| | ATLANTA -- The NFL picked Houston over Los Angeles for its
next expansion team Wednesday, preferring a smaller market's record
$1 billion proposal to a shaky one from its bigger, more glamorous
rival.
The offer, the richest ever for a franchise, came from Houston
businessman Bob McNair and includes the $700 million franchise
price, plus a $310 million retractable roof stadium.
|  | | Bob McNair will pay a $700 million franchise fee to bring a team to Houston. |
Houston will begin play in 2002 in the AFC, where the old Oilers
played before moving to Tennessee after the 1996 season. No name
has been chosen for the new team, but it won't be Oilers, because
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has declared that name "retired."
NFL owners also voted to adjust the league alignment to eight
divisions of four teams each. Now there are six divisions -- one
with six teams and the rest with five.
The vote to award Houston the NFL's 32nd franchise was 29-0.
Arizona and St. Louis abstained because of questions over the
proposed alignment.
Failure to come up with a suitable stadium doomed Los Angeles,
the nation's second-largest TV market. Houston, the nation's No. 11
market, was more willing to pay for a stadium, providing $195
million in public funding.
"We have a passion for football, we have a dynamic market, and
we have a large market in Houston," McNair said.
By comparison, the Washington Redskins sold for $800 million
earlier this year, but that price included the stadium, so the
franchise price works out around to $600 million.
As part of the deal, Houston will be the site of a Super Bowl
"as soon as practical after completion of the stadium," Tagliabue
said.
In the end, the negotiations and the agreement struck were
typical of big business dealings: Houston's franchise bid was $150
million higher than that offered by either the L.A. Coliseum group or
another headed by Michael Ovitz, who proposed building a stadium at
Hollywood Park. Ovitz and his money man, grocery billionaire Ron
Burkle, offered $550 million, and the Coliseum group bid $500
million.
"Money talks. It sure talked this time," said Eli Broad,
another of the failed bidders from Los Angeles whose group had
submitted a $500 million proposal.
The choice of Houston followed months of indecision in which the
NFL at one point conditionally awarded a franchise to Los Angeles.
A six-month deadline for Los Angeles passed on Sept. 15, putting
Houston back into the picture.
"I think after a while we all got tired of it, thought it was
time to make a decision," McNair said. "We knew we had to
differentiate ourselves, had to do something that would break the
period of indecision."
His $700 million bid did just that.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones believes losing the expansion
franchise derby actually will work in Los Angeles' favor.
"A team needs to move to Los Angeles," Jones said. "We will
have football in Los Angeles, and soon. What we did today will
expedite that."
He also said it would be great if Raiders owner Al Davis, who
initially moved the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles after the
1994 season, then took them back to Northern California again, did
still another U-turn back to L.A.
Davis, who is suing Oakland to get out of his lease and claims
he still holds the NFL rights on Los Angeles, would not comment on
that possibility.
Ed Roski, who headed the failed effort to bring the expansion
team to the LA Coliseum, now is expected to focus on the
possibility of luring an existing team to Los Angeles.
John Semcken, a spokesman for Roski's group, said, "Houston
just blew us away."
Football fans in Houston were ecstatic upon learning of the NFL
vote.
"We're on cloud nine," said Larry Dluhy, owner of Sports
Collectibles of Houston. "I've lived here all my life and the last
two years with the Oilers gone there's been a huge vacancy. It's
like an empty closet and now we've filled it back up."
At the SRO Sports Bar & Cafe near downtown Houston, the lunch
crowd had not yet arrived but manager Kathryn Scharringhousen was
already celebrating.
"I think everyone just loves a Houston home team," she said.
In Los Angeles, 41-year-old Henry Parker expressed the kind of
indifference to pro football in Southern California that frequently
was cited by critics of the city's bid.
"No, I've seen teams come and I've seen them go," Parker said.
"If we got a team just to say we have a team, that isn't enough,
it's not worth it."
Not only will the 31 present NFL owners split Houston's $700
million franchise fee, they also raised the bar on their teams'
values.
Jones paid $180 million for the Cowboys in 1989, at the time
considered an astronomical price for a team.
Earlier this year, Rupert Murdoch failed in his attempt to buy
the Manchester United soccer team for $1 billion in what would have
been the most expensive price for any team in the world.
| |
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Bob McNair brings the NFL back to Houston.
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