stadium for Texas Southern University football games in addition to concerts and other events. 

And yes, in case you H-town residents are reading this and wondering about it, the new stadium will be accessible to the METRORail via the Bastrop Street Station on the now under construction East End/Brown Line.

Looking forward to seeing the new stadium when it's finally completed and opened next April.

Canada Will Host 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup

The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup tournament kicks off in Germany June 26 and the reigning CONCACAF champion Canadian team will be playing the defending two time FIFA world champion Germans in the opening match in Berlin.

The Canadians regardless of how they fare in this 2011 event already know they have qualified for the next FIFA women's world cup tournament.

FIFA recently announced that Canada will be the host nation for the 2015 Women's World Cup event. In addition to Canada getting the automatic bid as the host nation, the women's tournament is finally being expanded from 16 to 24 teams.  


The details are still being worked out in terms of the dates (which will be June-July) and sites, but Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, Moncton, N.B., and Halifax were the cities mentioned as potential  World Cup match sites.  Only six cities will host games at the 2015 tournament, so one city will eventually be eliminated from the potential host mix.

The cool thing is the FIFA Women's World Cup tournament will be back on the North American continent for the first time since the US hosted it in 2003 and knocked off the Canadians 3-1 in the bronze medal match.   The US hosted and won it in 1999 with that memorable shoot out over China..

If you're wondering where's Toronto in this list of cities, it wasn't included in the FIFA bid because it will be busy hosting the 2015 Pan American Games from July 10-26.

Happy that our neighbors got the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, and we look forward to playing them on their home soil four years from now.

2011 Women's World Cup Draw

On Monday the draw to put together the groups for the initial phase of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was held in Frankfurt.

The only thing we knew going into the draw that happened at 12:00 PM CST my time yesterday was that two time defending FIFA women's world champion and host nation Germany was in Group A.

That's a nice segue into who the other members of that group will be.  Canada, Nigeria and France are the other three nations in what has turned out by some soccer analysts reckoning as the 2011 FIFA women's tournament's 'Group of Death'.   

Group B is comprised of Japan, New Zealand,  our southern neighbors Mexico and England

Group C is consider by some analysts to be the other tournament 'Group of Death' and is made up of the United States, North Korea, Colombia and Sweden

Group D will have Marta-led Brazil, Australia, Equatorial Guinea and Norway

To break down what this all means, check out the analysis from the Women's Professional Soccer website


The 2011 Women's World Cup will kick off June 26 with the two time defending champion Germans playing in Berlin's Olympic Stadium against Canada.

Our Canadian neighbors are pissed because they didn't get a top seed despite winning five straight matches to take the CONCACAF title.

Send your attack beavers to FIFA headquarters, people.   They made the decision to go by world ranking, which is how the number one ranked Team USA got one of the group seeds despite having to do the two leg playoff with the Italians to get in. .


After that opening match in Berlin with the Germans, Canada's Group A tournament road doesn't get any easier.  They take on France in Bochum on June 30 and finish July 5 with the Super Falcons of Nigeria in Dresden.   

Mexico takes on England in Wolfsburg on June 27, Japan in Leverkusen on July 1 and closes Group B play with their math against New Zealand in Sinsheim on July 5  

The first Group C match for FIFA number one ranked Team USA will be on June 28 in Dresden against North Korea.   They'll then face off July 2 in Sinsheim against Colombia and finish group play in Wolfsburg on July 6 against Sweden

Top two teams in each group go to the knockout  round and we'll need to be paying very close attention to what's going on in Groups A and D.  

If Team USA wins Group C, they'll be matched up against the Group D runner up on July 10 in Augsburg.    However, it would also be in the upper half of the bracket with the Group A winner.  If Team USA is the runner up, they would play the Group D champ in Dresden on July 10

If things break right for Team USA and they keep winning, the defending 2008 Olympic champs will hopefully find themselves in Frankfurt on July 17 playing for their third world championship. 

15 other teams have that same dream, and we''ll see in a few months how this all plays out.