How would McKalla park stack up?
Austin won’t have to finance new MLS stadium but city’s use of complex less than in Frisco, Houston.
If the city of Austin partners with Precourt Sports Ventures, the three Major League Soccer stadium deals in Texas will look extremely different.
For starters Austin will be the only one that doesn’t fork over money to build the stadium.
The Dallas suburb of Frisco and the Frisco school district put up $55 million of the $84 million to fund 20,500-seat Toyota Stadium where FC Dallas calls home. It was one of the first soccer-specific MLS stadiums, opened in 2005. FC Dallas pitched in $10 million in initial construction costs.
The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority kicked in $40.6 million of the $101.1 million it took to complete 22,000-seat BBVA Compass Stadium where the Houston Dynamo have played since 2012. The city and county jointly own the downtown facility.
The term sheet Austin struck with Precourt’s group calls for PSV to finance a $200 million, 20,118-seat stadium at McKalla Place. The city council is expected to vote on an agreement Thursday that would pave the way for Columbus Crew SC to move here.
Austin is in a stronger negotiating position than the others. As Council Member Leslie Pool points out, “Precourt came to us, not the other way around.”
Frisco was looking to put itself on the map, which it has with explosive urban growth and a
sprawling soccer complex that now includes a more than $40 million renovation to build the National Soccer Hall of Fame museum that opens Oct. 20. The museum is attached to the south end of Toyota Stadium.
Houston aimed to revitalize what was described in an impact report as an under-utilized, highly stressed urban area with high unemployment. The addition of BBVA Compass Stadium and nearby Minute Maid Park, home of the Astros, have helped transform the area.
An Austin MLS team transplanted from Columbus, Ohio, would follow the path of the Houston franchise, which packed up and left San Jose, Calif., after the 2005 season.
Neither the Dynamo nor FC Dallas pay property taxes since a municipality owns the teams, which is what the Austin term sheet proposes.
Stadium lease terms are all over the map.
The Dynamo pay just $65,000 annually on a 30-year lease. FC Dallas started off paying $100,000 a year, but that has bumped up to $1 million annually on a lease that extends through 2037, according to soccer blogger Miki Turner. Precourt would be responsible for an annual average of $412,500 over a 20-year lease.
Frisco has a huge advantage in usage. The stadium is used extensively by Frisco high school football teams. The FCS national champi- onship game and the FBS Frisco Bowl are played there. In addition there are 17 other soccer fields covering 145 acres on the grounds.
FC Dallas President Dan Hunt said a study showed the soccer complex’s economic impact at more than $112 million for 2015.
Houston’s stadium has two other tenants, Texas Southern football and the Houston Dash of the National Women’s Soccer League. TSU paid $1.5 million up front for a 30-year lease.
The Frisco and Houston stadiums hold concerts and festivals, as would the proposed McKalla Place stadium. However, the term sheet for McKalla allows the city or school district just five rent-free uses of the stadium. There would be no other tenants and no plans for football games.
Precourt’s affordable-housing element is unique among the three stadium deals, although each tout differing packages of what they call community benefits.
Houston officials told the Houston Chronicle in 2010 the Dynamo deal did not cost any general fund money. A redevelopment zone around the stadium funnels increases in tax receipts within the zone into the project.
BBVA Compass paid $20 million over 10 years for naming rights for the Dynamo’s stadium. A Toyota official told venuesnow.com the naming-rights contract for the Frisco stadium is comparable to Houston’s $2 million annual figure.