Houston Dynamo thread (BBVA Stadium - May 12, 2012) (Keller, Portland: high school, friendly)
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"For Houston Dynamo matches and Texas Southern University football still cameras with a non-detachable lens and a lens no longer than 4 inches will be permitted."
note sure if some one else got you, but yes, SLRs are officially out, since they have a detachable lens.
However, at my last game there was a women in front of me with an SLR and a largish (75-200mm?) lens. Obviously, she let it in.
Also, on my first game, I brought my NEX and they didn't stop me. They did state the official policy, perhaps as a warning and not realizing it is detachable. Nor did they notice the 200mm prime in my bag. lol.
I say, if they try to stop you, tell them you didn't know, say you're going to drop it off in your car, and try to get in at another gate.
note sure if some one else got you, but yes, SLRs are officially out, since they have a detachable lens.
However, at my last game there was a women in front of me with an SLR and a largish (75-200mm?) lens. Obviously, she let it in.
Also, on my first game, I brought my NEX and they didn't stop me. They did state the official policy, perhaps as a warning and not realizing it is detachable. Nor did they notice the 200mm prime in my bag. lol.
I say, if they try to stop you, tell them you didn't know, say you're going to drop it off in your car, and try to get in at another gate.
I've seen lots of peoples with SLRs in my two visits. Their policy almost seems self contradictory in my opinion. Read it one way and it seems they are okay, read it another and they are not.
It's not even 3 p.m. and the orange jerseys and T-shirts are already trickling into The Original Ninfa's On Navigation. A few late lunch customers give double takes. This is how it is for the Houston Dynamo. You either know or you're the unknowing. You either completely understand the pull or you're completely oblivious.
This Major League Soccer team's almost quietly taken over a nice chunk of the fourth-largest city in the United States.
Dynamo don't get the headlines in town, but they draw the people.Gameday after gameday after gameday.
They pour into BBVA Compass Stadium, more than 20,000 strong. They fill the roads and restaurants of EaDo beforehand, creating a street scene hours before every match. Any idea that this is a BBVA Compass fluke, that it's simply a new stadium thing has long been proven false. If anything, the fans are getting even louder, turning out even stronger, as the season goes on. Even when it's 107 degrees out.
Continued...
Spoiler
That's what it feels like when the fans start coming into Ninfa's. And it's not much cooler when Orange Avenue — the small street section that's renamed for every Dynamo match and cordoned off from traffic to create a mini street festival — starts to buzz. It's a big game Friday night in the city. Even if that would catch more than half of Houston by surprise. The Dynamo dominate this half-hidden showdown for first place in the Eastern Conference, beat the glitzy, big money squad from New York 2-0 in a match that's not nearly that close. Houston moves to 8-0-3 at its new home, 9-0-3 overall when the temperature is above 80 degrees. They're literally the hottest team in soccer. Just ask international superstar Thierry Henry, the Red Bulls' $5.6 million man turned into a puddle of invisibility by the heat and the relentless Dynamo hunger. Henry is barely noticeable on the field, moving about as fast as one of the Houston Texans' offensive lineman in the hanging humidity. And when it's over, the highest-paid player in the MLS needs nearly an hour in the trainer's room before he finally emerges to take questions from reporters. That session lasts less than five minutes before Henry abruptly cuts it off. This is one Frenchman who will not be asking Tony Parker about Texas real estate. "It's an honor to playing against (Henry)," Dynamo forward Macoumba Kandji says, playing the good host after having outplayed the man who makes more than 40 times his own $135,000 salary for 2012. "That was my idol growing up. To have a good performance against him is very important for me." It's very important to the 22,000 in the stands who scream and clap for Kandji when he is subbed for with the win no longer in doubt. Yet, there's hardly a local TV sports anchor in the house. And there's the NBC Sports Network calling Houston "small market" in its pregame.
What's next? Someone dubs Houston a suburb of Dallas?
Of course, the Dynamo have doubters in their own city without worrying about outdated national TV announcers. It's like a sizeable part of the city is throwing a giant party right amid the oblivious. "Where else am I going to have this much fun on a Friday night?" 24-year-old Dynamo fan Jen Reynolds asks amid the banging, the drumming, the flag waving and — now for the first time — the cannon firing of BBVA Compass Stadium. "I tell my boyfriend to stay home if he's not going to get into it as much as I do." Try to tell that to the old woman walking her dog a block from the stadium who asks me in all earnestness, "What's going on over there?" less than an hour before the national anthem. The first-place showdown with a New York team does not exactly pack the Dynamo's 40-seat press box either. It's not like this is a WNBA team, with a large chunk of its seats curtained off to try and give the illusion of a lively crowd, begging for coverage. These Dynamo sellouts are legit — and loud. Someone cares. At least 22,000 of someones. These Dynamo are good too. They suddenly look much quicker than the team that made that surprise run to the MLS Cup Final last season. And if now first-place Houston holds onto that spot and home-field advantage, you can forget about anyone else representing their conference in the big match. "They're a very good team," Tim Cahill, the Red Bulls' latest new fancy designated player, says. "It's not just the heat. Give them their due." Standing Tall There's the 6-foot-4 Kandji towering over the talented Red Bulls the whole night. Kandji's first shot starts the wild sequence that has Jermaine Taylor scoring just 74 seconds in. His cross finds a leaping Calen Carr's well-directed head for the second goal. Kandji keeps breaking in on his former team, driving Red Bull goalie Bill Gaudette mad. He may be no one's star, but Kandji will not let New York forget him.
The player from Senegal wears his socks long (even by soccer's shin guard necessities) and pulled up higher than the most ridiculous-looking YMCA basketball player, up past his knees. But on this night, he stands much taller than Henry. When his night ends and he walks off the field, he raises his arms and claps right back at the fans, transferring the love to the 22,000 strong. "I just wanted to show my appreciation," Kandji says. "The fans keep me running all game long by giving me energy. When I first came here, I didn't know what to expect. "But now, I just love playing in front of these guys." They're the true believers and they're hardly a small horde. It's too bad that more TV stations and traditional media do not realize what's going on. It's too bad that the creaky old paper in town sends a half dozen reporters to every Texans' training camp practice and only one to a first-place showdown in front of 22,000. Imagine if the Houston Astros were playing for first place some future August (yes, you'll have to suspend disbelief). It'd be all you hear about in the city. The Dynamo don't have to beg though. You either get it or you don't. More than enough people get it now. Every Dynamo game is a party. The fans pour in, right past the oblivious to the half-hidden hothouse of soccer. Niche sport? Please. The Dynamo are taking things in chunks now. "They're tough," Henry says. Just like their crowd. Just like their half-aware city.
Nice article. Friday night was fun. Since adapting to the 4-3-3 tactical formation they switched to after a string of poor results, the Dynamo have looked unbeatable. Big test this Friday night away to New York who are the only other team in the league that is unbeaten at home.
The first regular season for the Houston Dynamo in their new stadium is over and here's the numbers
(Still got one more game in Colorado next week before playoffs)
FINAL ATTENDANCE AVERAGE IN 2012!
May 12th vs DC United: 22,039 SELLOUT
May 15th vs Portland: 22,039 SELLOUT
May 26th vs LA Galaxy: 22,039 SELLOUT
June 16th vs FC Dallas: 22,039 SELLOUT
June 20th vs Toronto FC: 21,423
June 30th vs Philadelphia: 19,806
July 3 vs Chicago: 22,039 SELLOUT
July 15 vs DC United: 18,871
July 18 vs Sporting KC: 19,761
July 21 vs Montreal: 20,396
August 3 vs New York: 22,039 SELLOUT
August 19 vs Columbus: 20,567
August 25 vs Toronto FC: 19,930
September 6 vs Real Salt Lake: 18,452
September 29 vs New England: 22,039 SELLOUT
October 6 vs Montreal: 21,178
October 20 vs Philadelphia: 22,039 SELLOUT
Total Attendance: 356,726 Average: 20,984
Average Empty Seats Per Game: 1,055
I wasn't fond of it immediately. It took a little bit for the whole origami facade to grow on me, but now I definitely like it (I can't say love), and I'm inclined to say that it's one of the more neat structures we have in this entire city.
I also agree with whoever said that the landscaping was great. Makes you wonder why that can't always be the case.
Total Attendance: 356,726 Average: 20,984
Average Empty Seats Per Game: 1,055
This is slightly misleading wording. 1,055 was not the average number of empty seats per game but rather the average number of unsold seats. The number of empty seats was considerably higher. I attended every match this season and I would put empty seat average at probably 7000-8000. Last night was a prime example: technically it was sellout but there were a good 5000-7000 empty seats.
There were around 8000 new season ticket holders this year, many of them corporate and a very large number of which rarely used their seats. For example, the 4 seats next to me were owned by a bank. Those seats were used only 5 times this season.
Livestrong Park, in Kansas City, had the same problem when it first opened up. Today it is one of the best venues in the MLS - always packed and always noisy. It will take us a few years to shake out the people who buy tickets but do not attend and to have a core, serious fan base.
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