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| | Wednesday, October 6 | |||||
| HOUSTON -- Bob McNair never wavered from his dream of
bringing an NFL franchise back to his hometown.
McNair was rewarded Wednesday when the league's owners voted to
award the 32nd franchise to Houston after repeatedly stalling on
his offer to give Los Angeles, the nation's No. 2 media market,
more time to put together a viable proposal.
"This is the ultimate tribute to the persistence of Bob McNair
to see this happen for this community and bring it together,"
Harris County Judge Bob Eckels said. "I think that finally tipped
the scales in our favor because we had the community and the owner
working together."
McNair is paying $700 million for the expansion franchise. He
has plans for a $310 million retractable roof stadium to be built
on county property adjacent to the Astrodome.
The vote returns an NFL team to Houston, which lost the Oilers
to Tennessee after the 1996 season.
"I think without Bob McNair spearheading this and being the
quality of person he is, we would not have gotten this far,"
Houston Sports Authority chairman Billy Burge said. "Despite the
competition with Los Angeles, I think the owners saw that they had
a quality person that would live up to his obligations that the
city could rally around."
While the NFL continued to give Los Angeles more time to come up with a suitable plan, McNair kept sweetening the pot.
In March, he guaranteed sellouts for the first five years of the
franchise. McNair said he would devise a system to give to charity
any tickets not sold by the blackout deadline. NFL rules dictate
that if a game is not sold out 72 hours before kickoff, it cannot
be televised within 75 miles.
On the eve of the NFL meetings in Atlanta, McNair offered $700
million.
He thinks he made a good deal.
"This is an opportunity to put Houston back on the map,"
McNair said. "It is my hometown and I like to see the spotlight on
Houston. We've got a great sports market in Houston. It's a big
investment, but we're going to have a wonderful stadium and even a
Super Bowl."
City and county officials were somewhat surprised by the owners'
speedy decision after hearing the recommendations of the league's
expansion committee.
"I'm not sure we expected them to take action this quickly, but
we're pleased that they did," Eckels said.
Eckels said the next step will be to complete the architectural
engineering workup for the stadium and construction plans.
The Oilers played their final game in Houston Dec. 15, 1996,
before moving to Tennessee. Fans angered by the Oilers' departure
stayed away from the final games, and by season's end only 15,131
showed up for the Astrodome finale, a 21-13 loss to the Cincinnati
Bengals.
Now the city is back on the NFL map. The enthusiasm even reached
all the way to Dallas, where Cowboys owner Jerry Jones welcomed
Houston back.
"My dream is that we could play them every year," Jones said.
Houston sports bars already were gearing up for the return of
the NFL.
"Now we can take all these Dallas Cowboys billboards down in
Houston," sports bar owner Mike Boze said. "I'm so sick of the
Cowboys it makes me want to throw up. I think everybody has been
ready for this since Bud Adams left.
"Anybody that would put up $700 million to get a new Houston
football team has gotta be a good guy."
McNair founded Cogen Technologies in 1984. As its chief
executive officer, he led it to become a huge cogeneration company.
Its natural gas-fired plants in New Jersey supply about 13 percent
of New York City's electricity.
Cogen Technologies also is the world's largest privately owned
cogenerator of electricity and thermal energy. Houston-based Enron
Corp., which bought naming rights to Houston's new baseball stadium
to open next spring, bought a majority of Cogen's assets earlier
this year.
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AUDIO/VIDEO   Bob McNair brings the NFL back to Houston.wav: 201 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6  | |||||