Money Talks For Houston

Houston won a football franchise Wednesday because it had one plan, lots of money and a legion of zealous fans. Los Angeles didn’t.

The NFL was determined to put a team in the nation’s second-largest television market, but when the final showdown came, Los Angeles was hamstrung by conflicting proposals, a lack of public money, limited city and state support and fans who didn’t seem to care.

A Houston group led by businessman Bob McNair will pay a $700 million franchise fee to the NFL and $310 million for a stadium.

“Money talks, it sure talked this time,” said billionaire Eli Broad, who with real estate magnate Ed Roski led the effort to put a team at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Another group, headed by Hollywood superagent Michael Ovitz and supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle, initially proposed a stadium in Carson, then switched their support to the Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood.

Despite talk about joining forces, the two groups never did.

Broad and Roski were front-runners until things blew up over public money at an NFL owners meeting in July in Chicago. Ovitz seemed to be the favorite as recently as last week.

Then came the shocking bid by McNair, clinching the bid for Houston.

“We bid $500 million for the franchise,” Broad said. “There’s just so much that makes sense. Our bid would have required a $300 to $400 million additional investment in a stadium. The entire cost would have been close to $1 billion. Even at that amount, it was hardly a good investment.”

Peter Levin, a spokesman for Ovitz, seconded those comments.

“We have a responsibility to our partners, our lenders, ourselves to construct a deal that at the end of the day, garnered a modicum of return that made sense, and at these levels, it was far from making sense,” he said. “It came down to the money, and a responsibility to a deal that makes sense.”