Robertson renovation

The University of Houston has big plans for its football stadium.

Like something out of Field of Dreams, the University of Houston is proposing a $38.7 million addition to Robertson Stadium.

If it builds luxury suites and club seats, a new locker room, offices and classroom space, the school is hoping it can increase attendance at games, raise the school's profile and even boost it into a more desirable athletic conference.

It apparently, however, would not be enough to persuade the Dynamo, Houston's professional soccer team, to remain on campus and drop plans for a stadium of their own.

Athletic Director Dave Maggard said the new facility planned for the stadium's north end zone -- to be named after longtime civic leader Wilhelmina Robertson Smith -- is part of a larger effort to improve UH's national standing.

"If you look around the country and see the great universities, they all have good athletics," Maggard said.

"It's going to help with recruiting," he said. "I think our crowds will be bigger. This fundraising campaign is going to pull people in that have never given to the university before."

The plan will be presented to a committee of the school's governing board on Aug. 5 and to the full board of regents Aug. 19.

If they approve, fundraising will begin in earnest.

Of the $38.7 million cost, $18 million will come from private donations, said Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor/associate vice president of plant operations. So far, $12 million has been pledged.

The university will kick in $5 million to cover 10,000 square feet of academic space, while the remainder will be raised through revenue bonds, to be paid with money from the sale of club seats and suites and rentals of a ritzy club area, Irvin said.

Well, objectively speaking, Robertson is a dump, so I certainly can't blame them for wanting to give it a makeover. And if you're going to do this sort of thing, you may as well pay for it with private donations and fat-cat luxury suite revenues. I think they're deluding themselves with the dreams of being swept up by a more prestigious conference, but hey, dream big. Maybe some day the Big XII will finally realize their mistake.

Side note:

The Dynamo have played at Robertson Stadium since 2006 but are eager to build a stadium designed especially for soccer east of downtown. Plans call for Texas Southern University's football team to share the space.

Oliver Luck, general manager and president of the Dynamo, said he was pleased to hear about UH's renovation but does not expect it to change his team's plans.

Parking remains a problem at Robertson Stadium, he said. Midweek games -- such as Tuesday's 2-1 win over the rival Pachuca -- aren't bad in the summer, Luck said, because there are fewer students on campus. "In the school year, it's not easy to accommodate a professional sports team."

That's the first update of any kind I've seen on the status of Dynamo Stadium since May, when the TSU connection came up. Before that, there was a little tiff between Mayor White and MLS Commissioner Don Garber over the glacial pace towards a stadium deal. Apparently, nothing much has changed since then. Maybe the Dynamo will want to reconsider staying in Robertson on the grounds that it may be redone before any other new digs can be built.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 01, 2008 to Other sports