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Boxer wants to buy Dynamo

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Major League Soccer is urging Anschutz Entertainment Group to sell the Dynamo because it also owns the Los Angeles Galaxy, another MLS team. Such a sale would not alter AEG's plan to form a private-public partnership within weeks with the city to build a downtown soccer stadium because the deal would include an agreement that the team wouldn't move, said city and Dynamo officials. A group including Olympic gold medalist boxer Oscar De La Hoya is in negotiations to buy the team from AEG, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.

Houston Chronicle

Oscar De La Hoya, Gabriel Bouys Oscar De La Hoya, Gabriel Bouys
November 28, 2007  08:50 AM ET

It would be a good purchase by the Golden Boy. I think the MLS needs to have owners like him around.

November 28, 2007  09:11 AM ET

I'll probably be shot down on this, but really, aside of a big ol' pot of cash, what does De La Hoya have to offer the MLS?

If you're going to get this league off the ground, you need to have people who understand the sport.

November 28, 2007  09:14 AM ET

How do you know he doesn't understand the sport??

November 28, 2007  09:17 AM ET

Team owners don't have to be footballing gurus anyway. If they're smart they'll surround themselves with sharp football minds and provide them with the resources to be successful.

November 28, 2007  09:22 AM ET

De La Hoya has been surrounded by savvy financial advisors and made loads of money. I see his interest as a strong comment about the status MLS has reached as a league.

November 28, 2007  09:27 AM ET

I don't, but I think it's safe to say that the MLS is still in its infancy, and needs experienced hands to guide it. Of course, money is money and talks louder than anything else and ODLH totally fits the razzle-dazzle, Beck-tastic profile of the Galaxy.

I have no idea how attached US fans are to their soccer (spit) teams, whether it's the same frenzied-name-your-first-born fanaticism that we have here in Europe, but the last thing I would want is for my club to be yet another rich man's toy.

(I'm quite proud of myself really - I almost avoided saying that only someone who'd been hit around the head a fair bit would be keen to throw money into the Galaxy..!)

November 28, 2007  09:50 AM ET

Wow, can you imagine league owner meetings? De la hoya, Drew Carey, who's next?

November 28, 2007  10:54 AM ET

Am I misreading this, or is SophomoreJinx? Isn't ODLH looking at the Dynamo?

Yeah, he is glitzy and all. And, yeah, the league is in its infancy. But it sure can't hurt to get some high-profile investors.

I'm not going to look up the financial numbers regarding the Galaxy, but from what I recall the Beckham thing is working out pretty well in terms of dollars.

November 28, 2007  12:08 PM ET

kopper: There's a difference between high-profile investors and celebrity ownership. Celebrity ownership typically ends badly.

That's what makes me so nervous about giving Drew Carey so much power with Seattle (thankfully he's a minority owner). He's a great person and all, but he fully admits, he just recently became interest in the sport less than 10 years ago.

In the case of a Malcolm Glazer, the guy had the big bucks and support staff to back up his bid in Europe. A del La Hoya bid looks more like a celebrity push more than an actual managing bid for a team.

November 28, 2007  12:19 PM ET

Don't for get Christian Laettner is part owner of DC, what does he know about soccer? The Golden boy does have Deep pockets, and he is looking at a team with a big latin fan base. I think he would do fine as an owner, and I think he may do well in promoting the game. we'll see.

November 28, 2007  12:27 PM ET

Is De La Hoya from Houston, I thought we wanted LOCAL ownership here?

November 28, 2007  01:10 PM ET

ODLH is a brilliant business / promotion person... or at least he has surrounded himself with people who are very savy at it.

Who cares about the minority ownership? Jay-Z is part owner of the Nets. Usher is part owner of the Cavs. Drew Carey has a stake in Seattle. I think they do it just to add name recognition, and not for personnel decisions.

November 28, 2007  01:26 PM ET

It's only a matter of time before big name celebs get in the game. Anthony LaPaglia has stakes in Sydney FC and has stated he wants to run his own MLS team. To me having celebrities interested in this sport (in the US) seems like a good move. Plus they could get in for relatively cheap investments as opposed to trying to buy an NFL or NBA team.

November 28, 2007  01:47 PM ET

there is nothing wrong with having a celeb as a minority owner, it is free advertising mostly especially if the celeb stays relevant. but i would like to make a comment to sophmorejinx. the mls is still young but they are in no way struggling. the executive mls office has done brilliantly putting teams only where they will succeed with fans ie houston and toronto and the designated player rule has worked well as every mls club with the exection of dallas (denilson) and NY (reyna mostly cuz he hasn't been healthy) have made all thier money back and then some from the deals, also each mls team will be in the black by 2010 with la and dallas already there and a couple more almost there. i would also like to add that you clearly haven't watched much very many mls games with your (spit) comment but the quality of our teams is not bad. we are not like the epl or bundesligas of the world but we are right up thier with some of the smaller european leauges like belgium's, the netherlands and scotland's. also mls teams are competative with all the south american clubs we play in international competition (as shown by the fact that 3 mls teams advanced in the superliga as opposed to just one mexican squad.)

November 28, 2007  02:23 PM ET

The GM is much more important than the owner in determining a club's success, especially in a league with a salary cap.

November 28, 2007  03:09 PM ET

GREAT MOVE, if de la hoya uses his money to get some DP's

November 28, 2007  03:11 PM ET

Here's the real point. The original ownership of just a few-- AEG and the like, is being repalced by individual owners. The big conglomerates were there to get the league started. Having more owners is GREAT because that means each club will start looking after their own interests. With one owner per team, you won't get the ridiculous rule changes that favor just one team at the expense of others, like the recent Donovan DP-slot. They were able to pull that off because the other owners caved to a powerful owner group that has several teams. The more individual owners we get, the fairer the competition will be.

And who sez that ODLH DOESN"T know about soccer. That's pretty arrogant of YOU to post that. is there a written test YOU'VE taken to confirm how much you know about soccer? Where's YOUR soccer guru membership card. So Drew Carey has only been interested for 10 years. Hell, the league is barely past 10 years old (1996, right?). You could equally say that "Drew Carey has been following MLS from its infancy" depending on how you spin it.

November 28, 2007  06:23 PM ET

It's good for the simple fact that it brings more 'star power' to the league. And like others have mentioned, Oscar is an astute businessman, has clearly parlayed his boxing purses into a mini-empire, and all the better for MLS if he gets involved.

Also, before I repeat other posts even further, Romadave is right.

November 28, 2007  06:25 PM ET

This isn't frigging rocket science. If Bon Jovi can own an Arena League team, Oscar can own an MLS team.

 
November 28, 2007  06:48 PM ET

Do you think he'll changed the teams uniforms to those nice lace nighties that he likes to wear? Also the team could wear boxing gloves out on the field because you cant touch the ball anyways

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