By Evan Weiner

April 22, 2008

(New York, NY) -- Don Garber runs a run of the mill soccer league in North America when it is compared to the English Premiership, and to other European and South American soccer leagues. But Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber is no slouch neither are his MLS owners when it comes to getting new stadiums built for MLS franchises. Garber is as good as MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, NBA Commissioner David Stern and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in getting a deal done.

Maybe even better if you take a look at the MLS’ list of franchises and stadiums.

There are all sorts of new publicly funded MLS facilities located throughout North America that were recently built in Bridgeville, Illinois outside of Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Toronto, Ontario, Carson, California, south of LA, Commerce City, Colorado, outside of Denver and Frisco, Texas just outside of Dallas. There are new stadiums being built or planned in Harrison, New Jersey, Kansas City, Missouri, Washington, DC, Sandy, Utah, just outside of Salt Lake City, Chester, Pennsylvania and San Jose, California.

The MLS is very big league in getting stadiums built.

So it should come as no surprise that Garber has put Houston and Harris County officials on notice. Build us a new stadium or the Houston Dynamo will relocate. The Dynamo franchise, which is owned by Phil Anschutz, moved from San Jose to the Texas city in December 2005 and the franchise is in the final season of a three-year deal to play its games at the University of Houston's Robertson Stadium until a new soccer only facility is built.

So far negotiations between the Dynamo's owners which include the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), the Brener International Group (headed by Gabriel Brener), and multiple world and boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Productions and Houston and Harris County officials have not yielded a stadium agreement.

Houston and Harris County have been in the stadium business for decades but stadium spending in the Texas city accelerated in the mid 1990s and into 2000 after Bud Adams moved his Houston Oilers to first Memphis at the conclusion of the 1996 season then to a permanent home in Nashville and Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane threatened to move his MLB Houston Astros elsewhere because the "Eighth Wonder of the World," Houston's Astrodome was no longer a thriving sports facility. Houston voters approved two new stadiums, one for McLane and the other for an NFL expansion team that would be owned by Robert McNair along with an arena in 2000 for the NBA's Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander and all was well in the Houston professional sporting community or at least in Houston's sports ownership groups.

AEG wants its Houston stadium now.

The city of Houston is trying to accommodate AEG and is planning to buy out a six block section east of downtown to provide land for the facility as its major financial contribution to the stadium that eventually would be owned by the city and sign a long-term lease with AEG and its partners to get the stadium done. But AEG officials have estimated the facility would cost more than $100 million to build, and they need a larger city investment to make the Dynamo profitable. That is the stumbling block.

Houston doesn't want to give any more money to sports owners and sports owners want more and more.

It is beginning to get nasty. Garber has told Houston Mayor Bill White that he better deliver a stadium or the league will pull the franchise out of Houston. The team could end up in a St. Louis suburb of Collinsville if plans to build a soccer facility are still on the table. In February 2008, Collinsville lost out to the Philadelphia suburb of Chester in a bid for a 2010 expansion team.

AEG wants more publicly funded money but Houston can not reach into the usual pot of car rental and hotel taxes to play for a stadium as it has three relatively new facilities that have a large debt service that needs to be paid. White would rather use sales and ticket tax more generated inside the soccer facility, when opened, to pay off the debt.

Garber and AEG pulled the Dynamo franchise out of San Jose after the 2005 season because San Jose refused to put together a soccer stadium deal that made sense. Oakland A's owner Lewis Wolff purchased an MLS expansion franchise in San Jose and apparently has tentative agreement with San Jose officials in a public-private partnership to build a stadium that would open in 2010. The deal is expected to be finalized in May.

The MLS is far from the best soccer league in the world but league owners are shrewd and smart businessmen who have been successful in other sports like Anschutz who owns the NHL’s LA Kings and a whole bunch of other franchises. Anschutz's LA Galaxy signed David Beckham to an enormous contract in 2007. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has a MLS team in his stadium in Foxboro, MA. Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt ran Dallas and Columbus until his death. Paul Allen’s Seattle team will play in the same stadium as his NFL’s Seahawks beginning in 2009. At one time Anschutz owned six MLS teams and virtually bankrolled the league.

Garber and his league threatened to pull Dave Checketts' franchise out of the Salt Lake City area without a new stadium. Sandy, Utah officials came up with money to build a facility.

The MLS maybe under the radar in North America in terms of publicity but Garber and his owners know how to play the stadium game and right now Houston Mayor Bill White better come up with stadium funding for AEG's Dynamo or AEG will find a new city for the franchise just as quickly as they found Houston as a suitable replacement for San Jose in 2005.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com or eweiner@mcn.tv