City shows off in attempt to lure title game

Houston among nine locations trying to land event in 2018-20

Hoping to land the national championship game, Houston made its pitch to College Football Playoff representatives this week.

The Harris County Houston Sports Authority previously placed a bid for the game in 2018-20, with the support of Governor Greg Abbott and Mayor Annise Parker.

Houston is one of nine cities to bid. The others are Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, San Antonio and Santa Clara, Calif.

College Football Playoff representatives were in town Tuesday and Wednesday to visit venues.

A final decision on the three future locations will be made during the first week of November, according to Michael Kelly, chief operating officer of the College Football Playoff.

The dates for the future title games are Jan. 8, 2018, Jan. 7, 2019, and Jan. 13, 2020. If selected, the city will host the game at NRG Stadium.

“We are very flattered of the community’s interest to submit a bid to host our event,” Kelly said. “They’ve got a great track record of some mega events in the past with Final Fours and Super Bowls.

“It’s so important to have an awesome competition venue to be a showcase for our college football players to have the most important moment of their lives and for our coaches and fans to embrace.”

In addition to NRG Stadium, the representatives toured downtown, Minute Maid Park and BBVA Compass Stadium. The tour also included a look at the schematics for upgrades to the George R. Brown Convention Center and a new Mariott Marquis hotel that are scheduled to be completed in late 2016.

Economically, it is projected that a national title game could bring about $300 million to the city. The numbers were based off the inaugural title game in Arlington in January.

“I think that we can gain that ($300 million) and probably more as the event grows over the years,” Sports Authority CEO Janis Burke said.

The Sports Authority also addressed transportation and security for the potential bid. Getting people to and from different events is a priority. Burke outlined many alternatives in providing transportation.

“We will use the rail,” Burke said. “We have the green line downtown, which is free. It stops at all the various hotels and museums. We will use taxis, Uber, you name it. We also have great shuttle systems, too, that we work with transportation to provide busing.”

The CFP’s first threegame playoff was named the Sports Event of the Year by the Sports Business Journal. It reached 33 million viewers and had a social media reach of 118 million. According to Kelly, the success has made it tough to narrow down a location.

“We are so fortunate to have an event that got us off to a great start,” Kelly said of the playoff that culminated in Ohio State’s beating Oregon for the national championship. “Our leadership is very serious about moving this event around the country. We are so pleased that different communities have stepped up and expressed interest. We have a lot of work to do, and it’s going to be a hard decision. The competition is very strong.”

The game will be played in Glendale, Ariz., in 2016 and move to Tampa, Fla., in 2017.