As multi-use arenas go, the Toyota Center has held its own since it opened in 2003. When Tilman Fertitta bought the team in 2017, he committed to a number of upgrades including the giant scoreboard now hanging over the basketball court.
On Wednesday, his organization announced the biggest renovation at the building in downtown that includes a massive new atrium-style entrance and the kinds of premium amenities newer stadiums have built over the last 23 years.
“Today’s announcement reflects our commitment to continually invest in Houston,” Fertitta said in a release. “Toyota Center Reimagined will elevate the guest experience, introduce dynamic new gathering spaces, and ensure Toyota Center remains one of the premier sports and entertainment destinations in the country.”
Approved as part of the continuing agreement between the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, which collects hotel occupancy and car rental taxes for facilities like Toyota Center, Daikan Park and Shell Energy Stadium, the project is expected to be completed by fall of 2027.
From the renderings, the new “gathering spaces” include bars and lounges throughout the building with what should be some pretty spectacular views of downtown. Up until these renovations were released, the building was mostly enclosed with little visual access to the surroundings. That might have been preferable in 2003 when that part of downtown was still just beginning to grow, but as anyone who has looked out the massive windows in Daikan Park will attest, it makes for some dynamic views.
The new entrance will also include a huge rotunda of sorts with premium bars on the balconies overlooking the entrance. There is also a sky bar planned and some interesting theater-style box seats on the club level.
Apparently gone will be the restaurant, Red and White, envisioned by original team owner Leslie Alexander. Alexander, an avid wine aficionado, imagined a high-end restaurant with extensive wine stores at one end of the building. Fertitta’s background in restaurants and hospitality no doubt makes him better suited to appropriate the space for broader appeal. On a recent trip to a game, we stumbled on the restaurant, having forgot it even existed.
This announcement comes on the heels of the organization buying the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun with plans to move the team to Houston in the 2027 season and re-name it the Comets after one of the original eight WNBA franchises, and the Rockets securing at least a top six seed in the Western Conference playoffs, which will begin in days.
If you are wondering why there haven’t been any public squabbles between Feritta’s Rockets and the city/county as we have with the Texans, it is because the deals the region has with the Rockets, Astros and Dynamo are quite different than the sister NFL Franchise and the McNair family.
While the three downtown-dwelling franchises are under the control of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, an organization created after a referendum in the mid-1990s that controls tourist taxes as a funding mechanism, NRG Stadium was financed on county land with the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation, a completely separate organization with very different funding.
While the lease agreements with the downtown sports teams allow for ongoing upkeep and renovations thanks to a division of the cost between the city, county and the teams themselves, a much larger percentage of the burden of costs at NRG Stadium must be borne by the county with a much smaller percentage contributed by the Texans organization making it less of a public-private partnership held by the Rockets, Astros and Dynamo.
The result are continued updates for all three downtown stadiums, but Toyota Center has had the most radical changes thanks primarily to Fertitta’s significant personal investment that has included the new scoreboards and video screens, a new roof, seat upgrades and a host of infrastructure improvements behind the scenes.
Maybe the best part of the “re-imagining” is that the atrium front will cover a HUGE portion of the spot where ticket holders gather to enter the building meaning Houston’s fickle weather will have less of an impact on your visit.
Once completed, it should bring the building up to the high standards of today’s sports arenas and hopefully keep it that way for another 23 years.
