If NRG Arena were a car, it would be totaled.
A 2019 assessment commissioned by the county found the arena, where the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo holds its horse show and auctions every March, was beyond its lifespan.
The electrical system was “failing due to the age of the equipment,” the assessment said. Many of the seating areas lacked handrails needed to meet “life safety or building codes.” And the 1970s-era facility fails to satisfy basic accessibility standards, greeting every visitor with a “set of stairs to climb to get to the seating bowl.”
It recommended $11.6 million in improvements it said were “absolutely necessary to keep the building functional (e.g. life safety),” but its final determination was clear: The arena should be replaced in no more than seven years.
“It was bad enough that, to make it semi-competitive and fix all of the obsolete systems in it, it was cheaper to build a new one,” said John Blount, who said he ordered the assessment as Harris County’s lead engineer before retiring in 2021. “We had a big discussion about whether we should just tear it down and start over again.”
Five years later, little progress has been made on building NRG Arena’s replacement, and the plan for a new facility is one central question in negotiations as officials from the Rodeo, Houston Texans and Harris County work to iron out a new lease agreement for NRG Park. The current lease expires in 2032.
“There’s no question, as we go through these lease negotiations, that it’s extremely important to the Rodeo that we get that replaced,” said Chris Boleman, the Rodeo’s president.
While the need for a new arena is undisputed, it’s less clear who will foot the bill.
The Rodeo built the current arena in 1974 and later donated it to Harris County, which owns the land. Under the county’s current lease with the Rodeo and Texans at NRG Park, it is the county’s responsibility to maintain facilities in “first-class” condition, a standard the arena currently does not meet.
That puts the county on the hook for the facilities, but some former county officials have winced at the idea of subsidizing a new arena for the Rodeo, a nonprofit organization that generated $192 million in annual revenue and had $309 million in assets, as of its last publicly available tax filing in 2022.
That’s a part of a larger issue.
NRG Park, home to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the Houston Texans, requires nearly $2 billion in repairs and maintenance, some of which is overdue, over the next 30 years to continue operating, according to a new assessment prepared for the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp. Questions remain as to who will pay for it.
The $2 billion price tag for upkeep is more than triple what a similar report called for in 2019.
The most costly upgrades to the facility would include $105 million for security systems, video, audio, other technology.
The new report comes as lease negotiations begin between Harris County, the Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The current lease expires in 2032.
Representatives for NRG and the Houston Texans did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Many basic repairs and maintenance on the stadium have been deferred, said Chris Boleman, CEO of the Rodeo, but upgrades are needed on the horizon.
There’s more, some of which was in the earlier story, so read the rest. Note that this is $2 billion over 30 years, which is to say about $67 million per year. Still a lot, but it’s not like anyone needs to pony up the whole thing right now. Given the current lifecycle for most arenas these days, it’s not clear to me that NRG Park will still be a thing 30 years from now. We may be talking about its replacement well before then, like in 2032 when the lease expires.
For the first item, something will give eventually. I do expect the Rodeo and the Texans to kick in some amount towards a new NRG Arena. Maybe there’s a better way for all to handle this sort of thing in the future. Again, the expiration of the lease will provide a catalyst.
No. No. A Billion Times No.
We need roads, water, sewer, drainage and police. We dont need any more taxpayer funding of giveaways for plutocrats and private fair that deliberately excludes large segments of the Houston community.
Let the McNairs pay for the stadium.
What happened to all the millions of dollars in upgrades made for the 2017 Superbowl? They listed multiple electrical upgrades that had to be performed by contract.
Watch them put it up for a vote, and watch all those Democrat politicians crawl out of the woodwork to promote the bonds.
An easy search showes a Chronicle article stating there were $50 million worth of upgrades in 2017 for the Superbowl alone. Some of that were solar panels and installation of LED lighting, so take that into consideration.
Meme, they wouldn’t dare let us vote on sports funding. Every vote has failed in recent years.
The HLS&R, Texans, and LSSE all appear to be controlled by right wing Republicans so I don’t see how this is on the Dems.
That’s gonna be a hard sell in this (political) climate, but I’m with everyone else here…no way should any taxpayer funds be used to fix these buildings. Local infrastructure, at this point, is way more important than anything associated with any of these structures (that are used <90 days total/year by a select few).
Bill NRG is county property, and if I recall, the voters approved the sale of the bonds to build the stadium.
The sports authority was established to manage the $1 billion in voter-approved bonds that financed the construction of Reliant Stadium, Toyota Center, and Minute Maid Park.
Many of the bonds now don’t require voter approval for maintenance. Politicians, mostly Democrats, approve of them because it is good for the billionaires who own the teams.
What sports bonds were proposed recently that were not passed here in Harris County?
Meme, I was referring to recent referenda on taxpayer financed sports in Kansas City, California and other places.
The only vote we had here was 25+ years ago when the county was run by Republicans. Republicans controlled half the HCHSA and all the NRG Park Board seats till recently. Whitmire appears to be fully committed to helping his Republican friends
And the beneficiaries of these diversions of taxpayer funds from critical needs appear to be overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, Republicans.
I’m going to try putting on my MAGA hat just this once (might do it again, it might end up being fun) and throw in my two cents that we dissolve the Harris County Sports Authority sell its assets to the highest private sector bidder. Merry Christmas, y’all!
County government R, city D. Majority voters D. Rs don’t normally support bonds, Ds did the selling in 2002, Brown was mayor.
Just like D Alvardo carrying Casino gambling, last session.
As a nation we are addicts, including gambling.