Dynamo difference makers
Shirt off & bids high: Bachelor auction of soccer hotties brings in the bucksfor LLS
The sun was still out as Houston Dynamo players and fans filed into Drink Houston on Saturday night for Cruzin' for a Cure. The spacious club felt open without hordes of people, and even with hip-hop playing and the bar doing steady business, the place seemed not quite ready for prime time.
"I think we might have done ourselves a disservice by having this a little earlier," confused Dynamo defender/event organizer Danny Cruz. But though the dance floor might not have been fully rocking, the moment 95.7's Sarah Pepper climbed up to the stage over the bar to begin the Dynamo bachelor auction, the energy in the room totally changed.
Suddenly girls in party dresses seemed to fill the floor, waving their orange bid placards energetically to get the attention of Pepper and the Dynamo Girls who were hanging out in the crowd as spotters.
Pepper started out by flirting with keeper Tyler Deric about how good he smelled and hyping Will Bruin's Friday night hat trick to pump their date prices to more than $200 each. The bidding atmosphere was competitive from the start, and Pepper had a knack for convincing people to keep the prices for dates going up.
It was an atmosphere that was so contagious, that even a mild-mannered reporter like this one could get inspired to put money down for her own Dynamo (Kofi Sarkodie, in case you were wondering). It was just that kind of scene.
Plenty of players pulled out all the stops to coax women out of their money — Lovel Palmer took his shirt nearly off to flash his washboard abs, and Mike Chabala got on the microphone looking for "Tyler Deric's mom." Cruz and Geoff Cameron both brought in big bids, but in the end it was 51-year-old goalkeeper coach Tim Hanley who created a bidding frenzy.
With a half dozen women bidding enthusiastically, Hanley's selling price was more than double most of the players at a whopping $800.
Between the cover charge, the bachelor auction and the silent auction featuring outings with other Dynamo players, Cruzin' for a Cure brought in more than $10,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, supporting Cruz's very personal cause and also his bid to win LLS Man of the Year.
But for the lucky ladies who made a date with the Dynamo, the fun is just beginning.