Elrod on primaries
EDITORIAL BOARD
John Harp
Ed De La Garza
Jason Caesar Consolacion Jim Parsons
Spare no expense
They said it would be cheap, but, of course, they were wrong.
The initial bid for the new NFL arena in Houston looked like an obscenely good deal. At $310 million, many even doubted it could be built. They were, of course, right.
That leaves us where? The same place we've been, basically. The overrun, which is no longer an estimate but the final cost as tabulated through an extensive assessment of every aspect of stadium construction, is just $57 million. And the stadium will be built.
So, $57 million isn't chump change. We can be a little angry that the estimate does not match up with the new numbers. We just can't be that angry.
Why? First, this stadium is being heavily subsidized by rodeo revenues and our mutual friend, Bob McNair. McNair himself will pay $50 million of the cost, the sports authority will cover $195 million and the Rodeo revenues will cover the rest.
Yes, it's likely that we, as taxpayers, will be the ones stuck with the $57 million tab. But that's not too much money, considering the fact that we get a "state-of-the-art" football stadium, which means jobs and a definite commercial/tourist/monetary draw for the city.
The stadium will even have a retractable roof, so we'll get optimum playing and spectating conditions, rain or smog.
Also, McNair hasn't explicitly said so, but there's been a little bit of "wink wink, nudge nudge" hinting that we may have a Super Bowl in our very near future when the arena is complete.
Most of all, though, we need a football team. Ask yourselves, sports fans: Would you have gone in three years ago for $57 million in taxes if it had meant Houston would keep the Oilers?
If the Rockets leave -- and we pray they won't -- we'll be left with baseball and hockey. We're not sure, but we think they make your city's dot smaller on state maps if you lose two teams.
On the other hand, if the city acquiesces and builds the new arena for basketball, we should expect this sort of cost overrun to happen again.
We might complain a little, both now and if another stadium gets approved. But we should keep our outrage to a dull roar, because all in all, we'd be getting the better end of the deal if we were stuck with $114 million in unexpected taxes. That is, as long as they don't name any new teams the Houston Smoggers.
