Janis Burke Removed as CEO of Harris County-Houston Sports Authority

The board of directors at the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority voted Friday afternoon to separate with longtime Chief Executive Officer Janis Burke, as well as negotiate a settlement with Burke and a Houston law firm over her departure.

The Houston Business Journal first reported on the expected ouster of Burke, who had been in the position for about two decades. City and county leaders led by Houston Mayor John Whitmire called for change in a Friday morning press conference before the authority’s board was scheduled to meet. The Houston City Council has recently appointed two members to the HCHSA board in Christopher Newport, chief of staff for Whitmire, and billionaire philanthropist John Arnold.

Burke has been the CEO of the Harris County – Houston Sports Authority since 2006 and was inducted into the Sports ETA Hall of Fame this year. She became the third chief executive and first woman to hold the position since the inception of the organization in 1997. She is a past chair of the Sports ETA Board of Directors and has also been recognized locally as one of “Houston’s 50 Most Influential Women.”

“I am deeply proud of what our very talented and passionate team have accomplished over the last almost-two decades,” Burke said in an email to friends and community partners on Friday. “My marching orders from the start by our dedicated Board Members was to help put Houston on the world stage as the best place to host sporting events. This would inevitably bring more visitors to town that would stay in hotels and rent cars, which, in turn, could continually create the tax dollar revenue needed to pay the stadium bondholders through good times and rough times in the tourism cycle. That strategy ended up allowing us to be very successful in making it through the toughest of tourism downturn times when the pandemic hit. We diligently paid off high-interest rate debt and set a solid path forward for the most promising future for our stadiums. … In total, the Sports Authority team is responsible for hosting or helping to host events that brought a total of more than $2B in economic impact to our city and county during my time with the organization. That’s something I’m proud to have been a part of in partnership with our Board Members, staff, and community partners.”

In addition to overseeing the billion dollars of bond debt service for Houston’s professional sports stadiums, under Burke’s leadership, Houston has been awarded major sporting events including the 2023 NCAA Men’s Final Four, various U.S. Olympic Trials, numerous national and world championships and the AAU Junior Olympics. Houston will host seven matches in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including a Round of 16 match. Houston also hosted the 2024 College Football Playoff Championship.

“They just stepped up and made it a really, really special time for us,” then-CFP Chairman Bill Hancock said the day after Michigan’s win over Washington. “We’re going to miss them. … Houston has a small-town spirit that carries over to this big city. I’ve never seen anything like it in a big city. You all should be really proud of that.”

Over previous mayor Sylvester Turner’s recently completed eight-year term, Houston hosted more major sporting events than any other major city in the United States; Turner was awarded a “Lifetime Civic Champion Award” at this year’s Houston Sports Awards.

The HCHSA celebrated its 25th anniversary in the fall of 2022. It was formed after the NFL’s Houston Oilers left town to become the Tennessee Titans and other professional sports teams were being courted by other cities to leave the region. The city went to the Texas state legislature to create a sports venue district that would be overseen by the city and Harris County and set up to build and oversee the bond debt service for future sports stadiums, become a landlord to tenants and develop into the sports marketing agency for the region.

As part of the HCHSA’s structure, local citizens voted on whatever stadium projects were proposed. Houston residents approved the use of hotel occupancy and car rental taxes to build what is now known as Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros; what is now known as NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans; and Toyota Center, home to the Houston Rockets. PNC Stadium, now the home of the Houston Dynamo and Houston Dash for pro soccer, was built through a public-private partnership with no public financing with oversight assistance of the Sports Authority, who is also the landlord to that building.

In August, the HCHSA board of directors approved a facility condition assessment study for Toyota Center and Minute Maid Park and capital repair improvements to the downtown venues.