Cowboys, Saints Court Fans In Football-Hungry Houston

Note to NFL: Nation’s fourth-largest city and 10th-largest media market in need of pro football team to root for. Stadium not necessary. Nearly four-decade track record of support.

For the first time since 1960 - when the Houston Oilers helped inaugurate the old American Football League - there will be no pro football played in the city.

The Oilers are off to the financially greener pastures of Tennessee. And the void has not gone unnoticed by those teams closest to Houston.

Dallas, home of the Cowboys, is 200 or so miles to the north, little more than a three-hour drive up Interstate 45. New Orleans, home of the Saints, is about 350 miles to the east along I-10, by Texas standards a short five-hour hop.

Cheap air fares and quick and frequent flights to both cities make getting to either place a breeze. By the time drinks are served on the plane, it’s time to descend.

New Saints coach Mike Ditka already has shown up, making a stop in Houston a couple of weeks ago on the eve of his first training camp for a speech to the Houston Touchdown Club.

“We already have a great fan base, but if we can get some more fans, that’ll be great,” he said.

Houstonians are not unfamiliar with The Crescent City. More visitors to New Orleans come from Houston than any other city in America, tourism statistics show.

However, even when the Oilers were around, Houston long has been a Cowboys’ town, a fact of life the Cowboys almost apologize for.

TV ratings, for example, go through the roof for KRIV, Houston’s Fox affiliate which carries NFC games. KRIV won’t divulge programming plans, but grabbing every Cowboys game they can clearly makes sense.

So while the hard sell on Houston isn’t immediate, the soft sell is on, raising the blue Dallas star over the Bayou City.

“We have always done things to increase our profile and visibility in San Antonio, Austin and El Paso,” Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said. “And now Houston will fall into that category.”

America’s Team is indeed taking some steps toward becoming Houston’s Team.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has hinted his team might play an exhibition game in Houston. The Cowboys’ two weekly TV shows are on in Houston for the first time.

Same goes for the new Cowboys’ cable TV programming under an agreement with Fox Sports Southwest. Radio? Houston’s Cowboy fans long have had a local affiliate carry the games. And more Houston media have requested season press credentials for the Cowboys than ever before.

“Obviously we have respect for the Oilers organization and Houston fans and that the departure of the team is still fresh in minds there,” Dalrymple says. “So from that standpoint, I can’t say we have anything going into place immediately.”

Maybe not immediately, but soon. Ticket sales, sponsorships and luxury suites are all something the Cowboys will be exploring in Houston.

The Saints, like the Oilers, are among a handful of NFL teams to have never played in a Super Bowl. And trying to fill the nearly 80,000-seat New Orleans Superdome still takes work.

“That’s one of the differences,” says Greg Suit, the Saints’ senior vice president of marketing and administration. “We’ve got tickets to sell. We are in need of business. We’ve got a unique facility and unique city, really a town that’s built for tourism. We think we’ll get some fans from Houston on several occasions.”

Suit sees some possibilities with a travel company to develop a package to lure Houston football fans.

“We’ll probably do some things with that down the road,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do in New Orleans and Louisiana to fill up our stadium.”