MLS Cup champs may train in RGV in 2008

McALLEN — The Houston Dynamo of the MLS are trying to bring some of their 2008 spring training to the Rio Grande Valley and will play an exhibition game here within three years, Dynamo Chief Operating Officer Chris Canetti said Thursday.

Canetti and other members of the Dynamo organization met with representatives of the Harlingen Chamber of Commerce to discuss bringing the 2006 MLS Cup champions to the Valley for spring training next year. Canetti also said he was going to scout McAllen today for possible training sites.

“It’s relatively fresh. We’ve had the idea in our heads for a month or two,” said Canetti, who was in McAllen to announce the formation of the South Texas Soccer Academy, a youth soccer training program run by the Dynamo and the McAllen Youth Soccer Association. “We think it could become an annual tradition over the years where the Dynamo travel for a week or 10 days to come down here and train. We realize there’s a hotbed of soccer here and we want to try to take advantage of that.”

Whether or not the Dynamo come down to the Valley to train is contingent on whether the team finds suitable playing fields and accommodations. Canetti said the team would like to have its plans finalized sometime between the MLS Cup, which is scheduled for Nov. 18, and Christmas.

One possible site Canetti mentioned for the Dynamo was a 14-field soccer complex currently being built in Harlingen. Ground was broken on the site two weeks ago, and Canetti said the complex would be suitable “if completed by next spring.”

“Some of this is going to boil down to finances and what the community can bring to the table to make this attractive for us,” Canetti said. “Honestly, what we need is the community to step up and give us a real good reason to come here.”

While the Dynamo isn’t yet committed to train in the Valley, they are contractually obligated to play an exhibition here within three years. As part of a sponsorship deal the team signed with Amigo Energy in August, the team will play one so-called “friendly” here with a team in the Mexican First Division.

“We are going to be active in South Texas,” said Canetti, who added the team is looking into starting a radio and television network in the Valley. “We have big plans to extend our brand and our business into this region. It’s exciting.”

Brian Sandalow is a sports reporter for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436.