So we're being sold... to Brener?

Yule?

Never heard of him. will he change the current gameplan to try to hit the lotto off youth leagues?

I'm more curious as to who his two partners would be. That would essentially mean 4 different people have a stake in the Dynamo.

Brener is private so not a lot is known about his motivations or ambitions for the team and he's not been in control to do anything. He does seem like the person in ownership who might actually know things like "Who plays for the team?"

As for who the others are, I doubt it matters. All that really matters is who has the controlling stake, and now it'll be Brener instead of AEG.

It matters a little bit. Brener's not local and a local owner would theoretically be more reluctant to move the team in the future...even if they don't have a controlling interest. I know that's a long shot but given Houston sports history and how we got the team to begin with, I'm always at least a little sensitive to that.

The article states that one of the new owners will be Houston based.

What are your thoughts if Brener comes in and axes Coyle immediately?

I don't see that happening. He is already a 25% owner so I'm sure he had to have been ok with Owen already.

I doubt he'd do that as well but I wouldn't be surprised to see him ax Coyle next season if the team gets off to a slow start. He'll want to make his mark on the team presumably. I don't think he'd move from minority to majority owner if he didn't.

It depends on how much say he was given. I thought majority owners were the only ones that had any real say in club operations.

Why be a minority if all you can do is sit back and never have input?

Because of the $$$$

Lots of clubs have minority owners who just treat it like any other investment. Warren Buffet has invested in a number of minor league baseball teams because they give him a good return on his investment...but he doesn't decide when $1 hot dog night will be.

Dynamo declined options on Taylor, Garrido, Lopez, Sturgis, Hoffman, Cochran, and Lisch. In addition, there's strong speculation that Sarkodie and Clark won't be back. They are trying to secure Miranda's services for next season.

So that's at least 7 players out the door and probably more on the way. Not terribly surprising given how the team played this year. A roster turnover is needed. The question is, will they actually get their replacements right? One thing's for sure. If the team gets off to a slow start next season, I guarantee the "the roster needs time to gel" excuse will be used.

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Dynamo declined options on Taylor, Garrido, Lopez, Sturgis, Hoffman, Cochran, and Lisch. In addition, there's strong speculation that Sarkodie and Clark won't be back. They are trying to secure Miranda's services for next season.

So that's at least 7 players out the door and probably more on the way. Not terribly surprising given how the team played this year. A roster turnover is needed. The question is, will they actually get their replacements right? One thing's for sure. If the team gets off to a slow start next season, I guarantee the "the roster needs time to gel" excuse will be used.

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This I think Bruin needs to go.. Also, trade Barnes while his stock his high he pretty much disappeared in the back end of the year.

Dynamo sales guy swore to me that a big signing is coming to fill the much needed "true # 10" role.

His words. Dunno how much I believe him though.

Bruin just signed a new contract. Barnes signed one earlier in the off-season. Couldn't disagree more about Barnes. He has the talent to be MLS XI material. He struggled the last half of the season so dumping him now wouldn't be selling high. Besides, you have to keep some players on the roster. While you could probably make an argument for dumping every player not named Tyler Deric (who also signed a new contract today) you can't bring in 20+ new players or 10 new starters in one off-season. Interested to hear what Bruin's salary hit is though.

I'm also curious as to what the Bruin signing means, if anything, for Torres. There was already speculation that he was being shopped. Presumably Bruin wasn't signed just to be traded later. Seems like either Torres is going to be traded or we'll go into 2016 with the same forward dilemma as last season.

I'm gonna chalk up Barnes subpar second half to playing for a NT for the first time in a while, and I think those added games maybe took a toll on him.

I did ask the sales guy if he heard anything about Torres being shopped and he responded with disgust, as if that's the last thing they would do because they got him to "build the team around".

I wouldn't even bother asking the sales guy anything. He 1) doesn't know **** and 2) is only going to tell you what you want to hear.

I know. But he is closer to whats happening than I am. so i just wanted to ask and see what he said.

Apparently Bruin was looking at options in Belgium and France. He had discussions with the team and said that if it was going to be a long rebuild, he wanted to leave. I guess they convinced him it wouldn't be so he re-signed.

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Apparently Bruin was looking at options in Belgium and France. He had discussions with the team and said that if it was going to be a long rebuild, he wanted to leave. I guess they convinced him it wouldn't be so he re-signed.

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Thats good to know..

Just curious do you have an inside source? You got some good info.

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Apparently Bruin was looking at options in Belgium and France. He had discussions with the team and said that if it was going to be a long rebuild, he wanted to leave. I guess they convinced him it wouldn't be so he re-signed.

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I'm glad they convinced him. I hope they convinced him with truth.

No inside sources (I used to have a few when I lived in Houston and was active with the SGs but not anymore). Got that information from media sources on Twitter. They've since posted the same story on the Dynamo website today.

Link

Side note: In the article, Bruin is very candid and seems to allude to the fact that he wants to take a leadership role in this team. I like that. That's one thing this team has lacked the last several years. Those teams from 2006-09 had multiple leaders who could drag the team out of slumps or correct things on the field (Barrett, Onstad, Robinson, etc.) Davis is the only leftover from those days. I think he's a pretty good leader but he has no help. He can't be the only player who can kick some ass when its required a really lead from the front. If Bruin has that in him and can really be a leader for this team, that's a huge intangible that is sorely needed, IMO.

Will Bruin and I are besties.

Sports Authority approved the sale of AEG's stake in the Dynamo to Brener. That doesn't mean he'll purchase it but it was a significant hurdle in order for him to purchase it. Apparently since they own the stadium, they had to approve any sale of the team. Still, it sounds like it's going to happen. Brener will control 75% of the team (with a few Houston based minority investors that I didn't recognize) and Oscar De La Hoya will retain his 25%.

We've all wanted to see AEG eff off for years now. Let's see if a new owner (well...new majority owner) is everything we all think/hope it will be.

Dynamo hire Wilmer Cabrera as the head coach of their USL team. He used to be the US U-17 coach and he was Chivas USA's last coach before they went out of business. That last Chivas USA season had a lot of young talent. With Cabrera as coach, Torres excelled. I like the hire.

Rumor is that Bruin's contract has approximately doubled. If so, that puts his base salary it in the 250-300K range with guaranteed compensation in the 350K area.

I am a bruin fan because he has always managed to deliver goals. But 300k does seem high for him. In the MLS that puts you in elite company usually.

Wilmer Cabrera is an excellent hire. That is the second best news of the off season behind the possibility of a new owner.

Lots of chit chat about Houston and Philadelphia making another deal. Dynamo would send allocation money and the 1st round pick in this year's draft (6th overall) and Union would send Wenger and Maidana.

Color me unimpressed.

Maidana is a solid player, I don't know the terms, but it doesn't sound that bad to me.

Maidana is guaranteed $212,000 and Wenger is guaranteed $285,000 (!). And we gave them some allocation money (who knows how much). So my guess is that we just tied up at least 700k under the cap. I do no think those players are worth that kind of salary hit.

You could pretty much kiss Brad Davis good bye. Unless he does a Brian Ching hometown discount, he's gone.

Is it sad that my initial reaction is "hey, we tried something!"

The relative success of that thing is secondary, I'm just happy a thing was attempted. That's where I'm at with this regime.