In Houston, Glenn Davis is reporting that the proposed Dynamo stadium may still hit snags, despite the fact that the team has secured the necessary financing to get the thing built.

In DC, Prince George's County, the team's apparent future home after the District failed to make good on Poplar Point, cut the team at the knees with a 5-0 vote against moving forward with the idea (the stadium isn't dead, just on life support).

Ugh. And these are just two of several stadium issues that threaten to linger long into the future.

Here are the worst stadium situations in MLS, from most critical on down. Call it a Big Four if you will (with an added bonus: me handicapping the likelihood based on current information):

No offense to any of the other teams, but United's situation is clearly the most distressing. A team with vocal support, solid attendance, and on-field success, DC is one of the premier clubs in MLS. For a team on the level of United, torchbearers for the league since its inception, not to have a proper soccer stadium is a black eye for American soccer. The District led United around by the tail for years, and now Victor McFarland has decided that enough is enough. Desperate for a locality that makes sense for both the fans and the team, United headed to the Maryland suburbs, where it appeared they expected a warm reception. It didn't happen, as the county's committee recommendation proves. There have even been whispering that United could move out of the DC metro completely if the PG County stadium falls through. That would be a severe blow to the reputation of both the league and professional soccer in the U.S., and shouldn't be allowed to happen no matter the cost.

As a potential alternative to PG County, a local radio show that I've posted about before suggested that United team up with George Mason University (yes, that George Mason University) here in Fairfax (30 miles outside of the city, and where I spend eight hours of hell everyday), as the school is looking to start a football (American) program and might be willing to share the costs with the team. Two problems spring to mind for me, as I'm intimately familiar with GMU and Fairfax: one, I have no idea where they would put it; two, the city of Fairfax (or county of Fairfax if it would be outside the city limits) is unlikely to be too fond of the idea, mainly due to the fact that it will only add to the already ridiculous traffic situation.

*UPDATE* And now this, which I was alerted to by American Soccer News. United in RFK would immediately become the most depressing atmosphere in MLS. The place holds 90,000 people for cripes sakes. It'll be like a school of goldfish in the Chesapeake.

What more can the Dynamo do? After moving from San Jose because stadium possibilities had dried up there, the club has worked hard to make sure Houston wouldn't be strike two. Yesterday, all the news was good; the team had secured the loan necessary to pay their portion of the construction costs, and looked like everything was good-to-go. Today, Glenn Davis squashes all of the optimism (not his fault, he's just the messenger) with a blog post that shows that Houston may have complete morons in the city council who could be an impediment to the stadium getting built. While they're not unique in that regard (there are idiot city councilmen and women everywhere), Dynamo fans can't be too happy right now. The Dynamo have about as strong a reputation currently as an American team can have in the region, yet they play on a field that is more suited for buckets and shovels than soccer. I truly hope that today's news is only a momentary hiccup, and that the Dynamo get on their way towards SSS status sooner rather than later.

While United and the Dynamo get first billing, the Revs aren't too far behind. Although they haven't (yet) won a Cup, Nichol's boys are consistently one of the top three or four teams in Major League Soccer. Despite that fact, they continue to play in a cavernous abomination (for soccer at least) that not only sucks all of the atmosphere out of a Revs home game, but also means the team plays on the dreaded "football lines" entirely too often. If nothing else, it makes Revolution games difficult to watch on TV. Foxboro, from my understanding, is about as far removed from the immediate Boston area (which is where they should be) as any other team in the league is from their nominal hometown (okay, so Boston isn't in their name; they're still supposed to be a Boston team). With bad news on the Somerville stadium front, the Revs look to be stuck in Gillette Stadium for at least the foreseeable future.

Things are actually fairly good in San Jose, though the speed at which the process is moving leaves a lot to be desired. Owner Lew Wolff is looking to fund a 15,000 seat facility (again, I ask: why only 15k?) near the San Jose airport, and there have already been preliminary studies done on the potential site. That's good, but I'm impatient. Every time San Jose is forced to play in the tiny Buck Shaw, or the ugly-for-soccer (even by MLS standards) Coliseum, it saddens me a bit. San Jose seems a lock to get to the SSS promised land though, and that's more than most stadium-less teams in the league can say.