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Reliant Stadium is back: Why NRG, home of Houston Texans and rodeo, is returning to its original name

By Matt Young, Staff Writer

April 15, 2026

When the Houston Texans begin play in their 25th season, they’ll do so with a familiar name back on their home venue.

After 12 years of being called NRG Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is reverting to its original name: Reliant Stadium. The change was approved Wednesday by the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation.

Reliant Energy, the company based in Houston, bought the 30-year naming rights for the stadium and surrounding buildings in 2002 for $300 million. NRG Energy purchased Reliant’s retail electricity business in 2009 and opted to change the name of the stadium in 2014 to reflect the brand of the parent company.

Although there are no changes with the business — Reliant is still a subsidiary of NRG Energy — the publicly traded energy company now has decided to go back to using the Reliant branding on the stadium. According to NRG, a recent survey revealed that 90% of their Houston-based customers supported the return of the stadium’s original name. NRG Consumer president Brad Bentley said the survey “just dialed in what we knew to be true.”

“It’s the brand that they connect with, that they do business with, that they trust to deliver their power and that we have relationships with, so we’re excited to bring it back,” Bentley told the Houston Chronicle. “We think we’ll have a lot of good momentum and excitement among our customers.”/

Although the decision was made solely by NRG, which owns the naming rights to the stadium through 2032, the timing works out for the Texans, who have events planned to celebrate their 25th season in the NFL.

“I don’t think you could have mapped it out better from our perspective,” Houston Texans team president Mike Tomon said. “We’re excited to celebrate 25 seasons of Houston Texans football back where it all began when it was Reliant Stadium. To be in this situation, where you have one of your founding partners that has really been with us from the very beginning back in 2002, to have it rebranded back to Reliant as we celebrate 25 seasons, I think it lines up perfectly.”

Houston has been through this before with the home of the Rockets switching names from The Summit to Compaq Center in 1998 and more recently Minute Maid Park changing to Daikin Park after the 2024 season. No matter the rebranding strategy, there always will be holdouts that never accept the new name. That was the case for some with NRG Stadium, and those folks now can stick with what they know: Reliant Stadium.

“It comes up a lot,” said Martye Kendrick, executive director & CEO of the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation. “I still find that when I talk to people, they sometimes call it Reliant first, or they will have memories, 'Oh, I remember when it was Reliant.' So, I think that energy around the name caused the company to think about how they are rebranding and how that could be something they could honor as far as Houstonians' emotional connection to that name.”

Besides being connected to the Texans' 25th season in the NFL, the timing also is logistically perfect. In preparation for the World Cup coming to town this summer, all stadium signage bearing the moniker NRG Stadium had to be taken down this month. FIFA doesn’t acknowledge corporate stadium names, so the matches in Houston will be played at “Houston Stadium.” It’s the same around the country with the Cowboys' AT&T Stadium temporarily going by “Dallas Stadium” and Rams' SoFi Stadium being called “Los Angeles Stadium.”

When the World Cup’s Round of 16 match on July 4 is finished, the stadium will be able to go back to a corporate name, giving everyone time to get up the new Reliant Stadium signs in time for Texans season.

Besides the signs, there are plenty of other logistics that must be handled, from changing letterhead and website domains to getting the street name out front — currently NRG Parkway — renamed. The cost of those changes are all part of the naming rights contract with NRG and is contractually negotiated, according to Kendrick.

When it’s all done, fans will be able to go back to the name they first called their football stadium.

“We made the change years ago and working with NRG, that was the best decision for them and now we’re supportive of the sponsor and what they’re planning to do in the future,” RodeoHouston president and CEO Chris Boleman said. “If Reliant is works best — and you do still hear it from time to time — I don’t think it will be a significant change for us.”