Houston Dynamo

The Exterior
The brains behind the BBVA Stadium was Christopher Lee. Who is he? Well, he’s the gentleman behind Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and you can see a few similarities between the stadia albeit the home of Houston Dynamo is a somewhat more out there design. There isn’t really one standout feature from the outside with whole thing simply eye catching. You can see the bright orange, which resembles the team kit, burning bright underneath the construction of several metal grill triangles that have been netted together in different formats to encapsulate the entire exterior with no clean edge in sight.

The logic to this design is three-fold. Firstly, it looks seriously impressive and is much easier on the eye than many more traditional looking stadiums. Then you’ve got the dual benefit of increased light and air working its way into the stadium.

The Interior
After passing through the turnstiles, the domination of orange continues; you’ll be faced with 22,000 orange coloured seats as soon as you enter the pitch area from what are pretty substantial concourses. The main entrance, which boasts the lion’s share of concessions, is located off Walker Street. In this stand, which contains the Heineken Star Bar, you’ll find two-tiers of seating but with most of the stand not under cover with a looming roof purely providing protection to those located centrally in the stand. That’s noteworthy because the other three stands have this geometrical structure running all around as a form roofing. Still, it’s not the strangest thing about the south stand; that belongs to the pitch side patio, which is exactly what it sounds like – essentially garden furniture placed insanely closely to the pitch.

Opposite you have the north stand. The main takeaway here is the enormous screen, which has recently been heavily invested in to nearly double the size compared to the previous. You won’t find a Heineken bar here but Bud Light Bunker is decent enough option.

Finally, there are the side stands. Both are two-tiered stands with the duo offering a fairly consistent number boxes. The key differences are that the east stand has a stretch of on-pitch seating. The west, however, cannot offer such a thing with the subs and management teams positioned in their dugouts here. You also have the VIP President’s Club lounge located here.

The most obvious place to start for food and drink is at the stadium; at either end – the north and south – you have the Heineken and Bud Light bars respectively as briefly touched on a moment ago. The south stand offers the largest array of concessions with Diggity Dawgs and H-Town Grill just two options. Other stands aren’t short on snack and drink offerings either though with a minimum of five offerings per stand – all of which are evenly scattered throughout.

If you’d rather load up before heading to the ground then you have plenty of options nearby too. There are a couple of places listed on the official BBVA stadium website. These include Lucky’s Bar, which offers food ranging from pizza to steak along with drinks aplenty, and Huynh’s, which is a Vietnamese restaurant. Both are situated within a three minute walk of the ground to the west side.

Those listed on the official site are far from your only options though. Little Woodrow’s on St Emanuel Street – a literal stones toss from the ground – is a sports bar offering grill style food whilst Pitch25, which is just 240ft from the south stand, has a beer garden where you can enjoy a beverage pre-match. If you’re looking for options at the other end of the stadium then your choices include Texas Bar-B-Que on Emancipation Avenue to the north and Brass Tacks Bistro to the east. All of these options listed are within 0.3 miles of the stadium.

One of the main things to touch on for visiting supporters at BBVA Stadium is the ease of access (we’ll come to this in a moment) but in terms of the matchday experience, they’ll be seated in corner of the south stand. The perks of this are you’ll be within easy access of the range of bars and eateries but the downside is that, like most venues, they keep the away fans away from the more ‘rowdy’ home section.

In terms of the easiest option for getting to BBVA Stadium, you’re probably looking at the train. Both the purple and green lines stop at Eado/Stadium station, which will drop you literally yards from the stadium. Specifically, you’ll be on Texas Avenue behind the north stand. There are also a number of buses that offer routes in and around the stadium.

If, however, you plan on driving to the ground you’ll be comforted to know that there are parking options galore. In the immediate vicinity of the west stand there are six parking lots with the closest Hutchins Lot located on Walker Street. You’ve then got four big lots to the north of the stadium, which are all a matter of yards away whilst the south is equally as well served with Bastrop Street probably the furthest away you’ll need to go; even that’s only 0.6 miles away. The east side doesn’t have any parking options but it will hardly be an issue given the vast array we’ve just spoken over.

If you are planning on spending the night near BBVA Stadium you’ll likely need to stay the other side of Eastex Freeway. One of your best options will be Hilton Americas; this is a 4-star hotel situated on the south side of Discovery Green Park, which is a 13 minute walk to the stadium. Slightly further away at 15 minutes – on Lamar Street – you’ve got a 5-star Four Seasons hotel but it will set you back $700 per night as opposed to the much more reasonable Hilton at circa $200.

If you are looking for a more budget beating option then 0.7 miles from the south stand is a 3-star Holiday Inn Express, which you bag for around $120 per night.

FC Dallas

The below link will take you to the team website.

Schedules | Houston Dynamo FC