B.Scott on Texans' stadium negotiations

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

Brandon Scott joins In The Loop to discuss the key points of the NRG Stadium negotiations following Texans president Mike Tomon's interview with Payne & Pendergast.

Transcript

00:00I do think that there are some fundamental things to understand about this whole stadium thing, all right?

00:05The big thing that stands out about the Texans and their stadium situation is not only how it's funded

00:12but how it's maintained, right? And the thing that I don't think people understand

00:17because it's kind of boring but you do need to understand is that the Texans are not, while they

00:22like pay rent to the county for the stadium, they are not in charge of maintenance and renovations

00:29at the stadium. Which is a fair point to make. It's controlled for those things, okay? And that

00:36has some historical context dating back to the Astrodome and the fact that the Astros did and

00:42the prevailing sentiment at the time, and I think even history would support this, is that the

00:47Astros did a poor job of maintaining the Astrodome. So when you fast forward to NRG Stadium or at the

00:54time Reliance Stadium, the county situated their agreement, the lease that is now about to be

01:00you know renegotiated and up in seven years, to where the county is in charge of maintaining and

01:07I guess even renovating the stadium. Everything that the Texans, you could say, want to do.

01:13And it's worth noting that's a unique stance. Most situations it isn't coming upon the primary

01:17tenant to maintain the building. I mean it's not even unique to the NFL, it's unique to the city.

01:21If you go over and look at Toyota Center and Minute Maid Park, it is not that way. The billionaires

01:26that are in charge of those teams, that own those teams, are in charge of those stadiums and the

01:30renovations to those stadiums. So the big thing that needs to happen, and I think Mike Tolman,

01:35who spoke earlier with Payne and Pendergast on our station, I think is in these negotiations

01:42figuring out a way to where the Texans and the rodeo have more control, despite the fact that

01:48they paid little next to nothing in rent, they have more control of the maintaining and the

01:54renovating of and even the calendar of the state that they are able to make more money off the

02:00stadium and also that they would be on the hook to put more money into the state. And I feel that's

02:05going to be the entry point to totally redoing the lease. That's why I've been saying it isn't going

02:09to be seven years. It's not just that's why he talked about getting that's what he means by

02:15getting ahead of it. Yeah, that's the entry point of like, look, we're willing, we want to do this

02:22maintenance, etc. But in other words, we got to redo this whole deal. And oh, by the way,

02:27maybe a renovation or a rebuild is part of that as well. Yeah. And I don't buy into like

02:35NRG being some kind of structural monstrosity. It's got some issues, right? Like that. Y'all

02:40talked about it, that roof, the scoreboard, Reggie, that you mentioned, the big video board

02:44is figuratively speaking, hanging by a thread. But what I understand, in addition to that,

02:48I think the thing that makes that tough is you go, well, why not repair it? I think it's

02:52antiquated. I don't know that that was it's a Mitsubishi board. And I'm not sure that you

02:55have like modern pieces in order to renovate it. And that's a big part of it. So you need a new

03:00board. They want to update their suites in there. I would imagine like a lower level club level,

03:08all of that type of stuff. They want all of that to be nicer. Those are things that I think you

03:12could do with renovations. You don't necessarily need a new stadium to do that. Where I think it

03:18gets complicated, Lopez, in the quiet part that I don't feel like we really want to say out loud

03:24or is uncomfortable to say out loud about this when we talk about the experience around NRG

03:29Stadium, is that it's not just the building itself, the structural building itself.

03:34Preach, as people like to say.

03:35It's the business district that is not there.

03:38It is not a destination part of town. It is not a place. We're just being honest about it.

03:43And I'm saying this is something that's what I've been saying for a long time, that area.

03:47Hey, I grew up, I'm B Scott from Hiram Clark, where I could ride my bike from my house to NRG,

03:53my parents from Holly Hall. Like I have an affinity for that area. But if we're being honest

03:58about it, no one really goes there for any other reason other than if they're just going there for

04:02a Texans game or rodeo or whatever's being had at the stadium. And you ideally want that area

04:08to be more of a destination or more convenient to the people that actually go to the games.

04:14So where do those people live? Might we want to build a stadium out there wherever there is,

04:19right? And I'm not pretending to know what that, what the answer to that is,

04:21but those are the questions that they have to ask. And that's where I think it gets complicated.

04:26Yes, we need to renovate the stadium. The stadium's almost 30 years old and we're,

04:29you know, negotiating at least seven years out, but also do we really want to be here?

04:35Well, exactly. And that's why I say this is a strategy and it's a smart strategy. I totally

04:40agree. I'd do the same thing if I were in their place. Hey, let's talk about renovation. Let's

04:45talk about the roof. Let's talk about this tour board. Let's talk about the lower bowl. You know

04:48what? That adds up to about a one and a half billion dollars. Why don't we just get a new

04:51place? Because we also need this outside. We needed to make a destination point and we're

04:55helping you because the entire area around NRG Park is going to be, you know, rebuilt.

05:00Downtown, people forget this. Y'all remember this. Yes. Was a dump. Correct. An absolute

05:06don't even go there at night. It's why I didn't know anything about it as a kid.

05:10People from Hiram Clark thought it was nasty. Oh yeah. No. Wait, what are you doing right there?

05:14Hold on. Wait a minute. Did you hear that? Okay. I see what he did there. All right.

05:18It was, I worked downtown. Well, I didn't go in the office very often, but I worked downtown

05:22at the Chronicle building. You had to get security guards just to get out to your car a block away.

05:28It was a dump and that's what the Texans

05:33and we will totally redo the entire area and people will come in.

05:37Allow me to be a simple man for just a second. It feels like either one of two things needs to

05:41happen here or is going to happen, could happen here. Either the Texans are angling to build a

05:47new stadium out somewhere that is either quote unquote nice. Strategizing. We determined that

05:51angling might be a bad connotation. Strategizing. Strategizing to build a stadium either

05:58name your destination, the burbs, downtown, whatever it is, or

06:03NRG stadium in the area. Essentially the area around it needs to be gentrified. Exactly. And

06:09I'm not, I'm not, I'm not advocating. I'm just saying like from the Texans perspective or from

06:15the let's say pro stadium experience perspective, it feels like one of the two things, one of those

06:20two things needs to happen or is going to happen. But I'm glad that you brought this conversation

06:24in the way that you did. Cause I don't think I've done a good job of framing it. So I really do

06:27appreciate your help here. And I do think that, that, that management aspect of it is a huge one.

06:33I do think that that is the part that I'm a hundred percent fully behind is like the Texans

06:37and rodeo having an opportunity to take ownership of the opportunity to upgrade the stadium. Because

06:44I know that there's probably a frustration from their side that has not been voiced nearly enough

06:47in that they now have to wait for the city. And I guess, let me put this another way. They have

06:51to wait for government bureaucracy to determine that something needs to be upgraded before it

06:56gets done. And when I said it like that, does that give anybody any level of, they have to jump

07:00through hoops, right? They really do just to, cause they got to go to the County commissioner.

07:04Uh, they got to go to, you know, all these other areas of avenues to just, to just get, Hey, we

07:10need the parking lot. Tell me what y'all think about this comparison. Imagine being rich,

07:18but you live in the projects. Right. And when I say the projects, I just mean government housing,

07:23right? Like you're rich, but you are kind of like where you live has been built for you.

07:29And it is maintained for you. And it is government housing, but what do we know?

07:32Yeah. Government housing is not as nice as rich people housing.

07:36It's just more layers on when you get something done. Hey man, something falls apart. Do you just

07:41run to home Depot or do you have to call some level of somebody who has to leave a message?

07:45And then they have to get in touch with somebody else. You know what I mean?

07:47What's the other side of that though? Should rich people be in government housing?

07:51Exactly. Right. So like, this is a, this is kind of needs a meeting of the minds here of like, Hey,

07:56we're the rich folks. We know this right. Local governments have a tough enough time

08:02maintaining and funding the stuff that's actually important, much less a big ass stadium

08:09that billionaires are profiting on, which by the way, and I love the McNair's, but they

08:14make more off of taxes than they pay in rent over there six of the last seven years. So like,

08:20this is a thing where, again, to the point of rich people in government housing, that's what

08:25it kind of feels like. Maybe, maybe we make the rich people kind of like just pay for the stuff.

08:29Oh, I think some of the stuff, or they could try to get the best of both worlds where they're like,

08:34Hey, y'all pay for some of these renovations and give us the control to now maintain the

08:39stadium going forward. But then they could do that to be able to then rent out the dates and

08:43bring more constant and those things in pocket, those things, which is honestly in line with what

08:47a lot of stadiums have been around. If I had, if I had to just not guess,

08:53project end up being, you know what, we need a new state. It's just me talking.

08:57Uh, we need a new stadium. We're going to, uh, build the entire community around us. People are

09:02going to come and, and, you know, if you build it, they'll, they will come and we're talking

09:04businesses and industries and destination point in the future. And, and, you know, just to make

09:10it good for you, cause you're going to give us $9 billion or whatever the number ends up being,

09:14we'll take over all maintenance. We'll take over all this and pay for whatever.

09:18So I think that's probably where it will end up if I had to guess. Yeah. And, and that would be,

09:22look, that would be probably good for everyone. The question is what is the public appetite for,

09:28like, what does that look like exactly? And what is the public appetite to fund something like that

09:32to help to even to help fund something like that? Cause you know, they're not going to do it on

09:35their own. You, you talked about it earlier, Reggie, how we subsidize all of this stuff.

09:39I just mentioned how they make more on taxes than they pay in rent. Don't get me going. People

09:43going to be mad at me if I actually get in that bag. It is a, it is a, it is an interesting time.

09:47It is interesting time to monitor the next less than seven years. I would say less than seven

09:51years. Absolutely. And I'm, there was, there's a lot of complexity and you did such a good job

09:55breaking that down to your thoughts, man. It's almost like you work for the paper. I was going

09:59to say we do a little news over here, you know, so I've, I've, I've got a little insight into

10:03some of this. And you, you touched on in the, what you sent us before the show, something that I said,

10:09you don't bring him in to renovate. No, that's, that's just not what you, that's, that's a big

10:14thing. Like he, he sounded, he said all of the right things and sounded so good this morning on

10:19Payne and Pendergast. But at the same time, you're like, got to remember that's, that's exactly the

10:23dude that you bring in to help you build a new state, not to not build a new state. You know

10:27what he sounded like? And I say this with as much respect as I can muster in this moment.

10:33It was his tall points. And again, I again, not judgment in there, just kind of how it

10:37sounded. It was very slick. It was very polished. And he knows what he, he, again, he has a strategy.

10:42He has, he has something that he's working towards. And I, again, it's going to be very

10:46interesting. And I use that word very frequently. I'm going to be, it's going to be of great

10:50interest to me. And I think to all of us of where that goes with an Archie Park or whatever

10:56ultimately comes in the future, just leaving room. Cause they are open to all possibilities. I don't

10:59know if you heard that. Yeah. Yeah. Open to all possibilities. Yeah. Sounds like a man ready to

11:04I know what I heard. You're in the loop right here on sports radio.

Category

Transcript

Recommended