The original San Jose MLS franchise moved to Texas in advance of the 2006 season to become the Houston Dynamo, in part because the franchise wanted to play in a new stadium all its own. It took until 2012 for that vision to become a reality, but the result helped set a tone for expansion teams and expansion aspirants alike – a soccer-specific stadium located within the downtown core.
Tonight, when the Dynamo take the field at BBVA Compass Stadium against the Vancouver Whitecaps(9 pm ET | MLS LIVE in the US, TSN1/3/4/5 in Canada), it’ll mark five years to the day that the stadium opened its doors to fans. And the team isn’t going to let the anniversary pass quietly.
Tonight’s celebrations will include a first kick from Brad Davis, whose stadium opening day heroics in 2012 lives on as a favorite moment for Dynamo fans, a pre-game firing of El Capitan (the cannon currently in the Dynamo’s possession by virtue of winning last year’s Texas Derby series against rivals FC Dallas), and a video featuring the top five moments in stadium history, which the Dynamo previewed via social media Thursday.
“There are so many wonderful moments that we’ve had here over the course of the five years,” Dynamo president Chris Canetti said at a press event on Tuesday previewing the celebration. “I have to say though that the most memorable for me was the first game ever. It was so exciting to finally get this stadium opened and all the energy and everything behind it, but for Brad Davis to strike a goal from distance late in the game to give the Dynamo a victory, everybody went home happy. That was really a defining moment.”
“One of our proudest moments as a team has been our undefeated home streak,” said former Dynamo player and current team ambassador Brian Ching at the Tuesday event, referring to the MLS-record 39-game home unbeaten streak the Dynamo compiled from 2011 to 2013. “The opening of the stadium goes right back to the middle of that streak. Obviously, I feel that we wouldn’t be able to do that if we didn’t have this place to call home. I think it’s our fans. The building is just a building, then when our fans get in here they really make it our home; it provides the team with a fantastic advantage.”
Ching was part of the squad that moved from San Jose to Houston in 2006. He remembers the Dynamo’s first home in Houston, the opened-in-1942 Robertson Stadium, as an intimate setting that fans made their own, but definitely showed its age.
“We have tons of stories about that place,” Ching laughs about the stadium fondly known by players and fans as “The Rob.”
“I remember the summer where the A/C went out for a six-week stretch and we had to have big fans set up in the locker room,” he recalls. “We had cats in the ceiling. Rats would occasionally eat our energy bars. But at the same time, we had a huge home field advantage there. It wasn’t ideal, but we owned it.”
Ching recalls being wowed by the new stadium when it opened. It kept the same intimacy of The Rob – as he puts it, “there’s not a bad seat in the house” – while featuring construction conscious of Houston heat and humidity. The aluminum-paneled exterior is 50 percent open to allow for air flow, while canopies over the east and west stands shield fans from the worst of the sun. (Though the Dynamo do judiciously schedule most of its games for the evening hours, when the outdoors is a little more forgiving.)
The downtown location, between its tailgate scene and nearby pubs, lends to a festive atmosphere. “I'm seeing more tailgating, and more pub gathering pregame,” said James Hromadka, president of Dynamo supporters’ group Texian Army. “It's become a great way to spend the day for fans.” While fellow supporters’ groups congregate in the parking lot west of the stadium, Texian Army’s staked out a new location southeast of the stadium, in the parking lot of a fortune cookie factory, where they’re able to create elaborate food fests for weekend matches.
In addition to the five-year anniversary, the stadium just observed another major milestone at last week’s 4-0 victory over Orlando City SC: Its 3-millionth fan came through the gates for that match. The Dynamo didn’t let that milestone pass, either. Season ticket holder Mike Duncan and his family were feted with a confetti shower and a gift-bearing Dynamo Diesel – the team’s mascot.
But it won’t just be numerical markers celebrated. The Dynamo is adding an extra layer to Friday’s festivities by declaring it Star Wars Night. The celebration, picking up the momentum from last week’s Star Wars Day (celebrated by fans worldwide on May 4, as in “May the Fourth be with you”), will include in-stadium appearances by special guests “from a galaxy far, far away” and limited edition scarves featuring a “forever orange” light saber.
The stadium continues to undergo evolution. Last year, the supporters’ section relocated from the south end to the more expansive north end upper deck, dubbed the Zona Naranja, to allow for the supporters’ groups to grow their ranks. Ching points to the new Tecate Social bar installed above the players’ tunnel on the south end, and a newly-installed Texas-traditional icehouse and neighborhood-inspired concessions in the stadium’s east end, as improvements to the fan experience.
“I think the fan base is evolving along with the stadium,” Ching said. “But for people coming here for their first time, you can see the joy that they get being here. They say, ‘This isn’t like other sports here. I didn’t realize it was like this.’”
