The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America is taking its soft spikes, lawn mowers and $25 million in spending to Atlanta in February, after plans to relocate the organization’s annual conference to Houston fell through.

The Lawrence-based association – which relies on the show for an estimated $8 million in revenues, or nearly half the organization’s annual budget – has been looking for a new home for the Golf Industry Show ever since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, the original site.

Association officials thought they had found a suitable replacement in Houston, which offered to shift a couple of “smaller” events to make way for the golf event and its 800 exhibitors, 23,000 attendees and $25 million in expected spending.

But they soon discovered that golf’s premier showcase wouldn’t be the only game in town.

“As it would be, we found out that another group – by the name of the National Basketball Assn. – is hosting its All-Star Game in Houston the weekend after our show, and was legally contracted for the convention center,” said Jeff Bollig, a GCSAA spokesman. “I’m not throwing the NBA under the bus. They have the space. The fact that they could even give up some was really appreciated.

“But, in the end, we couldn’t conduct our show under what the proposed arrangement was. So we had to go to plan C.”

The new game plan is for the GCSAA and its co-sponsoring partner, the National Golf Course Owners Assn., to conduct their show at the Georgia World Congress Center.

After having already been displaced twice in a matter of weeks, GCSAA officials were pleased to find a hospitable and familiar host. The Golf Industry Show last appeared in Atlanta back in 2003.

“We were lucky,” Bollig said.

Pete Radowick, a spokesman for the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, said the NBA was willing to shorten its required set-up time for its “Jam Session” and other fan-oriented features scheduled for All-Star week, Feb. 16-20.

Houston would have loved to have both events, he said.

“We probably could have worked it out,” Radowick said, “but Atlanta was able to offer a package that had no strings attached.”

The Golf Industry Show remains scheduled for Feb. 6 to Feb. 11, just as it was for New Orleans and for Houston.