The Arlington Cowboys

[Eddie P]

I will be dissapointed if the Cowboys move to Arlington but I do not believe that there will be the backlash some on this board anticipate. This is one of the WORLD'S most popular sports franchises and people will come to see them or watch them on TV whether they are in Arlington, Irving, Fair Park or Los Angeles. They only boast a big sell-out streak (currently well over 100 consecutive and counting) for home games and a sold-out streak for both home and away games that ran from 1990 - 1999, ending with that awful Christmas Eve game against New Orleans. I'm sure they've started another one. If the Cowboys sell-out streak survived through the horrible Campo years (albeit, barely) then it will survive during our prosperous streaks.

And Mike Damone is right...it takes me forever to get into TX Stadium as it is today because of it's peculiar location...and I have a suite and get to park pretty darn close to the stadium once I sift through the quagmire of cars clogging up the surrounding roads. I think it might add a small amount of time, but nothing terrible.

I won't comment on people trying to strip the "Dallas" from the Dallas Cowboys. I like to keep my musing within the realm of the possible.

[Hoop Fan]

JT, I just can't see where you have proven your point about only the county being responsible. Look at the article in Section B of todays DMN. It clearly says that negotations with both the county and city of Dallas broke off. Not just the county. Besides, LAs point is a good one, if Fair Pair ownership was the reason, that didnt prevent the city from going to Plan B somewhere else. They chose not to do it apparently. The truth is the leaders of the city should have brought something viable forward for the voters to vote on. They didnt and that in itself is a massive disappointment and failure of leadership. I guess the City Council is more concerned with getting taste samples allowed at Farmers Market which is listed in todays DMN as one of their primary issues at the next state legislative session. How absurd.

As for the concept of economic benefit, that argument cant be resolved, but you either have a viable downtown or you dont. As my first post suggested, I have no love of Jerry Jones, but the Cowboys complex would be great for downtown Dallas. Combined with the Trinity, the City could get itself off the mat.

[jtstang]

JT, I just can't see where you have proven your point about only the county being responsible. Look at the article in Section B of todays DMN. It clearly says that negotations with both the county and city of Dallas broke off. Not just the county.

Okay, if you don't believe I've made my point, more power to you. In fact my last post was for your benefit where I said the mayor would not have offered the Arlington deal anyway, even if Dallas had been in formal negotiations. I think the city's decision not to try for "plan B" was based probably on its perception of what Mr. Jones wanted--the deal Arlington gave him. As I said I think that was not a good deal, and do not blame the city for not actively pursuing it.

All that said, however, I think your point about a viable downtown is a good one. The mayor said in the article I read that if she had access to the kind of money the Cowboys got from Arlington she would spend it on the Trinity River development. I think that is a great place to start. It torqued me to no end to see my former employer, Boeing, choose Chicago over Dallas for its new HQ because of the downtown area. I just think you can do what you need to do downtown without a stadium, and without lining the Joneses' pockets.

[PonySoprano]

Don't forget to thank Ron Kirk for some of this. By including a "non-compete" clause for events in the agreement between the city and AAC (i.e. the city can't fund another venue that would comepte for events with the AAC), I'm sure that had a big effect on the Cowboys decision to look to Arlington.
As for economic development, the City is quick to admit how much Texas/OU and the Cotton Bowl bring in each year in terms of economic impact (including tax receipts to the City). If it didn't, the city would not keep sweetening the deal everyother year for Texas and OU, to make sure they keep the game at the Cotton Bowl. Once this new stadium opens up, kiss Texas/OU and the Cotton Bowl game goodbye.

[Hoop Fan]

fair enough. If Trinity happens, that will go a long way to helping downtown. My opinion is it could have been combined with the Cowboys and made even better. Oh well, like Emmitt Smith once said, opinions are like a-holes, everyone do have one.

[Greenwich Pony]

...Dallas seems to be run by Larry, Moe and Curly for the past decade at least.

When I left Dallas in the early 1990's, it seemed like Dallas was a city on the move. I returned two years ago with a group scouting new corporate HQs and Dallas really, REALLY seemed to have either regressed or dropped the ball entirely. The City completely bungled the presentation, the downtown was dead, I have no idea what the BLEEP happened to the West End, but it looked like a bombed out combat zone, the trip was a disaster. Only SMU came off looking good, but utterly unsupported by the city. My business partner called the Fort Worth people on the fly, and in less than 24 hours, they had one of the best tours and presentations I have ever seen. Sadly, the clients we had with us did not relo to the D/FW area, though there was some interest in the FW side of the equation.

It really pains me to say it, because I do love Dallas and thoroughly enjoyed my SMU experience, but frankly Dallas is not a big-league city (or at least doesn't act like it anymore) and doesn't deserve big-league teams. Once Dallas was one of SMU's biggest assets, but I'm not so sure that in this day and age, it isn't one of SMU's biggest hindrances. If Dallas ever had any dreams of being a "world class" city, it definitely needs to get on the stick.

[PK]

Since Dallas went to individual council districts and hence ward politics, it's been down hill. The council is now every man/woman for himself (or his district...I guess). There is very little big picture thinking and that can be blamed on the lack of leadership down there.

[Mike Damone]

Don't forget to thank Ron Kirk for some of this. By including a "non-compete" clause for events in the agreement between the city and AAC (i.e. the city can't fund another venue that would comepte for events with the AAC), I'm sure that had a big effect on the Cowboys decision to look to Arlington.

This actually turned out to be not a big issue. The two venues would only compete for concerts, rodoes, etc. But only for events at around 20,000 and under. Anything larger than that and the AAC wouldn't be in contention to host it in the first place. Anything smaller, and the new football stadium probably wouldn't be interested in hosting it anyway.

[NavyCrimson]

Greenwich Pony -

i noticed the same thing when i was in dallas this past summer -

terrible - frankly - terrible -

the city has lost its sense of community & organization, luster & cleanliness, etc. in lieu of crime, poor schools & the racial divisions many have spoke of - good neighborhoods going bad & its going northward!!

quite frankly - i can see the results of the militants & lefty wackos that have made a mess of the city - in only 15 yrs too - with their section 8s & egalitarian-rob-the-treasury ideas!

unfortunately - it has to hit rock-bottom before u can engineer a turn around & i don't think they're there yet -

we were in houston & it was wonderful - so different than what it was just when i was going to school @ smu in the late 70's - houston is definitely the city if u were comparing the two - houston is light-yrs away from dallas & i guess u can say the same about fote wauth!!!

i don't believe in cities bankrolling these pro team - that's the one great thing - & the only thing LA has ever done right - it doesn't work & its been proven over & over there is noooooooooo return financially to the city & usually one big black hole - in other words - legal prostitution!!!

however - maybe this will be a wake-up call for the city on these other more important issues & the residents will finally get involved!!! after all - the citizens lack of involvement has caused dallas' problems with the wackos now in charge!!!

wake up dallasites - you're losing your city & it can & will get worse!!