Nothing gets my soccer toes to tappin’ like a new stadium. Which is why we’ll be all over the Houston Dynamo new stadium opening over the coming 10 days. BBVA Compass Stadium opens a week from Saturday in downtown Houston.
The fiesta has already started – and it’s safe to say the excitement over this lid lift stretches beyond the PST staff.
What says “excitement” like camping out over night to be the first to get inside … wait for it … the official team store?
The new Dynamo team store at BBVA did open Thursday. And we confirmed with a Dynamo official this morning that a line did form and that fans did, in fact, camp out to be first to the racks. Four of them, to be exact. But who cares how many? That’s brilliant stuff.
In this case, the early bird got … the third kit. The stadium store actually sold out of the Dynamo third kit that day. So how do like those orange apples?
Props, by the way, do the Dynamo staff, which heard about the campers and sent pizza.
Here’s a video from the third kit photo shoot, courtesy of the Houston Dynamo.
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- ndnut - May 4, 2012 at 5:36 PM
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One of the things I love about MLS: attentive people who care! No team in any other league would send pizzas to people who waited to get into anything!
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- footballer4ever - May 5, 2012 at 4:18 AM
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Pizza in the morning? Bagels with cream cheeze or dunkjn donuts and coffee would have been more appropiate to the ocassion. Either way, i take a bowand extend an applause for the initiative for the MLS/Dynamo personnel to be smart and graceful with their fans. It’s the small gestures that make the difference. (smile)
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- footballer4ever - May 5, 2012 at 4:03 PM
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The best fans treatment was when SSFC refunded ticket prices for a game they played so badly and out of character that it was only great marketing decision to give back to the fans. A gutsy decision, but one that left a huge positive impression on fans.
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- donjuego - May 6, 2012 at 9:39 AM
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Steve. You missed the rest of the story.
The team ran a promo for the store opening. The first 15 folks to spend over $100 would be given two free tickets to the sold-out inaugural game. The folks camping out we’re there to get those tickets.
The story goes ugly. Just before opening the doors the team announced that it would be the first 15 people to get to the register with $100 in merchandise. Some of the folks who camped out all day were not prepared for that and we’re beat to the register by late arrives and didn’t get the tickets. Worse, some of them were mocked and taunted by the late arrives reportedly as Dynamo staff watched.
Those folks were pretty upset and had a bad experience. It was a good play by the Dynamo but the finish was lacking.
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- donjuego - May 6, 2012 at 9:46 AM
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Now, the rest of the rest of the story:
Word got out on this bad experience on a large soccer discussion board. A fellow Dynamo fan with extra tickets gave the fan who camped out but missed two free tickets.
Because what is really great about the Orange nation and MLS is the community of fans that really care.
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- footballer4ever - May 7, 2012 at 9:06 AM
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So in other words, there’s always more to a story than what it meets the eye. Too good of a story to be true without a catch 22 set in place.
