I question why Reliant Energy paid $300million for the naming rights to a stadium built by Harris County and gave the money to the team owner and not the county which paid $300million to build the stadium. Heck, they could have just paid $300million to build the stadium AND said that they claim the naming rights.
I am pretty sure the legal reasons - who actually owns the stadium, and the what “owner” has a right to do, including what it has the right to do to obtain revenue, determines who gets the payment for the “naming rights”.
Personally, I do not fault Reliant Energy or the team owner at all.
I fault Harris County (and all the major US sports stadium cities) for providing ANY taxpayer funds for a certainly profitable venture that the team and the league have 100% ability to 100% fund, all on their own, through the revenue they get from the networks for broadcasting the games; revenue the networks get 100% paid for by the advertisers.
Taxpayer funding for the highly profitable commercial sports industry’s stadiums is nothing other than political blackmail; with the leagues threatening to move a team to “Oshkosh”, when everyone knows they would not, because the broadcasters will not pay the networks for sponsoring games played to near-empty stadiums out in the boondocks.
If the “league of major American cities” jointly decided to end this blackmail, it would end.
Instead, they play mind games with each other, giving in to the blackmail “at some other city’s expense”, but actually, mostly ONLY at the taxpayers expense; when, in absolute economic terms, no taxpayer funds are necessary.