HOUSTON – The Houston Texans have made a few gameday changes to accommodate those displaced by Hurricane Katrina currently residing at Reliant Park.
"We expect a 100 percent normal stadium experience for our fans and 85 percent of the parking experience will be the same," Jamey Rootes, Texans president of business operations, said. "For those fans who park in the orange lot, we will be providing them with a shuttle from the Smith Lands lot, which is under a mile from the stadium. So, hopefully this change will be minimally disruptive on those fans."
The organizations involved with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts will require the use the Orange Parking lots. The Texans have partnered with the Texas Medical Center to secure ample parking for fans that usually park in the Orange lot. Fans with Orange parking passes will need to use the Smith Lands parking lot which is located north of the stadium on Old Spanish Trail. All accounts affected will be credited $10 per spot, will park at the Smith Lands lot on game day and shuttled to the stadium. The lot is less than one mile from the stadium and will open four hours prior to kickoff. Fans will need to present their Orange parking hang tag to access this lot and there will be no tailgating allowed at this parking facility.
Anheuser Busch is going to provide a video board from GoVision in the Town Square of Reliant City on game day so the residents can watch the Texans play the Steelers. In addition to adding the video board on Sunday, the video board will be on-site on Monday, Sept. 19 when the Saints face the Giants.
"We have worked hard to pull our guests here at Reliant Park under the tent with us on game day," Rootes said. "Anheuser Busch has stepped up to provide a massive video board structure on a tractor-trailer for fans to watch the Texans game on September 18 and then again on September 19 for the Monday night football game between the New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants."
Season ticket holders wishing to donate their tickets for the Sept. 18 game can do so online at HoustonTexans.com through the Ticketmaster Account Manager feature. After logging onto account manager, fans will need to click the "Forward your tickets to charity" link and follow the onscreen instructions. For this game Ticketmaster has waived all fees for these transactions. Tickets must be donated by Thursday, Sept. 14 to be part of this program. On Friday, Sept. 15, all donated tickets will be given to the Red Cross and they will then be distributed to evacuees.
"Ticketmaster graciously offered to wave the fees on ticket donations at HoustonTexans.com," Rootes continued. "Ticket holders that are not able to come to the game on Sept. 18, can now donate their tickets at HoustonTexans.com. We will work with the American Red Cross to redistribute these tickets to our guests so that some of the residents can come and have a Houston Texans experience and be part of the festivities in the stadium on Sept. 18."
