Stadium Porn - San Jose "Could" Have the Best Seats in MLS

"Ok. You guys both see that women waving in the black top over there? Wow." said the ref.

The San Jose Earthquakes are still a ways off from getting final approval for a soccer-specific stadium, but as they continue to push for it more and more details are coming out about its proposed design.

Just like LIVESTRONG Sporting Park raised the bar (haha... no FBM pun intended) last June and the sexy, new Houston Dynamo stadium will debut next May, the Earthquakes stadium may have the coolest idea yet when it comes to soccer stadium innovation; field-level luxury suites.

Sure the NBA has got court-side, but the only amenity for paying loads more than the proletariat is being close to the action and a few extra inches on the seat pad.

Hey! Down in front! Don't you know how much I paid for these seats?

San Jose's design puts 12 luxury boxes at game level and what you get is beyond anything the 10-foot, round-ball league as to offer for its A-listers.

From the Silicon Vallet Mercury News story:

Unlike that courtside seating, however, these amenities will include 24-inch padded seats, couches, cocktail tables, flat-screen televisions, a bar area, catered food and a sliding-glass door that just might stop the soccer ball before it knocks over your martini. As Kaval put it, "you'll have to be on your toes."

The price for the up-close and personal vantage point: $350,000 for a five-year contract. Despite the cost, Kaval maintains it's competitive with other luxury suites in professional hockey and football leagues, considering the number of events that will be held in the stadium. Each suite accommodates 23 people. 

Now, of course, we're all about making the game-day experience as authentic as possible by supporting supporters groups and the like and shying away from fake-fan and overly family-friendly, but stadiums and teams have got to make money. Soccer still needs its sugar daddies and luxury suites are the avenue.The difference in SJ is that by putting these boxes down in the action you really are appealing to people that are to see the game and not hide it their boxes (hopefully).

Here's to innovative ideas in the soccer stadium and marketing world. We've come along way from Crew Stadium.

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Soccer Marketing 101 - Houston Dynamo Stadium Done Right

The Houston Dynamo broke ground for its new stadium this past weekend, another success and step forward for soccer in America. The 22,000-seat downtown stadium will open in 2012. For Dynamo fans, this has been a long tough battle, and now the two-time MLS Cup winners will have a place to call their own.

The Vision Production Group made an awesome video promoting the future stadium for the Dynamo's potential advertisers and partners. It is not only a great tribute to the hard work the team has put in on the field, but the culmination of the long road the front office and its fans had to get to this point.

Furthermore, its a testament, once again, to the lengths in which the sport has grown in the United States; that another major American city will have its own soccer specific stadium. Another Major League Soccer team out from the cavernous confines of a football stadium and the eye sore of the excessive amount of white lines. Another MLS side that's escaped from revenue sucking stadium rental agreements. Another MLS side that is looking forward, building its own feature, controlling its own financial destiny.

Lastly, Houston has a downtown stadium to call home. It might have been able to settle years earlier for something in the suburbs, but they didn't. Even when last fall's mayor race seemed to doom their plans (Annise Parker came out against building another stadium in Houston) they pushed forward. Parker was even at this weekend's event, shovel in hand. The Dynamo saw,with Texas rivals FC Dallas, the pitfalls of a stadium that, while shiny and new, if placed too far from the city, can flounder.

Their new marketing video contains a bit of celebration of the club's past and a bright look into its soccer-specific future.

Houston Dynamo Stadium Launch Marketing Video from VISION Production Group on Vimeo.

Photo Credit: Wilf Thorne / Houston Dynamo


[H/T to The Offside Rules for hipping us to this video.]


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