Houston blessed to have lease peace with its teams
Something is wrong with the Astros and the City of Houston.
On Monday, they announced the extension of the franchise’s lease on Minute Maid Park, and it went through without much debate.
No problems, no significant issues, no disputes, no back-and-forths.
What is with this cooperation, collaboration and general lack of angst between a professional sports team and the city concerning a stadium?
The Astros are now locked into Minute Maid Park through 2050, and both sides are happy.
What happened to the good old days, when team owners regularly threatened to move a team to another locale, virtually holding a franchise hostage to force the city to make stadium or arena improvements?
Remember the Astros moving to Northern Virginia or Washington, D.C.? The Oilers moving to Jacksonville? The Rockets moving to New Orleans or wherever?
These were very real scenarios presented by team owners as part of their demands that we provide desired welfare benefits.
We paid. They stayed.
(Well, except for that time we called Bud Adams’ Tennessee bluff and found out it wasn’t.)
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your position on such matters, Houston is sitting pretty when it comes to sports venues.
Would you rather Houston be like San Diego, which lost the Rockets to Houston (1971), the Clippers to Los Angeles (1984) and the Chargers to Los Angeles (2017)? Most of you say no. Houston’s biggest questions are: 1. Did we build smartly? 2. Are we working with teams to minimize our losses? Yes, losses. There is a strong and logical argument that governments shouldn’t be involved in the stadium building and financing business, but it is too late for said debate here. Cement has already been poured on Minute Maid Park, NRG Stadium, Toyota Center and BBVA Compass Stadium.
Numerous economic studies have shown that investment in professional sports stadiums doesn’t pay off in matching jobs and economic growth, but the desire for cities to be among the haves often wins out.
To many, it is about public consumption versus smart financial investments, and the World Series parade was a proper payoff.
Of course, there is more to it than championships, but they are so nice.
As we can see from this week’s announcement, Jim Crane didn’t use the Astros’ success to force the city into a worse deal. Basically, all stadium deals are bad for the city, but some are worse than others. For the most part, owners don’t care where the best deal is; they just want it.
The idea that team owners love Houston and its fans above all others is a fantasy.
Bob McNair tried to buy into the NFL in St. Louis before he was granted the Texans franchise. Crane was all but cheated out of buying the Texas Rangers before he became the owner of the Astros a couple years later. Les Alexander, who just sold the Rockets to Tilman Fertitta, made a run at the Spurs before he snuck in at the last minute and outbid a group to take over the Rockets.
Houston has a solid group of professional team owners who do a lot in the city. However, money talks.
Many of you like to slam the late Bud Adams, but the Oilers’ contract with the county to use the Astrodome was worse than payday loan agreements.
As opposed to the flat rate teams now pay, the Oilers paid 11.2 percent of gross ticket sales as rent. Worse yet, they didn’t get to keep any revenue from the Astrodome’s private suites and received no money from parking or concessions.
Twenty years later, power has shifted considerably. The Astros, Rockets and Texans keep all income from ticket sales, advertising inside their venues, souvenirs, concessions and parking.
The Astros and Rockets have complete control of subleasing for other events at their stadiums and take 100 percent of naming rights. The Texans collect 83 percent of their stadium’s naming rights — which were the most expensive in all of sports when Reliant purchased them in 2000. (Harris County can book events at NRG and keep all parking and concession revenue from those.)
Locally, there won’t soon be any stadium debates.
Major renovations are needed at Toyota Center, the most active large facility in town. (With Rockets games, concerts and other events, Toyota Center is live approximately 175 nights a year.) According to CEO Tad Brown, the Rockets and the city have had productive discussions on getting those done.
The Rockets’ lease runs through 2033.
Reliant underwent upgrades prior to hosting the Super Bowl in 2017, and more are needed if the building is to lure back the NFL’s signature event. But Super Bowl hosting aside, the Texans aren’t going anywhere.
Houston is the best place for the Astros, Rockets and Texans to do business.
With no team owner complaining, we have it about a good as it is going to get.