Landing Super Bowl takes super effort
City jumps through league’s hoops in bid process that began in 2012
By any reckoning, Houston ponied up bigtime to land Super Bowl LI. How big is anyone’s guess.
Local officials say it’s a private NFL document, and the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee won’t say.
But the region’s largesse soon will be on display for the nation’s high-rolling football fans as they descend upon H-Town, from the league’s headquarters at the brand-new Marriott Marquis hotel with a Texas-shaped pool, to Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars performing at a pop-up “Super Week” nightclub, all — and this apparently was a key phrase in the NFL’s secret list of requirements —“at no cost to the NFL.”
At this point, with the Dallas Cowboys out of the hunt and crews hurrying to finish their spruce-up of areas around NRG Stadium, Discovery Green and Hobby Airport, organizers feel good about the Feb. 5 game.
Houston-area officials are thrilled to have landed the biggest sporting event in city history and insist they struck, if not a hard bargain, then at least one that will showcase Houston as a thriving city and destination. And league owners certainly can’t complain about warm winter weather, 20,000 reserved hotel rooms, a 72,000-seat retractableroof stadium, practice fields at Rice University and the University of Houston, a nine-day fan festival at Discovery Green and a no-fly zone over the entire city (once all the
private jets have been allowed to land at Ellington Airport).
“The NFL has the leverage,” said Mark Conrad, director of the Sports Business Institute at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. “There are many cities that want a Super Bowl. They’re going to have leverage to impose conditions that they wish to impose.”
In some ways, the Houston went above and beyond what was requested in order to beat out competitors like Miami, including the nine-day “Super Bowl Live” festival.
Organizers confirmed that at least three entire hotels, including presidential suites, have been reserved for both teams and the league; a perimeter will be established around NRGStadium with law-enforcement personnel limiting unauthorized marketing to protect the game’s sponsors; and two golf courses and a bowling alley were reserved for a time.
However, the host committee did not always acquiesce to the league’s demands.
The NFL asked local officials to waive sales taxes for the league and its affiliates, something city officials say was not done.
Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack also noted that the county rejected paying some $50 million in luxury suite, WiFi and other upgrades sought by the NFL.
“We’d be a laughingstock if we didn’t take advantage of this,” Radack said. “I’m proud of the county’s involvement.”
On the cusp of the city’s third Super Bowl, the fruits of the negotiations will be on full display. But they began more than four years ago at a meeting in Chicago. Invitation only
Houston is no stranger to the NFL’s title game, having hosted Super Bowl VIII at Rice Stadium in 1974 and Super Bowl XXXVIII at then-Reliant Stadium three decades later. The city has added more than 1 million residents since 1970, making it the nation’s fourth-largest city.
In late 2012, league executives invited Texans president Jamey Rootes to assemble a host-city bid. Not just any city can bid, Rootes said; they have to be invited.
He was given a list of requirements to meet, the largest ever seen by the Texans executive who had helped put together three previous attempts, including the successful 2004 bid.
“As the Super Bowl gets bigger, the requirements to host it have gotten bigger,” said Rootes, founder of Houston’s bid committee.
The host committee declined the Chronicle’s request to review the full list of requirements, a private NFL document. Many elements, like how much the committee pledged to help cover the NFL’s game-day costs, remain confidential.
“The biggest difference in this from other bids is just the magnitude of it,” said Sallie Sargent, president of Houston’s host committee and a veteran event manager. “The Super Bowl requires that you gather all these assets in advance of being awarded the game.”
“It’s a huge undertaking,” she said.
A five-page, 11-point portion of Houston’s bid titled “Government Guarantees” outlines the NFL’s various demands of local officials: Exemptions from state, county or city taxes; regulation of unsanctioned marketing; security and emergency services; increased air traffic, including private planes; a no-fly zone; and a waiver for licensing vehicles.
After receiving the NFL’s requirements, Rootes sought to build a team to raise money and coordinate with local businesses and public officials to land what would be the biggest event ever programmed in the city.
He tapped Houstonbased apartment developer Ric Campo, CEO of Camden Property Trust, to head the committee.
“He’s so well connected,” Rootes said. “He was the perfect person to lead it.”
John Solis, senior vice president of sales at Visit Houston, checked the availability of large visitor spaces that month, all of which the NFL requires to be available during Super Bowl Week. A convention of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, for example, would have to be rescheduled.
Then he turned to consider the cost — how would this thing be paid for?
The league tries to limit its financial obligations for the event. In the requirements for next year’s game, for example, the league reportedly asked for rent-free use of facilities and revenue from tickets, parking and concessions.
“The NFL stepped up its game in terms of what it requires a host city to do,” said Denis Braham, a Houston-based attorney who aided the city’s unsuccessful bid to host the game in 2013, and who was an original member on the committee to host the 2017 game. “A lot of the hosting costs are now underwritten by the host committee or local philanthropists.”
The committee, looping in city, county and regional business leaders, convened to calculate the likely costs and made a fact-finding trip to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans.
“All those venues, security costs, and all the requirements to host this event — it tallies up,” Solis said.
The committee secured a commitment for a $25.4 million reimbursement from the state’s Major Events Trust Fund. The city of Houston estimates its costs for the event will be about $5.5 million. Officials with Harris County, which owns NRG Stadium, say they do not have an estimate for their costs related to the event, but they expect to be paid back.
The rest of the host committee’s $60 million-plus budget comes from private donations, including from corporations such as Halliburton, ConocoPhilips, Texas Medical Center, the Texans and more. Not a ‘hard sell’
The host committee next turned to assembling the bid, another confidential document that organizers have declined to release. Solis and a team used a digital database to reserve about 20,000 rooms in 120 hotels between Galveston and The Woodlands, four years in advance.
“I had to get on the phone and call some general managers and really encourage them to participate, a little bit more aggressively than they would have liked,” Solis said.
The team fanned out to book hundreds of venues — each with a capacity of more than 1,000.
“It really isn’t that hard a sell, once you sit down with people and say this is really important for the bid and if we don’t get the bid right we won’t get the Super Bowl,” Campo said.
The committee locked in fields at Rice University and the University of Houston as practice facilities for the teams.
In March 2013, the City Council unanimously adopted a resolution of support for the host effort, affirming plans to enforce a no-fly zone over Houston, make available the George R. Brown Convention Center and provide buses, police and public services at no cost to the NFL (with the understanding that the city would be reimbursed by the host committee).
Houston’s Downtown Management District provided the committee with a list of planned construction to help paint a picture of the city center in 2017. Those changes are now visible, including the new Marriott Marquis hotel, an expanded convention center and a new nearby “restaurant row.”
The NFL’s host-city requirements ask for “bid enhancements” — added elements to sweeten the deal. For that, Houston conceived of Super Bowl Live, a nine-day fan festival at Discovery Green featuring live music and performances, interactive exhibits, food and a virtual trip to Mars — also at no cost to the NFL.
Mega-stars will perform at Club Nomadic, a temporary 62,500-square-foot nightclub and entertainment venue being assembled just for “Super Week.”
League rules require the bid committee to specify how much of game-day expenses they are willing to pick up. The host committee declined to release that figure.
Throughout early 2013, the committee consulted with NFL staffers, who offered feedback on how to make Houston’s bid more appealing to league owners. The league would assign a dollar value to each bid, then inform a city if a competitor had passed it, providing an opportunity to enhance an offer. Houston revised its bid once, the host committee said. The dollar value assigned to Houston’s bid is not available for public release. No disclosure required
The host committee is a private, 501(c)6 non-profit organization, protecting it from having to disclose many of its activities, said Philip Hackney, a law professor at Louisiana State University and former IRS official.
“They are technically private entities,” Hackney said. “With that said, they are often carrying out very public-like things. In this case, obviously the Super Bowl Committee is conducting business along with governmental entities.”
In April 2013, the NFL sent its senior vice president of events, Frank Supovitz, to assess Houston.
Campo picked up Supovitz from Bush Intercontinental Airport in a helicopter, and flew him low below the clouds to see the city’s traffic flow and its main hubs. They zipped over the Galleria and downtown, then flew to NRG Park, where a marching band played, cheerleaders hurrahed and Texans defensive end J.J. Watt waited to take Supovitz to lunch.
“It was very impressive. Not every city has J.J. Watt waiting for you with a marching band,” Supovitz said. “At the same time, it was the strength of the bid, and not the showmanship, that won Houston the Super Bowl.”
In the end, the bid documents filled three 3-inch binders, Solis said. In May 2013, the committee made 40 copies and flew to Boston to make its pitch to a meeting of NFL owners.
The committee showed a promotional video, hosted by former Secretary of State James Baker III and narrated by Hollywood cowboy Sam Elliott, known for his deep voice and western drawl. That video is not available for release, but the host committee said it stressed Texas’ love of football.
Campo was to lead the presentation of Houston’s bid. To join him, the committee tapped David Crane, then CEO of NRG Energy. Crane, who lived then in New Jersey, said he was brought on board because “the perception is that Houston’s just a little bit too Texan.”
“So they thought it would be great to have someone from outside the state talking about what a cosmopolitan city (Houston) is,” Crane said.
The duo had 15 minutes to make their case, and Crane said they put a final cherry on top. In past Super Bowls, NFL owners and other billionaire guests bemoaned the long waits for private jets seeking to leave airports once no-fly zones expired.
So the host committee secured expedited takeoff for priority private aircraft from Ellington Airport, which does not handle commercial traffic.
For the NFL owners, Crane said, “that was a really attractive perk on a personal level.”
After the presentations, the 32 owners filled out secret ballot sand passed them to John Mara, owner of the New York Giants. Crane was struck by how swiftly he tallied results and whispered them to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Crane met Goodell in an elevator shortly after. “It wasn’t even close,” Goodell reportedly told him.
Later that day, the NFL announced that Super Bowl LI would be held in Houston. The bid committee became the host committee and embarked on a years-long effort to put on the event.
“Once you win it, then you have to come up with the budget. It’s not an inexpensive thing to organize,” said Crane. “The committee immediately started to pass the hat around corpo- dylan.baddour@chron.com mihir.zaveri@chron.com
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