How much will the county get repaid for Super Bowl activities?

Quite possibly not very much, as it turns out.

After the New England Patriots stunned the Atlanta Falcons with a storybook comeback in Super Bowl LI, after the crowds drained away and the national spotlight left Houston, Harris County officials turned to organizers and asked to be repaid for security and around-the-clock support, part of $1.3 million the county spent on America’s biggest sporting event.

The answer, so far: Don’t count on it.

Super Bowl Host Committee officials say they would like to reimburse taxpayers but are not obligated to because the county did not, in its offers of support for the weeklong event, negotiate that it be compensated or repaid by organizers. The city of Houston did and has been repaid $5.5 million by the host committee.

Now, five months after the game, the back-and-forth has some local leaders questioning the costs borne by the county for the game, which was in the county-owned NRG Stadium at no cost to the National Football League, and whether the county will provide similar support in the future.

“It is very shortsighted,” said Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle. “There will be future events, future Super Bowls.”

County officials could not say why they did not negotiate a repayment agreement when they decided to support Houston’s bid for the Super Bowl in 2013 – instead offering a resolution of support for the game guaranteeing some assistance at no cost to the NFL. It is unclear if the county asked the host committee for a guarantee of compensation or reimbursement then.

A spokesman for Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said, as far as Emmett was concerned, a resolution like the county passed in 2013 would “never be used again.”

“The judge has now made clear that, before any future Super Bowls or major events like these transpire at a county-owned facility like NRG stadium, that there is going to have to be some type of an agreement where the county receives a share of the revenue from that,” said Joe Stinebaker, Emmett’s spokesman.

The debate over public spending for professional sports has gained steam in recent years as governments find themselves stretched to cover essential services and taxpayers are more aware of their support of multi-million dollar businesses, said Mark Conrad, director of the Sports Business Program at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University.

Conrad said the NFL “does not have to be nice” and will continue to push for any public support it can get.

“If I would predict, I would think the county is going to be eating the million dollars-plus,” Conrad said.

Keep this in mind the next time someone tries to tell you that the county is better-organized than the city. One can certainly argue that neither the city nor the county should have to enter into such detailed, technicalities-laden negotiations with a multi-billion-dollar private enterprise for payment of these relatively paltry sums. The NFL could just pay for everything up front, or the city and county could just handle it themselves on the grounds that the investment is worth it. But this is the way it is, and the county is at the end of the reimbursement line because they didn’t dot all their I’s. Let that be a lesson going forward.

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4 Responses to How much will the county get repaid for Super Bowl activities?

  1. brad m says:

    Shocked. Shocked I tell you that our GOP County Judge and Commissioners showed their fiscal irresponsibility so glaringly.

    “Never be used again…”…thanks Emmett. You’ll be long gone by that time.

    I’ve always had a good amount of respect for Emmett’s pragmatic and fiscal approaches to problems, but these critical mistakes regarding the Super Bowl and the +$100 million Astrodome parking garage albatross are simply too much to ignore.

  2. Bill Daniels says:

    All this is a moot point. There will never be another Super Bowl in Houston because Texas throws gays off rooftops.

    Seriously, though, don’t we think that getting $ 1.3M in free services was a large part of why the NFL chose Houston in the first place? If I was the NFL I would tell Harris County to pound sand. There will be another or sucker next year.

  3. Bill Daniels says:

    @ Brad:

    I agree with your assessment or Emmett.

  4. C.L. says:

    Who’s the monkey that didn’t write into the agreement a requirement to pay the County as well as the City ? Brad is right – perhaps we should have traded ownership for the domed white elephant in exchange for security services rendered… then let the NFL tear it down.

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