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When NRG Stadium
hosted Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, it marked the first time the
Super Bowl was played at a retractable roof stadium. Football
in the City of Houston had been a staple since 1960
when the Houston Oilers were founded. For over 25
years the Oilers played at the Houston Astrodome, the first multipurpose dome
stadium in the country. By the mid 1980s the Oilers, owned by Bud Adams, became
dissatisfied with the Astrodome because it was one of the smallest
stadiums in the NFL. When Adams threatened to move the Oilers
to Jacksonville in 1987, Houston officials renovated the Astrodome,
adding 10,000 seats and additional luxury suites. However, it was
not long before Adams became unsatisfied with the refurbished
Astrodome. By the 1990s he began to lobby for a new
dome stadium to be built in downtown Houston. In 1993 Adams was
willing to contribute $85 million to a stadium but Houston
officials and residents were not willing to fund a new stadium.
Frustrated by the lack of support for a new stadium, Adams moved
the Oilers to Nashville, TN after the 1996 season where they
became the Tennessee Titans.
Spearheaded by
Bob McNair in 1997, the Houston NFL Holdings Group was formed in
order to bring a NFL
franchise back to Houston. The group commissioned HOK Sport to
develop a retractable roof stadium. In 1998, after expanding to 31
teams, the NFL announced it would further expand to 32 teams in 1999.
Two cities competed for the 32nd team: Los Angeles and
Houston. It appeared that Houston would never land another NFL
team in March 1999, when the league announced that it had selected
Los
Angeles as the home of its 32nd franchise. However, this was
contingent on the city and investors working together to develop a
stadium deal. They were unsuccessful and in October 1999 the NFL
rescinded the Los Angeles expansion franchise, awarding it to
Houston.
Named the Houston Texans, the new team partnered with the
Livestock Show and Rodeo to build a stadium. Groundbreaking
ceremonies for the new stadium, built adjacent to the Astrodome,
began in early 2000. In October 2000, Reliant Energy purchased the
naming rights, thus the facility was named Reliant Stadium. It was
renamed NRG Stadium in March 2014 after NRG Energy purchased
Reliant Energy. The Houston Texans played their first regular
season game at Reliant Stadium on September 8, 2002 against the
Dallas Cowboys. NRG Stadium has a seating capacity of 71,500,
consisting of three main tiers that enclose the field. A
retractable roof was chosen for the stadium, mainly because of the
late summer heat and the stadium hosts rodeos, that attract two
million people annually. The roof opens or closes in seven
minutes, consists of two sections that meet over the 50 yard line
when it is closed. When the roof is open, each section is above
the seats in the endzone. NRG Stadium has many amenities including
over 8,200 club seats, 187 luxury suites, club lounges and bars,
and a Texans team store. The newest addition to the stadium are
two 50 feet high by 277 feet wide HD video/scoreboards, each above
the endzone, installed before the 2013 season. NRG
Stadium will host Super Bowl LI in 2017.
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