Stadium Cheat Sheet
The Houston stadium tour cheat sheet Part 3: BBVA Compass Stadium
Sep 19, 2017, 1:16 pm
This is part three of the Houston stadium series. You can find part one — Minute Maid Park — here and part two — Toyota Center — here.
Soccer. Football. Whatever you want to call it. The sport rightfully has a foothold in one of the country’s most diverse cities. And while I love my Astros, Rockets, and Texans, there’s a unique sense of pride I get from cheering for the Houston Dynamo.
That pride stems from the fact that, while they may be firmly planted as the fourth most profitable major sport in Houston, they host to the absolute greatest fans Houston has to offer. There is absolutely no equal.
I think I’ve established how much of an Astros fan I am by now. Yet, when approached by non sports fans, my first recommendation is always a Houston Dynamo match. Not the Astros. Not the Rockets. Not the Texans. I say the same thing every time: “You don’t have to care about soccer or sports in general to have fun at that stadium.”
I have spent several seasons living just a few blocks west of BBVA Compass Stadium; some seasons as a fan enjoying the matches from the stands, others bartending just across the street. As a fan, I knew Dynamo fans were fun. As a bartender? Jesus. These matches are all day events and you better come correct on game day.
I’m not going to waste time dissecting why you should be coming to more Dynamo games. I’ll keep it brief. The team is fun again, and the entire neighborhood turns into a damn party — before, during, and well after the game — every time they play. That should be convincing enough.
You’ve got two options here. Option A: the Flashseats app, once again. This is actually a new option to Dynamo fans this season. Option B: actually call the Dynamo ticket office. They typically have some pretty cool four-pack offers. My buddies and I take turns buying four-packs and the last one I bought came with a $30 gift card to the team store.
They never knew about that last part. They did however, like my new hat.
You might actually want to bite the bullet and pay for parking this time around. There are some pretty cheap spots on Hutchins and — as always — the further you’re willing to walk, the cheaper it gets.
On game days, just about every bar in the neighborhood becomes saturated, so expect a rowdy party wherever you go. Lucky’s and Woodrow’s will be difficult to drink at or find anyone you may be trying to meet up with (keeping yelling into your phone how you’re the one by the bar in the orange. They’ll find you. Someday). So, while you still may end up barhopping there, I don’t suggest starting there.
Instead, head over to Neil’s Bahr just around the corner. A somewhat recent expansion and conversion of the lot next door to an outdoor drinking patio equipped with a cabana-style cash bar (referred to by the owner as “Tequille O’Neil’s Cantina”) gives one of Houston’s most unique bars plenty of real estate to handle the influx of Dynamo fans.
The Bahr proper’s interior reminds me of basically every college house party I ever went to; everyone has a beer, some people are in the other room playing an overly competitive game of ping pong, others on the couch playing Super Smash Bros or Goldeneye on a tube TV (yes, that’s an option), and a purposely cheesy B-list movie off in the corner just waiting to be commented on to break any awkward silences. Oh, and if you’re hungry, you’re in luck because the best damn food in the neighborhood is grilled on the front patio by Pablo, the baddest hombre around.
BBVA Compass is a fairly intimate stadium, so even if you have to go from one end to the other, it’s not really that big of a deal. That said, BBVA has a fairly impressive selection of local (8th Wonder, St. Arnold) and not so local (Bitburger, Estrella Jalisco) brews, so you should be able to find something you like. Most of the craft beer can be found in the corners of the stadiums. Domestics will be found everywhere, as usual (you monster).
I already told you, go to Pablo. The food inside the stadium is your standard stadium grub. Pablo will change your life.
Everywhere. The entire stadium is dialed in, and it’s live sports euphoria. If you really need to turn it up, sections 215-217 (known as “Zone Naranja”) are about as real as it gets in Houston. These sections are set aside for the team’s three separate official fan groups: El Batallon, Brickwall Firm, and the Texian Army. Last year the Dynamo relocated the groups to the north end of the stadium to allow more room for growth, since they had maxed out their original stomping grounds.
Previously, you’d be hard pressed to find space among these diehards, but the new locale gives more casual fans an opportunity to sit among the utter chaos. Instead of slapping down season ticket money and hoping you made the right decision, now fans can try out the section for a few games to determine if they are, as former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch once so eloquently put it, “about that action.”
Look, I’m a fan. But those guys intimidate me.
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Originally appeared onhoustonsportsandstuff.com.
While holding one’s breath that for a change the Astros aren’t publicly grossly underestimating an injury’s severity with Jose Altuve having missed the last game and a half with “right side discomfort…”
The Astros averting a sweep vs. Oakland Thursday was in no way a must-win, but getting the win allowed a mini sigh of relief. The Astros are NOT in the process of choking. Could they collapse? Sure that’s possible. Also possible is that they’ve just been in one more ebb phase in a season of ebb and flow. They certainly have left the door ajar for the Seattle Mariners to swipe the American League West, but with the M's simply not looking good enough to walk through that door the Astros remain in commanding position. The Astros made a spectacular charge from 10 games behind to grab the division lead. But there was a lot of runway left when the Astros awoke June 19th 10 games in arrears. September 3 the Astros arose with a comfy six game lead over the M’s. With Seattle blowing a 4-1 eighth inning lead in a 5-4 loss to the Texas Rangers Thursday night, heading into Friday night the Astros' advantage is back up to four and a half games despite the Astros having lost six of their last nine games and having gone just 10-12 over their last 22 games. Not a good stretch but nothing freefalling about it.
While the Mariners have the remainder of their four-game series vs. the dead in the water Rangers this weekend, the Astros play three at the lousy Los Angeles Angels. The Astros should take advantage of the Halos, with whom they also have a four-game series at Minute Maid Park next weekend. Since the All-Star break, only the White Sox have a worse record than the Angels 19-31 mark (the White Sox are 6-43 post-break!). Two of the three starting pitchers the Angels will throw this weekend will be making their third big league starts. To begin next week the Astros are in San Diego for a three-game-set against a Padres club which is flat better than the Astros right now. That does not mean the Astros can’t take that series. The Mariners meanwhile will be still at home, for three vs. the Yankees.
There are some brutal Astros’ statistics that largely explain why this is merely a pretty good team and not more. As I have noted before, it is a fallacy that the best teams are usually superior in close games. But the Astros have been pathetic in close games. There used to be a joke made about Sammy Sosa that he could blow you out, but he couldn’t beat you. Meaning being that when the score was 6-1, 8-3 or the like Sammy would pad his stats with home runs and runs batted in galore. But in a tight game, don’t count on Sammy to come through very often. In one-run games the Astros are 15-26, in two-run games they are 10-14. In games that were tied after seven innings they are 3-12. In extra innings they are 5-10. The good news is, all those realities mean nothing when the postseason starts. So long as you’re in the postseason. In games decided by three or more runs the Astros have pummeled the opposition to the tune of 53 wins and 28 losses.
General Manager Dana Brown isn’t an Executive of the Year candidate, but overall he’s been fine this season. Without the Yusei Kikuchi trade deadline acquisition the Astros would likely barely lead the AL West. Brown’s biggest offseason get, Victor Caratini, has done very solid work in his part-time role. Though he has tapered off notably the last month and change, relief pitcher Tayler Scott was a fabulous signing. Scrap heap pickups Ben Gamel, Jason Heyward, and Kaleb Ort have all made contributions. However…
Dana. Dana! You made yourself look very silly with comments this week somewhat scoffing at people being concerned with or dismissive of Justin Verlander’s ability to be a meaningful playoff contributor. Brown re-sang a ridiculous past tune, the “check the back of his baseball card” baloney. Dana, did you mean like the back of Jose Abreu’s baseball card? Perhaps Brown has never seen those brokerage ads in which at the end in fine print and/or in rapidly spoken words “past performance is no guarantee of future results” always must be included. Past (overall career) performance as indicative of future results for a 41-year-old pitcher who has frequently looked terrible and has twice missed chunks of this season to two different injuries is absurd. That Verlander could find it in time is plausible. That of course he’ll find it? Absolutely not. His next two starts are slotted to be against the feeble Angels, so even if the results are better, it won’t mean “JV IS BACK!”
Presuming they hold on to win the division, the Astros’ recent sub-middling play means they have only very faint hope of avoiding having to play the best-of-three Wild Card Series. Barring a dramatic turn over the regular season’s final fortnight, Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown are the obvious choices to start games one and two. If there is a game three, it is one game do or die. Only a fool would think Verlander the right man for that assignment. No one should expect Brown to say “Yeah, JV is likely finished as a frontline starter.” But going to the “back of the baseball card” line was laughable. Father Time gets us all eventually. Verlander has an uphill climb extricating himself from Father Time’s grasp.
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.