While Houston is only 230 miles from Arlington, Texas, and the recently approved $80 million stadium plans for the Dynamo’s (Houston’s MLS club) new home are dwarfed by the Dallas Cowboy’s $1.6 billion stadium, it should not go unnoticed that $20 million, roughly 25%, will fall on the backs of Harris County and City of Houston tax payers.

It’s true that Major League Soccer garners little attention compared with the NFL and its modern-day coliseums.  Just because the numbers pale in comparison to football’s in the state that eats, sleeps, and drinks the game, should we ignore that sports fans are forced to pay for this new soccer stadium?

The approved stadium was put in motion 20 months ago by former Mayor Bill White who sought a “tax-increment reinvestment zone” to be set aside next to the Astros’ Minute Maid Park. Much like politicians in cities across America sell their constituents on using tax dollars for stadiums, this deal might be small in scale, but will certainly raise deficits while providing very little R.O.I. Typically, these decisions are made in conjunction with cutting funding for schools. And it will continue until you fight back. Join the SFC, and do something about it.