CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Twenty-four hours after former Texas A&M Aggie Johnny Manziel was a no show at a high dollar charity event in Corpus Christi, and there is still no word on why Johnny Football wasn't there.
Manziel was paid to speak in honor of the Ritz theater restoration project.
3News spoke with the executive director of C.C. Patch, which is overseeing the project.
Cheryl Votzmeyer-Rios told said Friday that her team worked hard to put the fundraiser together and she too is not getting answers about why "Johnny Football" did not show up, As of Friday night, the former NFL player has yet to issue a statement addressing his absence.
Several excited football fans attended the event at BUS Thursday night expecting to meet and hear from Johnny Manziel.
But as time went by, it was clear, Johnny Football was not showing up.
"Of course, everyone wanted to meet Johnny Manziel and we had a lot of aggie fans there."
The former quarterback was the first freshman at Texas A&M to win the Heizman back in 2012.
He later went on to spend two seasons with the Cleveland Browns.
But his football career became overshadowed by controversies in his personal life which became the focus of a recent documentary on Netflix.
Here at home, Manziel was to be the first guest in a 'speaker series' to help raise money for repairs at the Ritz Theatre which was built in 1929 and has since fallen into severe disrepair.
"Everyone was very generous and compassionate of the situation when we figured out what was going on," said Votzmeyer-Rios.
"We still went on with our programming, Alan Holt led us through our event, talked about the Ritz, am the mayor had a beautiful video."
Folks taking part in the fundraiser shared how disappointed they were in the former aggie...not *shocked...but disappointed.
Votzmeyer-Rios said the booking agent offered their apology.
"We spoke to the booking agent yesterday when all this stuff was happening trying to figure out what was going on she didn't have any word for us either.
But nothing from Manziel.
"I would like to know...maybe I really don't need to know, they didn't show up for our event. I know that we worked very hard to make this happen, this was a great platform for someone in his capacity to give a great story and just, unfortunately, whatever happened, he didn't make it there."
This flyer gives you an idea of some of the prices people paid to attend the charity event.
At the top -$15,000 got you a table for ten, a meet and greet with Johnny, a photo op, and autographed footballs.
Votzmeyer-Rios said they plan to reach out to those who attended and sponsors.
"We had so many people come and support the cause, but I also feel like we need to offer that money back, because that is the right thing to do. We'll have a lot of people who are very generous that will not want that to happen, in good will that is what we will do,"
Ultimately, it was still a beneficial event for the cause: all to help the Ritz.
She said his no show will not impact future speaker series.
"I don't know how much more cautious we could have been. There were contracts, talks and meetings, We were pretty diligent on our part have all of our i's dotted and t's crossed," said Votzmeyer-Rios.
It is unclear how much Manziel was paid up front to show up.
Votzmeyer-Rios did not want to share that amount, but said that money has already been reimbursed to the organization.