Didn't realize you rooted for Ten. pgab....me too. My first Texans' game was against Ten. last year. I put the blame mostly on Lanier.
you can put the blame on whoever you want...but when... 1. you threaten to move just a few years earlier... 2. you accept taxpayer-funded renovations to your existing stadium to keep you in town... 3. the city still hasn't even paid off the interest for the loans necessary to make those renovations, and you make demand again for a new stadium, threatening to leave... 4. you present a proposal for a new dome and say the Rockets will play there too, without even talking to the Rockets, first... 5. you sign an agreement with Tenn. to negotiate only with Tenn. for 12 months... 6. and not one friend stands up in town to help you...not one...no one in the business community or elsewhere despite 40 or so years of living and working in a community... your bed is made. no mayor or any public official was going to come to the public with a proposal to publicly fund a new football stadium for Bud in the wake of his "move" to Jacksonville and the renovations to the Astrodome. no way.
Great post, Ed Fowler. Max, can you compare the hypothetical cost of keeping the Oilers, with that of acquiring the Texans? I'm curious.
Well, given Bud Adams' nearly 30 year history of threatening the team with moving if he didn't get his way, I'm guessing it'd be impossible to calculate the hypothetical cost of keeping the Oilers here. I think it's funny that a Super Bowl "contender" barely beat a second year team with a horrendous defense and a QB making his first start in 4 weeks.
It's also impossible to tell because the plans for the Bud Dome never got past the drawing board stage. It's veyr likely that the price would've escalated as the process dragged on. The price of Reliant Stadium gained what? $85 million between conception and final construction. Bud ended up screwing himself, even if you believe the final fault was Lanier's, it wouldn't have gotten to that without the history that Bud had with the city. I mean, if Bob McNair did what Adams did, McNair would've threatened to move the Texans already at least once. After all, Adams did threaten to move the Oilers in 1960! Besides, before the final deal was signed, the city was better prepared to give Bud what he wanted. The deal that financed Minute Maid Park and eventually funded Reliant Stadium passed before the final deal to move to Tennessee was signed. Bud still had an out. If he wanted to stay, he could have gotten it done at that point. It's unlikely the deal would've been as good as what Nashville was offering, but if it was that important to stay in Houston, he had the ability to do so. I don't think Clevelanders give Art Modell an out. I mean, he had asked for a stadium, and he even had to sit back as a new arena, a new baseball park and the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame ate up public dollars while his team rotted away in a decaying, depression-era stadium. So, he got a better deal. Yes, after the deal was done, he could've come back, a sin tax vote passed, but it was after Modell had made the deal to go. But I've never heard anyone in Cleveland defend Modell. It's so weird to have so many no only defend Bud, but to still support his team. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying that it's interesting how different the way Browns fans handled the same situation vs. how Houstonians did. As it is, it's probably better the Oilers left. Getting Bud out of day-to-day operations, I believe, has helped that team tremendously on the field. Football people are allowed to make decisions. Plus, I don't think the overall support for the Texans would be as high if this were just still the Oilers. It's unlikely Houston would've gotten a Super Bowl with the Bud Dome concept. And we'd probably have already had seven or eight more threats to move the team between 1997 and today had the Oilers stayed.
how could I? I can tell you that Bud's proposal called for $170 million worth of public funds...but nobody..and i mean, nobody...supported that proposal. by the way...acquiring the Texans was not an expense passed on to taxpayers...it was paid entirely by Bob McNair and the other private owners who paid that expansion fee. the only reasonable comparison is comparing bud's proposed stadium to Reliant Stadium. call me ed fowler..call me whatever...but the facts i presented were as they happened....not a soul stood up for bud. not one person. not one group. you simply can't keep coming to the public saying, "i'm gonna move..i'm gonna take my ball and go somewhere else..." and then have the public spend money to refurbish a stadium, so that you can go through the whole process 5 years later. that's ridiculous. he took the whole ball of wax to Tennessee and signed an exclusive negotiating agreement with them...we could not even make an offer...there were no negotiatons again...he came back with a deal he couldn't refuse in nashville. so be it. good riddance. and that's coming from a HUGE oiler fan...a prior season ticket holder.
Yeah, I'd have to agree...having an owner who's bad at p.r. really sucks, and totally trumps the 35-year history the team may have had with the city...
I know you're being sarcastic, but you're exactly right. Threatening to move the team for nearly 30 years unless he got his way does trump the 35-year history the team may have had with the city...
Say what you will, but if Bud had been better at public relations, the general attitude wouldn't have been "good riddance" when he announced his intention to, once again, explore a move of the team. Heck, he didn't even have to be popular with the public. He just had to be able to glad-handle the people with the purse-strings. He couldn't even do that. Getting a stadium built is all about relationships. Bud burned his bridges years before, acted like a spoiled child and demanded the world conform to the way he wanted it to be, and when the city didn't immediately snap into line and write a big check, he ran off to someone willing to do anything and deal with anyone to get a team.
With the whole cost of keeping Oilers issue: I've done a lot of research on the subject, including talking to such insiders as Michael MacCambridge (who has a huge book on the NFL coming out), and they've all agreed with the same sentiments - "Its not that the city of Houston didn't want to pony up the $$ to keep the Oilers... its more that they didn't want to do it for Bud Adams." Just reading about all his past discretions validates that. This is what makes it most hard to root for the Titans now... its not that Bud wasn't being supported here in Houston... its just that he got way to greedy, and wasn't patient AT ALL... In other words, he didn't show any sort of thanks to u ex-Oilers/Titans fans for supporting them all those years. As soon as he finally didn't get something he asked for, he cried and moved out.
and, in fact, before he moved out he made the statement that, "this is no longer Houston's team...this is the Bud Adams' entry into the NFL." that's while he was still trying to sell tickets for the oilers here in houston. that ended it for me. i didn't root for the oilers because i liked their uniforms...or liked any one player in particular...i rooted for the oilers because they were from my hometown...from houston. when they left, i found myself absolutely hating them. hating them like i hate the freaking cowboys. i loved seeing them come up short against the rams...and i don't associate one current titan player with the houston oilers...not at all. and bud adams is an absolute joke. the franchise we have now is so professional is every way...so first class...that i wouldn't trade it for the world. go texans.
I totally agree. There isnt anyone on that Titans team that remind me of the Oilers. To me, the Oilers were Moon, Givens, Jefferies, Hill, Childress, Fuller, Dishman, Matthews, Munchak, etc. When Bud took our team, it no longer was our team. It was Bud's team and he can have them. I am a Texans fan and I am loyal to them. I cant wait until we kick the **** out of Bud's team.
