Posted on 02/05/2002 9:52:59 AM PST by GeneD
Filed at 1:20 p.m. ET
HOUSTON (Ticker) - The Houston Astros want out of their naming rights agreement with the Enron Corporation, the embattled energy company that recently filed for bankruptcy.
The Astros on Tuesday filed a motion in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York asking the court to determine whether the naming agreement with Enron should continue.
The National League club signed a 30-year agreement with the company in April 1999 to call the new playing facility Enron Field. While the deal may provide income to the Astros, the stadium name has become a public relations nightmare since thousands of Houston-area residents lost not only their jobs but their pensions when Enron filed for bankruptcy.
``The Houston Astros have been materially and adversely affected by the negative public perception and media scrutiny resulting from Enron's alleged bad business practices and bankruptcy,'' said Astros president of business operations Pam Gardner. ``We have worked diligently with Enron to transition the stadium name, but we've been unsuccessful. At this point, we have no other alternative but to seek relief from the bankruptcy court.''
According to the Astros, Enron has spent the bankrupt estate's assets by paying approximately $108,000 for a suite and paying nearly $90,000 for box seats. The Astros claim that Enron wishes to sell the naming rights without the consent of the team.
``We do not believe that it is appropriate for Enron to continue to spend these large sums of money to have a baseball stadium named after it because the name of the stadium can not be changed without the Astros consent, so the naming rights Agreement has no economic value to Enron,'' Gardner said. ``We believe that it is now time for the bankruptcy court to determine whether the naming rights agreement should continue.''
Enron has made three annual rights fee payments under the naming rights agreement totaling $10.25 million, and the next rights fee payment of approximately $3.65 million is due on August 31, 2002.
Enron also agreed to purchase on an annual basis a 14-person suite and 35 Box Seats. The company paid approximately $108,000 for the 2002 suite on January 22 and paid nearly $90,000 for the 2002 box seat tickets on Monday.
Only once - the first year in Enron field.
Otherwise they have 4 division titles (or is it 5) with only 2 wins that I know of in the playoffos.
The Astros definately collapsed in October under Larry Dierker. Maybe it will be different under the new manager.
Shalom.
With all due respect to Jim McIngvale - who is a wonderful person and a credit to the Houston community - why would a local furniture store name a sports venue? Unless Mac is planning to start a national chain, there is absolutely zero value in him having his name on a ball park. Dynegy would be better suited to buying the name.
Shalom.
Wasn't it Ken Lay who also scammed the people of Arlington, Texas into building a new stadium for the Texas Rangers?
The rest of us thought the Astro Dome was still a good stadium, especially since we are still paying for the last round of renovations.
In Houston, the stadium would have likely been named after team owner Drayton McClain or mayors Lee. P. Brown or Bob Lanier. None of them are great people or even anyone that you'd want as a neighbor.
During Houston's last big public expeditures, we got (mayor) Hoffienz's name on buildings in the Astrodome (and he even got an apartment residence inside the dome!), Jesse Jones got Jones' Hall, and it goes on.
This is empire building.
The name may go to Jim Mackenvale (a man with annoying commercials and a funiture store that resembles Disneyland crossed with Hard Rock Cafe). Jim built up his furniture store and is a mover-and-shaker in town partly due to his constant promotion of himself and Houston. He's one of the people driving for the summer Olympics to come to Houston. His store is Gallery Furniture and that may be put on the ballpark. At least he would have the decency to buy his name with cash in plain site rather than the backroom deals that pocket public $$$ in the old mover-and-shakers' world.
BTW, Enron got naming rights on the new stadium for $100million for 30 years. The stadium itself cost $300million(+) to build.
Reliant Energy bought the naming rights to the Astrodomain (The Astrodome, the Astrohall, the Astroarena, plus the new football field) for $300million for 30 years.
In other words, they could have bought a stadium for the price of the naming rights. And Reliant had a rate hike after purchasing the naming rights and had the gall to say that the customers would not see the bill for the cost of the naming rights. Riiiiiiiiiiight....
I was curious why Mac had done that. This makes perfect sense.
They swore that they wouldn't tear down the Astrodome after building a new ballpark but you can tell the days are numbered. Right now they are plotting out different uses for the Astrodome building that include everything from using it as a convention center (hello, we have a huge one downtown), to an indoor parking garage (come to Houston and see the world's largest garage - the 162nd Wonder Of The World!), to a hotel.
No the dome's days are numbered and they hinge on one event, whether or not Houston gets the summer Olympics (a bad idea in my opinion).
The new ballpark (and all of the other stadiums in that initiative) passed by 1% margin garnered by lies and damned lies. Cost was underbudgeted, minorities were told in church on Sunday by politicians that minority labor and contracts would be guaranteed to come from this, etc. The vote came in but the promises fell flat.
Welcome to Houston, higher ticket prices, less available parking, higher priced parking, fewer seats.
But on the bright side we have a new train to take us between the new stadiums and it is only costing $40,000,000 a mile. (Pssst - we need to borrow a little money to make the fire department payroll this week)
Drayton and the Astros just used Kenny Boy and Enron for his money and now that Kenny Boy is having a few financial problems his old friend Drayton is leaving him out in the cold. Drayton and the Astros should be ashamed of themselves!
I don't know if that is the case but I certainly wouldn't be surprised. I'm sure he wasn't responsible for the statium. I did that all by myself.
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