NRG Upkeep
I have addressed this before. The Harris County – Houston Sports Authority negotiated deals with the Astros and Rockets on how they maintained their venues, now Daikin Park and Toyota Center. The teams are financially responsible for the upkeep of their facilities.
The then Republican controlled Harris County Commissioners Court handed a sweet deal to the Texans and Rodeo on NRG. Harris County would be financially responsible for the upkeep of NRG. That means Harris County taxpayers are on the hook. The Chron has a story on this matter and here is how it starts:
When Harris County made plans for a new football stadium in the late 1990s, one lasting memory from the Astrodome served as a guiding light.
The county owned the building, but it put the Astros in charge of maintaining and upgrading the stadium. In the county’s eyes, the team did not do a good enough job, and the Astrodome — a prized county asset — suffered from poor upkeep.
Robert Eckels, then-Harris County’s top elected official, said in 1999 that the Astros would “worry about how to find enough money from the facility to buy a pitcher, and they don’t worry as much about the facility.”
So county officials took a different approach when they negotiated a lease agreement at NRG Stadium (then Reliant Stadium) with Bob McNair’s new football team. A new board, the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp., would directly manage the football field and surrounding facilities for the county, putting the government in charge of maintenance — not the Texans.
About 25 years later, county-commissioned reports suggest the new approach has not been any more effective. The county never devoted an adequate revenue source toward maintaining NRG Park, and it has not managed to turn its control of NRG’s off-season calendar into a cash-generating machine that could cover the recurring costs.
As officials from Harris County, the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo work to iron out a new lease contract at NRG Park, there is at least one thing they all agree on: The current operating framework isn’t working.
The Texans and Rodeo do not have to contribute significantly toward maintenance costs, and the county does not have enough money to meet its maintenance obligations. The NRG campus now needs about $2 billion in capital repairs over the next 30 years, according to a recent facility assessment, which found the stadium is “at or slightly below average” condition for facilities of its age. Since the county is on the hook in the contract, taxpayers will have to pitch in to close that gap, though the county is forbidden from using property taxes at NRG Stadium.
The lack of maintenance has frustrated the Texans and the Rodeo, who have seen their home facilities fall into relative disrepair. But at the same time, neither organization has had to fork over considerable money to fix the buildings.
The Texans, worth an estimated $6.1 billion according to Forbes, also may have one of the best rent structures in the NFL: They pay roughly $4 million a year to the county in rent, but they often get all of it back in tax rebates.
In seven of the last eight years, the Texans have made more on the rebates than they paid in rent, according to data from financial audits. That means the government essentially paid the team to play at NRG Stadium in those years. The lone exception was 2020.
“If you’re a renter, and you’re renting an apartment from a landlord, that’s a pretty sweet deal,” said Geoffrey Propheter, a professor of public affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver who specializes in stadium financing. He added: “It’s not that common for the team to have zero skin in the repair game.”
Here is the entire read: Why is Harris County on the hook for maintaining the Texans’ stadium?.
It looks like it is up to the Democratic controlled Harris County Commissioners Court to get us out of this mess. Thanks a lot, then GOP.
My advice to Democrats on Commissioners Court. Don’t get bullied by the Texans and the Rodeo. They don’t have anywhere else to go. You think Fort Bend or Montgomery Counties are going to ask their taxpayers and voters to build them venues. If the Astros and Rockets are paying for the upkeep at their taxpayer-built venues, so should the Texans and Rodeo. That’s an easy call.
The featured photo is a towel handed out when NRG was Reliant Stadium.
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Here is a story from Tags that came out yesterday. Here is how it starts:
HOUSTON — The Astros have discussed a deal that would send reliever Ryan Pressly to the Cubs, but a source told MLB.com that Pressly has yet to waive his no-trade clause despite a report that a trade was “on the verge” of being completed Thursday night.
Pressly is entering the final year of a contract that will pay him $14 million and has a full no-trade clause based on his 10-5 rights. The Astros, who last year acquired Josh Hader to take Pressly’s role as closer, would like to shed the right-hander’s contract to free up some money to add another bat to their lineup, preferably in the outfield. The source said other teams have reached out to the Astros about Pressly.
Here is the entire story: Astros reliever Ryan Pressly has not waived no-trade clause (source).
If this trade happens, I sure hope we have enough good relievers in the bullpen.
