Houston lands National Women's Soccer League expansion team

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The Dynamo will formally announce Thursday that Houston will become the ninth team and the first expansion club in the one-year-old National Women's Soccer League, which features American superstars Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach and Hope Solo.

The NWSL is funded partially with support from the U.S., Canadian and Mexican soccer federations.

"Tomorrow we're going to officially announce that we're starting a team to join NWSL," Dynamo president Chris Canetti said. "The team will be owned by the same ownership group that owns the Dynamo."

The NWSL played a 22-game schedule split evenly between home-and-away matches in 2013 from April through August with clubs in Seattle, Portland, Kansas City, Chicago, D.C., Boston, New Jersey and Rochester currently have teams in the league.

The Houston women's team will play at BBVA Compass Stadium and train at Houston Sports Park. The Dynamo front office will operate the NWSL team, but the MLS and NWSL clubs will have different coaching and training staffs.

BBVA Compass Stadium sits about 22,039 for Dynamo games, but only about a third of the stadium's seating capacity will be in use for NWSL games.

NWSL features American superstars Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach and Hope Solo. NWSL features American superstars Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach and Hope Solo. Photo: Jae C. Hong, Associated Press Photo: Jae C. Hong, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Houston lands National Women's Soccer League expansion team 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

"We'll make it a capacity of 7,000, which would be lower bowl, suites and party deck and open up the presidents club," Canetti said of BBVA Compass Stadium. "We'll go on sale with season tickets immediately after the announcement to Dynamo season-ticket holders."

Morgan, the young U.S. national team striker, helped the Portland Thorns beat Rochester for the inaugural NWSL title.

The Thorns are owned by the Portland Timbers. The Dynamo would be the second MLS club to own a NWSL team.

Morgan became engaged to Dynamo midfielder Servando Carrasco this week, but nobody expects the Thorns to let her go to Houston.

"If Portland leaves her unprotected, we'd pick her," Canetti said with a chuckle. "I would suspect they would protect her."

Carrasco and Morgan have dated since they were at Cal Berkeley, but no date has been set for the wedding. The U.S., Canadian and Mexican soccer federations cover the salaries of their NWSL players in the league. Canetti expects the Houston franchise will have some U.S., Canadian or Mexican national team players.

The Dynamo gauged interest in the NWSL a few weeks ago by asking fans to put $25 deposits on season-ticket packages for a prospective NWSL team, and more than a 1,000 fans put deposits on season tickets.

"We got over 1,000, and I think it was a powerful statement with four days and little to no promotion other than social media," Canetti said of the season-ticket deposits. "With no name and no players, to do that type of business in four days was very positive."

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