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Oilers' departure taught Houston a painful lesson
Wednesday, April 07, 1999 By Robert Dvorchak
When Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams demanded a new football stadium, Mayor Bob Lanier commissioned a study that found that sports comprised less than 1 percent of the city's economy.
He refused to open the city treasury, saying: "The subsidy they get is totally disproportionate to to the economics they bring. . . It would ashame Jay Gould and his fellow robber barons of the 19th century. Even Genghis Khan got sated after a while."
The Oilers departed in 1995 to become the Tennessee Titans. And less than a year later, Houston, its surrounding county and the state agreed to finance a $465 million package for new baseball and football facilities.
"Things might change someday, but the reality is that if you say [no to public subsidies] in today's market, you're below any market," Lanier said in 1996.
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