Minority Groups Threaten Boycott of Houston Rockets

Minority Groups Threaten Boycott of Houston Rockets
By Associate Press Wire Services
for HOOPSWORLD.com
May 12, 2003, 13:37
Email this article
Printer friendly page



HOUSTON (AP) -- Local black and Hispanic leaders are threatening an economic boycott against the Houston Rockets if franchise owner Leslie Alexander doesn't let minority businesses share in the concession operations at the new downtown arena.

Members of the Houston Area Urban League, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Houston chapter of the NAACP and several local activists have filed a lawsuit against Alexander, accusing him of reneging on an agreement to share the profits from the new arena.

State District Judge John Coselli has granted a 15-day restraining order preventing the Rockets from entering into new food and beverage concession contracts without court approval.

A court-ordered mediation is set to begin Monday. Being disputed is a written agreement hammered out by Alexander and minority leaders weeks before the November 2000 election approving the construction of the arena.

"This agreement is historic because it is the first known contractual promise, signed off by a multimillionaire professional team owner, that obligates him personally and his team to full minority participation at all levels of the new arena's operations," said the Rev. J.J. Roberson, president of the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston.

"The agreement specifies that minorities will have at least 30 percent 'full participation' in all aspects of the design, construction and operations of the arena, excluding only energy. At the time the agreement was signed, no one contemplated that the most lucrative profits of the arena operations would be off limits to minorities," Roberson said.

Minority and women business owners have received more than one-third of the contracts to design and construct the facility. The entire process has been monitored by the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority and the prime contractor, the Hunt Construction Group.

Alexander controls the contracting for the arena's long-term operation.

"We have a dispute," Rockets spokesman Bill Miller said of the threatened boycott. "A lawsuit has been filed. We are in court to resolve the issues.

"I would assume that their side would accept the judgment of the court as ours will."

 

o whoops. sorry.