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Facilities Venues

CONFERENCE CALL WITH ARENA BACKERS FAILS TO "SWAY" ECKELS

          A conference call yesterday with supporters of a $175M
     arena in Houston "failed to sway" Harris County Judge Robert
     Eckels, who "still insists negotiators must change the arena
     agreement before it wins his endorsement," according to Eric
     Berger of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE.  While Harris County-
     Houston Sports Authority members said that they were
     "willing to accommodate Eckels' concerns, such modifications
     would come at the expense" of the Rockets.  Rockets COO
     George Postolos said that he was "still gathering
     information about the call, in which the team was not
     invited to participate, and that the matter needed 'full
     consideration' before he would discuss whether the team
     would reopen negotiations" on the deal.  But Berger cites
     Eckels as saying that "without changes ... he could not
     support the agreement because he considered it bad policy
     for the county."  Eckels: "There are simply some holes in
     this deal that need to be filled.  I'm optimistic that these
     issues can be addressed."  Berger writes that of the four
     segments of the deal Eckels cited, the agreement's
     noncompete clause "requires the biggest, and most
     controversial, changes for team officials."  Berger also
     writes that after the conference call, the participants
     "praised one another for a 'cordial conversation.'"  Eckels
     spoke with Sports Authority Chair Billy Burge, Sports
     Authority members Ric Campo and Grover Jackson, Enron Corp.
     Chair & CEO Ken Lay and former Reliant Energy Chair Don
     Jordan (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 8/15).


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