Charles Blain - President, Urban Reform Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A six twenty one hour time here in Houston's morning news.
She would be nice to see something happen with the astrodome.
I mean, I understand, we want we want to save it.
It it was I mean, well, I guess in some
ways we almost have to save it, don't we. It's
an historical site. At this point, Charles Blaine joins, US
President of Urban Reform. The problem is, Charles, is that

(00:20):
there's been many plans that have been floated on how
to save the astrodome. Is this the one that might
finally do it?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
What do you think, Oh, man, Jimmy, I don't know.
You know, there have been a lot of plans, but
there's been no one to pay for it, and a
lot of these plans fall on the back of taxpayers,
and this one's no different. It's a billion dollars and
the Astrodom Conservancy is saying that they think they can
secure about seven hundred and fifty million in private dollars,
and then I guess I would assume that the other

(00:49):
two point fifty would have to come from taxpayers. So
I'm starting to believe though, that this plan is going
to fall in to the trash. Been the same way
the others have.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, well, let's let's just assume for the sake of
argument that it's a viable plan or it's something that
they will get the financing to do if they were
to get the financing. Is it a plan that could work?
In other words, is there anything that they're talking about
doing with the astrodome that doesn't already exist here in Houston?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, no, there there isn't. And I think the problem
is is just that they're trying to do you know,
a convention center, you know, state of the art shops,
all these things in that part of town, and we
have all of that just a few miles away downtown
and up in the Gallery, and there are things all
over the place. Not to mention that this sits on
the property of Harris County, and is the property is

(01:36):
in a lot of agreements with the rodeo, both of
which the Harris County Sports Authority and the Houston Livestock
Showing Rodeo came out and said they don't agree with
the plan. And so even if it is a great plan,
and they said can secure the funding with those two
big benefactors of this land not on board, I don't
see how they can even possibly begin to move forward.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Well that being probably being the case, and I think
you're right about that. What happens to the astrodome? Do
we just can he new to let it sit there
and go into further disrepair? What do we do with it?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
You know, right now taxpayers are paying somewhere between one
hundred and two hundred thousand dollars a year to maintain it.
Their estimates say it would cost about one hundred million
dollars to tear it down. I don't know how accurate
that is, but that is what the estimates say, and
they would only be able to do that with permission
from the Texas Historical Commission, and so a lot of
people want them to tear it down. I know there's
nostalgia tied to it, but I don't know if taxpayer

(02:27):
should keep selling out money even though it's only one
hundred to two hundred thousand a year. We are a
county that is broke, So I don't know if we
should keep sholling out money just to keep it standing.
I think it might be time to break that nostalgia
and start to move forward. Woo.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
I know the only thing worse, Charles, did you could
say other than that is, you know what, I think
we need to tear down the Alimo that things that
I saw, what what what not? The line I would
not cross, Oh, I would hope not. Here's a crazy
question for it, because I know the idea has been
flowing about Ginning in a National Hockey League franchise here

(03:03):
in Houston. I mean, if if they could pull that off,
might the Astrodome be fairly easily converted into a hockey arena?

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I think it could. I mean, I think you could
retro fit it for something like that, and with a
major investment like that, you would almost be guaranteeing a
fan base that would then turn this into a revenue
generating endeavor. And so I think that probably would be
a better idea that wouldn't be as burdensome on the taxpayers.
And so, like you said, I know there've been talks
around town. Maybe they should start looking at the Astronom
as a possible home for this new hockey team if

(03:34):
we were to get it.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
I guess the question becomes at that point, you know,
what would it cost to make that conversion and who
would pay for it? At that point? Right right?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
And I think one of the big problems is is
you know what I mentioned before about the rodeo, is
that throughout the course of that month that the rodeo
is there, they have full authority, full reign over that
entire Energy Park property. And so really, anybody that's going
to be an investor into something that would turn the
astrodome into something else, it's gonna have about thirty where
they can't have ownership over that building. I mean, they

(04:03):
can have ownership over what happens inside, but the land
that it sits on, they really have no say. And
so that's a bargain to make for someone that, you know,
eleven months out of the year, you can have full
say over your property, but one month you have nothing
that you can do about it. And so I think
that's a hard sell for some. But you know, I
think the hockey team might be the only possible alternative
to make this actually work.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Okay, Charles, always good to talk to you. Thank you,
President of Urban Reform, Charles Blaine. It's six twenty six