The citizens of Houston made history Saturday, electing the openly gay Annise Parker as the city's next mayor. The largest American city to hold such a distinction, Parker will take over for the departing Bill White in the country's fourth largest municipality.


As momentous as Parker's election is, and as much of a credit to the city of Houston as it might be, from a soccer fan's standpoint, it is mildly worrying. Of the two candidates running for mayor of Houston, Parker was the least amendable to a new downtown stadium for the city's MLS club, the Dynamo. Houston has built several new facilities for its professional sports teams in recent years, and Parker's reluctance to fully support a new home for the Dynamo could be tied to stadium fatigue.


It was Parker's opponent, Gene Locke, who was in full support of pitching in for a Dynamo stadium. With the club itself willing to contribute $60 million of an estimated $80 million price tag, it will be up to the new mayor to finish off an agreement already drafted by the outgoing Bill White.


Remember that the Dynamo are Houston's team because the franchise was unable to make headway on a stadium project in their original home of San Jose; now, the Dynamo stadium project, a no brainer for soccer fans but still at the mercy of local politics, and which seemed to be picking up steam during 2009, is no longer a certainty to get done.


Land for the project has been secured at the city's expense, and the stadium is set to also house Texas Southern University college football a move designed to offset operating costs. But the facility would be the Dynamo's ground first and a college football stadium second, exactly the type of situations that MLS needs in a market as strong as Houston. The hangup on the deal is the allocation of TIRZ funds to the construction; these funds are usually used to spur economic development in other parts of the Texan city.


Congratulations to Annise Parker, and congratulations to the people of Houston for refusing to allow her sexual orientation to be an issue if she was the best candidate. Let's hope that Ms. Parker now does right by the passionate soccer fans of Houston and gets the Dynamo a proper home.