Commissioner Tagliabue in Houston

September 8, 2002

Texans Owner Bob McNair
“We’ve waited so long, it’s almost hard to get out of stance and all of a sudden we’re ready to play.  It’s a wonderful feeling.  We’re delighted that the wait is over.  We’re going to have a great game tonight.  I know our fans are excited, our team is excited, I’m excited and we’re just ready to play football.”

“It wasn’t too long ago that the franchise was awarded to us.  We had no stadium, we had no team and we had no organization.  Now standing before you we have probably the finest stadium in the world.  We have a team, we have an organization and we’re ready to go.  It’s an exciting moment for us and we’re delighted that we have with us today Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.  This is a momentous occasion for us and I think it’s fitting that we were able to have the Commissioner come down and help us inaugurate our season and kick off the regular season in our stadium.  We appreciate it very much that he took the time to come down, Commissioner, thank you for coming.”

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
“Thank you.  Good afternoon.  Obviously it’s a very exciting and extraordinary day for the NFL and for Houston.  We know there’s a tremendous amount of tradition here for the NFL and for football generally.  To have this team back on the field tonight with leadership and a young quarterback, with Dom Capers and most importantly, with Bob McNair’s leadership.  We’ve said many times that the key to the Texans franchise was leadership, teamwork and tenacity and Bob was the leader of a civic group and public officials that did some extraordinary things.  The fans were a tremendous part of the team all along the way and they epitomized the teamwork and tenacity and discipline of sticking with it and doing all the things that had to be done.”

“The stadium itself is a tremendous blend of Houston today, Houston’s future with Houston’s traditions.  What struck me about it was the science and technology that went into the retractable dome and the feeling around the building with all of the steel and the modern elements that symbolize science and technology, which is what Houston is really becoming a city of.  It’s very striking but most of all it’s going to be a wonderful place for Houston fans to watch the Texans play and watch the Rodeo.”

“There are special fans here that love football and know football but they also love life and they kind of represent the boldness and the energy, the love of football in this area.  Without a team in Houston, we’ve not had an AFC team in the southwest.  I think we brought a team back to not just Houston, but back to the southwest.”

“Well, it may set a standard that’s out of the reach of some people.  As Bob said, this stadium is world-class and certainly I’d have to agree with him.  It may be the best stadium in the world.  I’ve seen a lot of new stadiums around the world, in Europe, Japan, elsewhere and in the United States and I don’t think there’s anything to match this facility.”

“The thing that strikes me is when people are watching football or watching the rodeo, the seats are so well situated as far as the close proximity to the field.  Everything else is fabulous, the opened and closed roof.  Bob McNair is one of the owners that has this great sensitivity to the fans, they want to give them a great view and keep them close to and part of the action.”

Can you envision this happening in Los Angeles?

“I guess if you mean the Los Angeles area rather than the city of LA itself then certainly I think that would be our goal.  Whether it was with the plans to renovate the Rose Bowl, I could see a world-class stadium in LA.  Not a retractable dome, there’s no need for one there.  But history tells us that LA does things in a world class manner whether it’s the Olympics in ’84 or Staples Center so at some point there will be a world-class stadium there, yes.”

How are you monitoring the situation in Los Angeles?

“We’ve had a number of conversations with those owners but at the time I tried to make it clear that it was to monitor developments.  That’s more of what we’re doing, is more of a monitoring role.  We don’t have a proactive agenda as a group.  I’m going to be in and out of LA probably several times during the season and the coming months.  We are staying close to those people in LA including the Rose Bowl and others who are interested developing a stadium.  The key there is focus on using private money, the developer’s money, the league money.  And we have had conversations about the fans there.

Have you been monitoring the situation in San Diego also?

“Well, yes, we have had conversations with the representatives of the mayor and met with the mayor some time ago and I’m sure we’ll have discussions in the future.  We’ve been talking to the Chargers about their discussions with the city of San Diego.  A task force has been appointed and we committed to the mayor that we and the Chargers would both work closely with the task force to work with the dialogue that will highlight the kind of contribution that an NFL team could make to the community.”

Are you going to present to the task force?

“It would either be the league or the Chargers or we may do something jointly because the way we share TV revenue equally brings into the community of San Diego over a ten-year period an economic stimulus of about a billion dollars and the league has that type of economic sharing formula and that type of economic impact in the community.”

Will you continue the Thursday night game?

“I would think we would try to make it an annual event.  As you said, it has been very successful.  Tonight we’ve got a very strong match-up, the Texas Super Bowl.  I think there will be a lot of excitement around the country tonight to watch this game for lots of reasons.  That would be the way we would hope to open every season.”

How do you feel about teams moving to other cities?

“Well we’ve always restricted teams from one city to another My view is that we should keep teams where they are and work very closely as we will in San Diego, as we will in Minnesota as we will in San Francisco to try and develop stadiums that will keep those teams where they are.”

How will the new schedule allow teams like the Texans and the Cowboys play every year?

“Well, with our new scheduling formula, we think it rotates games and ensures that teams will play every other team not just within conferences but across conference on a regular basis.  The Texans will be playing Dallas every four years under that scheduling formula, that’s a new and unique feature.  Jerry Jones spoke in the last week to have an annual preseason game, which is something that I think he and Bob have been discussing.  My guess is that David Carr evolves and maybe begins to look like a young Troy Aikman, there will be a terrific rivalry here.”

Is the team in Houston one of the biggest accomplishments you’ve had as the Commissioner?

“Restoring the teams to the fans who lost the teams is at the top of my list of the league’s accomplishments. It takes the whole league, not just the Commissioner.  Getting the Ravens back in Baltimore, the Browns back in Cleveland and the Texans here are three areas where NFL football was and is a passion.”