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Sunday, July 20, 1997

Houston voters aren't big on new basketball-hockey arena, poll shows

HOUSTON (AP) - A poll shows Houstonians aren't as keen as they were last fall about paying for multimillion facilities for the city's professional sports teams.

A telephone survey sponsored by KHOU-TV and the Houston Chronicle found that more than 56 percent of 698 registered voters say the city shouldn't subsidize a basketball-hockey arena for the Houston Rockets and Houston Aeros.

Only 34 percent believe taxpayers should help chip in for such a facility.

Last fall, a countywide referendum for a new baseball park and football facility passed by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent. Some 56 percent of city voters supported the referendum.

The NBA Rockets and Aeros of the International Hockey League currently share the Summit, a building the teams say needs more revenue-producing luxury boxes and more seating capacity.

"I really thought that the Astrodome was outdated for baseball," said Horace Perry, a retiree. "But the way I look at it, The Summit is still a very viable facility. I'm just not convinced the Rockets have a need for a new facility."

University of Houston political science professor Richard Murray, who helped conduct the poll, said it would be "almost impossible to get an arena referendum passed this fall."

The possibility of a November arena referendum is unclear.

Mayor Bob Lanier, who has headed negotiations between Rockets owner Les Alexander and Aeros owner Chuck Watson, said he will not seek a referendum until the two sides resolve their many differences.

Alexander and Watson have battled for more than a year about how to manage a new arena and split the money it produces. That uncertainty played a role in the NHL deciding not to award the city an expansion franchise.

Should the two reach a settlement, the poll indicates several obstacles would still be in the way of approving a referendum this fall.

First, proponents could not use last year's tactic: the threat that a team would leave for another city.

If voters feel that approving a new arena would be the only way to keep the Rockets, then an arena referendum would end in a dead heat - with about 39 percent in support and 39 percent against, the survey showed.

The tactic seemed to work last year when Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr. threatened to move his team to Virginia if the referendum failed.

However, Murray said, the public likely knowns the Rockets are legally tied to Houston until November 2003, when the team's lease at The Summit expires.

Second, the arena proposal appears to have significant spillover from the recent exploits of McLane, who renewed discussions of moving the team while renegotiating his stadium deal with public officials.

Paula Stella, a nurse who lives in the Heights, said there is no reason for the public to subsidize sports facilities when there are other pressing needs. She is part of the 42.6 percent who believe major league sports is "not very important" or "not important at all."

"That money needs to be spent on other issues like AIDS, the hungry, the homeless, good teachers," Ms. Stella said. "Sports is wonderful. But if we don't have a society that cares about each other what good is a sports system?"

Lanier dismissed the poll results. He noted that at least two polls, including one by the Chronicle, indicated last fall's referendum was behind before voters approved it.

The July 10-16 telephone survey by the University of Houston and Rice University carries a margin of error of 3.8 percent.

The poll results were aired Friday night on KHOU and published in Saturday's Chronicle. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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