Golden Boy could bring boxing matches to Houston soccer stadium

Houston Dynamo minority owner Oscar De La Hoya joined city and county officials Saturday at the groundbreaking for the team's $95 million, soccer-specific stadium.

The 22,000-seat venue is situated near downtown within walking distance of Minute Maid Park, the Toyota Center and the city's massive convention center. Besides being home to the Dynamo, it also will host international soccer matches, Texas Southern University football games, concerts and boxing matches.

The Dynamo have been sharing Robertson Stadium, home of the University of Houston Cougars football team, since moving to Houston from San Jose in 2005.

De La Hoya retired from boxing in 2009 and invested in the Dynamo, who draw much of their fan base from Houston's Hispanic community.

"The Dynamo is a great team for Houston, and for soccer in general," De La Hoya said. "All these kids looking up to the team, to build a home for them, is something special. I'm very happy and glad to be a part of it."

De La Hoya also has moved into boxing promotion and wants to make Houston a destination for the sport, using the stadium as the centerpiece. His Golden Boy Promotions has hosted events at the Toyota Center, home of the NBA's Houston Rockets.

"We'll be bringing big-time boxing to our stadium," he said. "It's a perfect configuration for big boxing. We're talking about matches on HBO and Showtime. Who knows, maybe even pay-per-view shows? It is a big pleasure to look for those next young kids who are from Houston. We have a lot of talent here. It's going to be exciting to develop those next great fighters hailing from here."

The new stadium will be operated by AEG Facilities, a worldwide manager of sports venues. AEG president and CEO Tim Leiweke envisions the Houston stadium hosting an MLS Cup, international matches and perhaps even an NCAA College Cup.

Reliant Stadium, home of the NFL's Houston Texans, regularly hosts international soccer matches that draw huge attendance. Last July, a crowd of 70,728 watched Manchester United beat a team of Major League Soccer All-Stars.

Leiweke said the Dynamo's new home will be more suited to exhibition matches between Mexican club teams, also big draws in Houston.

"I do see this is going to be something that brings a lot of opportunity to drive tourism back into Houston," Leiweke said. "I think those Mexican club teams will do well here. But we also see some tournaments we can invest in, with some great European teams coming in for a period of a week, playing multiple games and training in Houston."

By 2012, 15 of the 19 MLS teams will have their own soccer-specific venues, a sign of the league's growth. MLS president Mark Abbott listed several benefits for teams to have their own homes, rather than splitting with other pro or college teams in their area.

"It's going to create a great environment for fans, that's the most important thing," Abbott said. "But also scheduling, control over their own game presentation, feeling of ownership, and it becomes a community asset."

Mayor Annise Parker, Harris County Judge-Executive Ed Emmett and City Councilman James Rodriguez, who represents the district where the stadium will be built, picked up gold-plated shovels and joined De La Hoya at a giant sandbox for the symbolic groundbreaking.

The entire Dynamo squad and coach Dominic Kinnear also attended.

"On the business side, you can run your business more effectively, rather than renting out all the time," Kinnear said. "We're not sort of coming in and coming out when the football season rolls around. This will be our own stadium.

"We got around and saw other teams getting their own stadiums," he said. "Our players have been waiting very patiently. That makes all of this very exciting. It was worth the wait."

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6093735/oscar-de-la-hoya-helps-break-ground-new-houston-dynamo-stadium

Saul Alvarez get's a few more good wins over some names, I could see him selling out that soccer stadium

thats not only a great idea but a great site to establish as a main threat or compliment to vegas the garden and atlantic city..the key is good matchups and or saleable names like chavez jr..golden boys contract ending with hbo can be turned into a good thing for boxing if its not renewed..if golden boy establishes this as a top site that draws fans and can do business with both showtime hbo and possibly cbs and others on a fight to fight basis this can be one of the shots in the arm boxing needs.
i hope golden boy doesnt use this as leverage to renew hbo but has vision to explore the excellent oportunites to keep there option of using all tv media on a fight to fight basis plus a arena like that that could expand to lets say 25000 seats because the soccer field can be used for seats gives golden boy a chance to litterly localy promote in a top city without tv money on occasion...
if golden boy does establish it it can open doors for other promoters to use the site to do fights that dont involve golden boy..a sensible co-existence can develope if golden boy does it right..for once guys use vision and do the right thing..it just may put more coins in your pocket plus benefit the game.

GrantZilla wrote:Saul Alvarez get's a few more good wins over some names, I could see him selling out that soccer stadium

Good call

Seems like Oscar and Schaefer should of already been doing this when they had Juarez and Baby Bull going

MLS teams that have built soccer specific stadiums are smart. The Golden one looking at trying to use such a stadium for fights in a few years, even smarter.

captainanddew wrote:MLS teams that have built soccer specific stadiums are smart. The Golden one looking at trying to use such a stadium for fights in a few years, even smarter.

I think so. Soccer stadiums in the US are more suited for boxing then NFL stadiums. Except Cowboy stadium because they got that gigantic jumbotron

GrantZilla wrote:

captainanddew wrote:MLS teams that have built soccer specific stadiums are smart. The Golden one looking at trying to use such a stadium for fights in a few years, even smarter.

I think so. Soccer stadiums in the US are more suited for boxing then NFL stadiums. Except Cowboy stadium because they got that gigantic jumbotron

so true. You build a 20,000 seat stadium specific for soccer. In a warm weather climate like Houston why not have a card there whenever you have people that could draw a nice crowd.

People want to see reasonable priced entertainment in a nice venue. The days of casinos hopefully are decreasing. Stage local fights and when you have big name fighters, try to find good local venues for the fights.

Oscar De la Hoya. The greatest promoter of all time.

oscars far from that..don king over the years as well as arum have done a better job..mike jacobs did a great job for years almost weekly at the garden and delivered better fights then oscar ever dreamed of...my choice would go to tex richard..noo tv no mass media no internet no cable no satilight yet he delivered crowds of almost 100 000 folks...those 4 are legendary promoters..oscar is not..

Maybe Oscar will get in bed with James Prince and get his teeth knocked out too.

already had alot of GB fights at the Houston ROckets stadium so this shouldnt be to hard, sounds like a perfect venue for boxing as well, 22,000 seats , 95 million dolalr stadium?? Im interested