Proposed 'bathroom bill' could mean no more Texas Super Bowls, NFL warns
Last week, thousands of Texans watched as the New England Patriots made a comeback for the ages in Super Bowl LI in Houston. But the future of Texas Super Bowls may now be in question.
In a statement on Friday, the National Football League emphasized the importance of inclusiveness at their events. Discriminatory legislation is certainly a factor when deciding where to award events like the Super Bowl and NFL Draft, the league said.聽
One target: a controversial Texas 鈥渂athroom bill,鈥� SB 6. The bill would require transgender people to use the restroom that matches their birth sex in government buildings. It also bars local governments from incorporating transgender bathroom protections into their own anti-discrimination legislation.
As far as the Super Bowl is concerned, this isn鈥檛 an immediate concern: the hosts of the next three Super Bowls have already been named, and none of them is in Texas. But the NFL鈥檚 statement threatens to bring Texas conservatives鈥� traditional values into conflict with their love of sports, not to mention jeopardizing the financial benefits that flow from such high-profile events.
鈥淭he NFL embraces inclusiveness,鈥� said league spokesman Brian McCarthy, the LA Times reported. 鈥淚f a proposal that is discriminatory or inconsistent with our values were to become law there, that when thinking about awarding future events.鈥�
Texas is to have introduced a bathroom bill this year, according to the Associated Press, and the proposal has the backing of 15 Republican state senators, including the state鈥檚 lieutenant governor, Sen. Dan Patrick. But the bill has already raised concerns about financial repercussions in the state鈥檚 powerful business community 鈥撀燾oncerns that the loss of a future Super Bowl would likely intensify.
"This legislation will needlessly jeopardize jobs, investment, innovation and tax revenue for our state, and it sullies our reputation as an open, inclusive and welcoming state," Texas Association of Business President Chris Wallace said in a statement in January.
In North Carolina, which introduced its own controversial "bathroom bill," HB 2, in March of last year, Forbes estimated that the state as concerts were canceled, investments went unmade, and sports tournaments were relocated outside the state.
The loss of the Super Bowl in any given year could be worth just as much. While estimates vary, the Super Bowl could be worth anywhere from 鈥渁 couple hundred million to ,鈥� PJ Johnston, an NFL spokesman for Super Bowl 50, told CNBC last year.
Technically, the NFL鈥檚 inclusivity policy would not be affected by SB 6. As private venues, the sports stadiums can set their own rules, according to Alejandro Garcia, a spokesman for the lieutenant governor.
"All Texas teams will be able to set their own policies at the stadiums and arenas where they play and hold their events. There is no conflict with the NFL鈥檚 statement today and Senate Bill 6," he said.
But that's probably not enough for the NFL, which has a record of relocating its events when it feels its values are being compromised. The 1993 Super Bowl was slated for Arizona, but when the state refused to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a holiday, the league moved the event to California. That pressure may have been enough to sway Arizona, which began recognizing the holiday in 1992 and has since played host to several Super Bowls.
But despite the NFL鈥檚 concerns, football could be safe in Texas for many Super Bowls to come. This kind of controversy isn鈥檛 unusual at the start of the legislative session, former Texas lawmaker Sherri Greenberg, a Democrat, previously told 海角大神 鈥撀燼nd not much ever comes of it.聽
What鈥檚 more, Senator Patrick, ostensibly the law鈥檚 strongest proponent, may not expect it to go through, Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, previously told the Monitor鈥檚 Patrik Jonsson.
"Patrick is a very prominent and influential politician in Texas, and right now he is busily signaling the business community that, 'I'm going to talk about this incessantly, I'm going to rail about it, but not to worry 鈥� nothing bad is going to happen. You can depend upon Joe Straus, the speaker of the House, and Greg Abbott, the governor, not to let me do anything,' " he said.
This report contains material from the Associated Press.
