Not sure what to make of this.
The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority on Friday fired CEO Janis Burke after 18 years with the organization, a high-profile termination that came hours after Mayor John Whitmire and Houston’s sports executives gathered at City Hall calling for new leadership at the agency.
The board authorized Burke to begin negotiating a settlement with its Houston law firm. The board also voted to let board chair J. Kent Friedman appoint a temporary CEO, though they did not name Burke’s replacement.
In a statement, the board thanked Burke for her “exceptional and groundbreaking” run as CEO.
“Over her time, she has worked diligently and tirelessly not just to improve our world-class facilities but to make Houston and Harris County destinations for a wide range of marquee and international sporting events, creating over $2 billion of economic activity for this community,” Friedman wrote. “Her efforts have elevated the state of our region to heights it has never been in the sports industry.”
Whitmire said in recent months, leaders of multiple Houston sports franchises as well as city and county government officials approached him and expressed frustration at the sports authority’s lack of transparency and communication. The mayor said the timing was imperative amid Houston’s preparations to host seven games of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“We want to show our people and our energy, our diversity, and how great a city we are, but we can only do that if we get the sports authority single focused on working with these organizations and FIFA,” Whitmire said. “I’m not trying to point the blame to anyone. I’m just saying, we have an opportunity to right the ship.”
While Whitmire addressed aging facilities, there were no details given on what communication issues had led to the call for change in leadership.
Burke, who attended Friday’s meeting, defended her tenure after the board voted unanimously to part ways.
“From my perspective, we’ve always been an open book and collaborated wherever possible, so those comments came as a bit of a surprise,” Burke said via text message on Saturday. “Our office was always happy to share anything asked for as long as we had it. … With that said, I’ve had a great run and will always be grateful for the 18 wonderful years I’ve enjoyed at the Sports Authority.”
Among the individuals who stood behind Whitmire on Friday were: Gretchen Sheirr, Houston Rockets president of business operations; Jess O’Neill, Houston Dynamo & Dash president of business operations; Anita Sehgal, Houston Astros senior vice president of marketing and communications; Ryan Walsh, CEO of the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation, which manages NRG Park; and Council Member Twila Carter, who formerly served as the executive director of the Astros Foundation.
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“I want to thank the sports authority administrators for their public service, but we come together today to say we can do better. We must do better,” Whitmire said before Burke’s firing. “We have to get ready all hands on deck for the World Cup, and in the meantime, we will address the concerns of these individual franchises, not to mention the rodeo. Rodeo has been talking to me for months. We have to do better with our facilities. They’re outdated, outgrown. We’re having difficulty dealing with the sports authority and open lines of communication.”
Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who also attended Friday’s news conference, said that it was time for a fresh face at the organization.
“It’s absolutely imperative that we have new leadership at the sports authority,” he said.
Chris Canetti, president of the Houston World Cup committee, said at an event held earlier Friday morning that he does not believe the potential changes at the sports authority will affect preparations for the World Cup.
“I expect everything to be status quo,” Canetti said. “I’m leading the host committee and have been doing that over the course of the last six years now, almost. So I anticipate things moving forward in the same exact way that we’ve been doing. And we’ve been doing great work and making a lot of progress. So we’re on a good path right now.”
Mayor Whitmire has made a lot of changes to agency heads and the like, and for the most part I haven’t commented on them. Like the choices or not, this is normal business for a new mayor, and there’s not much to say. In this case, I’m genuinely curious what caused all of those stakeholders to support the change. It could be that there were real problems, and it could be that they just wanted someone who was, shall we say, more solicitous to their interests. If this is just about making a change from a longtime person in charge, I have to agree with Campos that the same logic could be applied to board chair Kent Friedman as well. Maybe in the way of “you fire the coach because you can’t fire the whole team” it was just easier to can the CEO. I dunno, but as I said, I’m curious. I hope that there’s some chatter about this now so perhaps the real story, if there is one other than “Whitmire just felt like it”, comes out.
Later on Monday, we got this.
The Harris-County Houston Sports Authority has named Chris Canetti to be its interim CEO, the organization announced Monday.
The announcement comes days after the agency’s board of directors unanimously fired longtime CEO Janis Burke, who had come under fire by the city’s sports executives and Mayor John Whitmire for concerns over transparency and facility maintenance.
Canetti currently serves as president of the city’s FIFA World Cup 26 host committee, and will hold the position as he takes over the sports authority in the interim. Canetti was also president of the city’s World Cup bid committee and was president of the Houston Dynamo for eight years.
“Chris has a proven track record of success here in Houston,” board chair J. Kent Friedman wrote in a statement. “We know that with his experience he will help guide the organization and ensure that all obligations and responsibilities are met during this period of transition.”
I suppose given what’s on the local sports calendar for the next two years this makes sense. I have no quibble with it. I just remain curious about what really happened.