HOUSTON, Texas (AFP) — The Houston Texans are still assessing damage at their home stadium in the wake of Hurricane Ike, the National Football League team said Tuesday.
Texans owner Bob McNair said the team has discussed the possibility of playing at Rice University stadium in the storm ravaged city if their own Reliant Stadium isn't ready by the team's next scheduled home game.
The retractable roof of Reliant Stadium was damaged by Ike, which wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast of Texas at the weekend.
The Texans' home game against the Baltimore Ravens, originally slated for Sunday, was moved to Monday and then rescheduled for November 9.
"We've got engineers looking at it now and so far no one has noted any structural damage," McNair said.
"But that's really what they're looking for. In terms of the roof panels, we don't know how long it will take to replace them. We'll just have to get a further update on that."
The Texans have back-to-back road games before returning home against Indianapolis on October 5.
McNair said team officials would look into playing at Rice if Reliant isn't ready by then.
"We would have to talk to them but certainly that's a large enough stadium that that is a possibility," McNair said. "We, right now, are optimistic - at least I am - that we're not going to find any structural damage. The damage is just going to be to the roof, and that's something that we're going to be able to deal with and we'll just have to figure out what the solution will be."
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