Don't Cry For Houston

My boss, Kevin Jackson, has a good piece up on Seattle’s all-but-assured loss of the Sonics. Poor guy.
Along the way, he mentioned that he empathized with every city that had lost a team in his lifetime. That includes my city, Houston, which lost the Oilers in 1996. Thanks for the love, Kevin.
But we’ll be okay. Really.
In case you didn’t know, we gave that team away. Didn’t want them anymore. Bud Adams had the audacity to demand stadium stuff when the team was as bad as it was post-Earl-pre-Run-N-Shoot. Man, they were dreadful. I would love to describe how bad, but the home games never sold out and were never on television. Plus, I was more of a Falcons fan anyway, so I never really felt inclined to peep them if there was something better on. But unlike the classic fairweather Houston fan–and no city is more fairweather–I was never that deep into them anyway. My sports loyalties are to Atlanta teams (or, in the case of basketball, mostly to the game itself).
Anyway, it was interesting that he mentioned that about Houston because I don’t remember any weeping. In fact, I remember there being only like 60 people at the Save the Oilers rally in ’96. In case you weren’t aware, Houston’s the 4th largest city in America.
And only 60 people show up. More people than that show up to watch high school football practices.
But Bud tried to play the city too many times. After he threatened to move to Jacksonville in ’87, the Astrodome was renovated. The biggest part of that–the centerfield scoreboard was taken down. That really was like losing a family member for most people. In fact, check the quotes in the “fast facts” section in this link. The scoreboard was primarily used at baseball games, and it took away valuable football seating.
So Bud asked for it to go. And it did. I really can’t knock that.
But then he came back asking for more when the team was at its bottom. The city had enough and was okay with him leaving.
Houston’s an interesting city for sports because it’s not blindly loyal to any team. If the teams don’t produce, Houston doesn’t show up. If it doesn’t produce and tries to extort things against the threat of leaving, you can take your shit and dip. Just the name of the game.
But I do feel bad for Kevin. It’s gotta suck to lose something you love. But I’ve also lived between two cities, so I can’t perfectly empathize. I love sports more than most teams (the Braves being a serious exception). But losing anything you love is rough.
Got a lot going on, but probably no new pieces this week. I am, however, speaking at a school in the DC area next week and covering a bass fishing championship later next week. Also got something else I’m working on that I’ll tell you about soon.
And before I go, congratulations to Gary Dauphin! Gary left the 3,000th comment in the history of virtual Bomaniland. Hooray Gary!