[/caption]The Houston Oilers began in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League. They were owned by Bud Adams, a Houston oilman, who had made several previous unsuccessful bids for an NFL expansion team in Houston. Adams was an influential member of the eight original AFL owners, since he and Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt were more financially stable than the others. The Oilers appeared in the first three AFL championships.
At the end of the 1995 season, Adams announced that the Oilers would be moving to Nashville. City officials there promised to contribute $144 million toward a new stadium, as well as $70 million in ticket sales. At that point, support for the Oilers all but disappeared. Houstonians wanted to keep the team but did not want to give Bud Adams any more money for what he did. The 1996 season was a disaster for the Oilers. They played before crowds of less than 20,000 and games were so quiet that it was possible to hear conversations on the field from the grandstand. It was especially notable that the team went 8–8, finishing 6–2 in road games and finishing only 2–6 in home games. After the season, the city agreed to let Adams out of his lease a year early, allowing Adams to move the Oilers to Tennessee.
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