By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle

ATLANTA -- Less than a decade after the Oilers' defection to Tennessee cleaved a bitter divide between Houston and the NFL, the league said Wednesday the city could host the 2004 Super Bowl.

Wednesday's decision caps a yearlong reconciliation. In October 1999, NFL owners awarded Bob McNair an expansion franchise, then workers broke ground on the world's most expensive football stadium, and now the league has awarded the city its most coveted economic prize.

"It shows the strength of the city and the resiliency of the community to go through such a downer and turn it around in such a short period of time," said McNair, who paid $700 million for the franchise and the promise of a Super Bowl.

Government leaders hailed the official announcement, calling it a coup for Houston's economy. Mayor Lee Brown said he was proud to be a Houstonian. Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said the entire region would benefit. Convention boosters said the world's eyes -- 800 million television viewers in 190 countries -- would be upon Houston.

The economic numbers surrounding one of the world's biggest sporting events are impressive.

An average of 80,000 to 90,000 out-of-town fans visit a Super Bowl host city, each spending an average of $1,500 or more, generating a total economic impact of $336 million, according to Houston's Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department.

Other economists say the overall impact is broadly overstated by the NFL and cities seeking to host the event, perhaps by as much as a factor of 10.

But Houston's investment is relatively small. The $367 million Reliant Stadium, built primarily with public money, was constructed for McNair's Texans, not just the Super Bowl. City officials have committed to spending $371,000 on the event, most of that going to police overtime for security and traffic control. The county will contribute about $200,000.

"It's a real big win for a championship city," Brown said. "This is a great deal for the city."

At a minimum, the city will capture $1.2 million in sales taxes from visitors during the Super Bowl, Brown said, which has turned into a weeklong event.

NFL owners also Wednesday awarded the 2005 Super Bowl to Jacksonville, Fla., and the 2006 game to Detroit, which also is opening a new stadium. Houston and Detroit were without competition, but Miami and Oakland, Calif., also sought the 2005 game.

By January 2004, Reliant Stadium will have been open for 18 months, with the Texans just completing their second season.

NFL officials were impressed by the newly named Reliant Park's package of amenities: a giant exposition center, the Reliant Astrodome, a sea of parking and a fence surrounding the complex. That will prevent a problem known as "ambush marketing," in which hawkers gather around the stadium.

Next for Houston will be finalizing a Super Bowl host committee, with its estimated budget of $10.2 million shared by the business community, hospitality industry and government sources.

A host committee chairman, someone prominent in the community according to Texans officials, will be named early next year.

Although NFL officials deny there is a Super Bowl rotation, cities like Miami, San Diego and New Orleans routinely host the event. Atlanta, Jacksonville and other cities with Southern climes are also hoping to join the regulars.

Houston will have a leg up toward joining that group because of the 69,500-seat Reliant Stadium with its retractable roof, said McNair. The roof offers the best of both worlds -- open-air play on pleasant days, enclosed play during bad weather and a grass playing field all the time.

But the weather will be what visitors remember most.

"I think the good Lord willing, and we have good weather during the Super Bowl, it'll certainly enhance our chances," McNair said. "But I think if we do our job, and do it properly, they'll want to come back."

Privately, NFL officials admit that if Houston proves itself a capable host in 2004, it can expect many more Super Bowls.

The experience will have to eclipse that of Super Bowl VIII, played at Rice Stadium in 1974.

During that event, in which the Miami Dolphins beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-7, the teams complained of everything from the weather to their practice fields. Minnesota was relegated to running pre-game drills at Delmar Stadium -- a high school field -- where coach Bud Grant complained of birds in the changing rooms.

Game-day weather was awful -- rainy, and "cold as all get out," according to Charles Straub, who has ushered for 50 years at Rice Stadium.

"It was an unruly crowd, and I had my hands full," said Straub, 81. Neighborhood kids used ladders to scale the fencing around the stadium. "It was a bad game and a bad day, and from my experience I wouldn't want to work another one."

The highlight of that year, participants say, was a giant barbecue on the floor of the Astrodome, where some 6,000 people were fed.

The fans who attend modern Super Bowls, and the 25,000 to 40,000 other visitors who tag along for ancillary events such as the NFL experience, now expect much more, city officials said.

Indeed, as part of Wednesday's private 15-minute presentation to NFL owners, McNair touted the area's 100 "top-rated golf courses," bevy of private airports and transportation system. A light-rail link between downtown and the stadium will be completed by then, McNair said.

At least one study of economic benefits related to Super Bowls has found the claims of $300 million to $400 million for host cities to be vastly overemphasized.

A study by economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson, both of Lake Forest College in Illinois, found that the average economic impact of the last 25 Super Bowls ranged from $21 million to $32 million.

Typical booster studies, like the one projecting a $336 million impact for Houston, suggest that big spenders drop money at restaurants, hotels, car-rental agencies and in taxicabs and then inflate the figure with a multiplier as that money is respent in the community, according to Baade and Matheson.

But these studies err, the authors say. They do not account for the number of tourists who do not show up, or conventions that are not held because of the Super Bowl. They also ignore residents who stay at home because of the congestion, instead of spending.

Even more pessimistic is economist Phil Porter, of the University of South Florida, who says the effect is statistically insignificant.

Brown dismissed their conclusions.

"After the game there will be 80,000 people who leave here and become ambassadors for our community," the mayor said.