Club America and Houston Still Courting

The AEG move of the Quakes to Houston, who yesterday were officially re-named and re-branded Houston 1836, originally started with a lot of talk of Club America taking their shot at MLS.

Those talks heated up and cooled down repeatedly over the course of many months.

Recently the primary obstacle has been TV rights. Not from ESPN/Disney, but with Televisa. SUM/AEG/MLS has not been able to come to terms with the Mexican broadcaster. Club America is ready to make it happen and take over the club, but until this aspect is worked out the sale will not move forward. On a side note, it also appears that any future Houston stadium development would remain in the hands of AEG, much like what was planned for DC.

Come on! It's Funny!

10,000 T-shirts: $5 each
Screen Printing: $3 each
Shipping and handling to Frisco: $237

10,000 Useless t-shirts that just rub in the pain: Priceless


I received this via email. It's amazing what you can find on MLSnet.com when you poke around.

Ok, I Was Right Afterall.

I can finally confirm, again, that Tomas Rongen will again be the coach of the US Men U20's.

....uh, so there.

The Masses are Clever Devils

Once again, MLSNet shoots itself in the foot with shoddy webmastering.

To add to a rather lengthy list of episodes where fans dig thru the open files of the MLSNet website only to find information that has yet to be released - yesterday a determined MLS supporter came across the new Houston logo.

It confirms that the team will have "1836" (see, I told you) as their nickname and MLS will finally get an orange team. Unfortunately they stuck it with brown, and we all know "what brown can do for you". Thankfully the larger version of the logo and the PR stuff that goes with it says it's "Raven Black" and "Space City Blue" to go with the "Wildcatter Orange."

The logo is pretty simple and clearly mocks the Astro's current star theme. It also proudly incorporates Texas state hero, and city namesake, Sam Houston on horseback. Ok, I assume that is Sam Houston.

Remember MLSNet has also accidently failed to secure the Miami/Tampa Bay retraction story by posting a new header with only 10 teams, and most recently the failed to hide the picture files of new team jerseys like FC Dallas and Chivas USA.

A Correction? Maybe...

A while ago I mentioned that Thomas Rongen had locked up the coaching gig with the U20's. It appears that may have been premature. Sources at the Fed tell me now there are now four people interviewing for that job: Rongen, Ralph Perez, Mike Lapper, and Peter Vermes. Interesting line of canidates, but Rongen is still the favorite.

Nike's World Cup Kits?

Floating around the 'net is this pic. Word is that it represents Nike's lineup of World Cup uniforms. It is not known if this a copy of an offical Nike pic or a bootleg. But from what I have heard, the lineup looks to be correct and confirms what I posted a few months ago.

I think that from left to right to would be: Turkey, Croatia, Morocco, Mexico, USA, Portugal, Brasil, Holland, Korea... Nike looks to have worked hard to give each country their own identity instead of the much debated "cookie cutter" look of late.

Also take a close look at the US kit. Note the left sock appears to continue the verticle stripe. This was one of the design ideas that I was told was "being discussed". Also the blue shorts instead of white, and the 'away' top will be the Mexico jersey template, but just in a blue with the horizontal stripe being red.

Getting Mail is Fun!

More from the mail bag. Brian C asks a three part question:

I heard from a usually reliable source that the league office of MLS will befooting the bills for the Wizards in 2006, NOT Lamar Hunt. Though he will remain the I/O of the team for now.

It is more than likely that MLS is handling the bills for the Wiz(ards) for 2006. Lamar will remain the "I/O" for now, but he remains committed to finding a buyer and he is hopeful that a local investor and stadium deal will get done. That being said, he did not want to continue to fund it.

I've also heard rumours that AEG ignored offers to negotiate the Spartan Stadium deal with Spartan Shops. Reportedly, Spartan Shops was willing to drop the total bill by 30% plus add concession, parking, and merchandising percentages.

AEG did not want to stay without a soccer-specific-stadium and knew that no matter what Spartan Shops brought to the table was not going to make the team profitable. The two sides have been at odds on certain issues for some time and that certainly did not help the situation.

Finally, I heard from a source who is not entirely relieable, that per the sale of DC United to Kevin Payne's group, partial control of any stadium contructed for the team will go to AEG.

Over in DC, AEG has in fact will be given total control of any new stadium, but that is now and there is a lot of ground to be covered before there is a SSS in DC and much can change between now and then.

Houston Que Nombre?

The voting is over for the Houston MLS name. Right now there is a clear favorite with the momentum and mojo, the odds on choice that is being given the once over around the league office and owners. That name is Houston 1836. The decision at this point is not Houston 1836 versus some other name like Apollos, Toros, or Mustangs, instead the decision is do we, or do we not, go with Houston 1836? Is this a name we can live with for years?

That’s the name on the table. Will they run with it?