Still the Cotton Bowl?

[mrydel]

The Cotton Bowl has announced they are moving to the new Cowboy Stadium in 2010.

[abezontar]

so much for tradition (and yes I know the Cotton Bowl is a dump), it just won't be the same.

[BUS]

Let us once again thank Mrs. Laura Miller.

[PK]

Let us once again thank Mrs. Laura Miller.

I believe that is actually spelled with a capital "B".

[BUS]

ooootch

[PonySoprano]

Any chance that we can convince Dallas to host a parade and have Laura Miller ride in a convertible that happens to drive right in front of the School Book Depository?

[PK]

Too late...the damage is done.

[mr. pony]

She was on the news today saying she did everything she could to keep the Cotton Bowl in Dallas......

[Treadway21]

Don't y'all know, she is only responsible for the good things that happen in Dallas. The bad stuff is somebody elses fault.

[Terry Webster]

I think that this was inevitable. Between the breakup of the SWC so that the Cotton Bowl didn't have a true 'home team' anymore, and the exclusion of the Cotton Bowl from the BCS headed the end of the bowl in the direction of extinction. Miller and the city of Dallas gave it a final push with the refusal to make any changes.

[abezontar]

Let's not leave out good ole Jerry in this. He's not an innocent party to this either.

[OC Mustang]

This foible doesn't have anything to do with the Cowboys. Mayor Miller couldn't find her own heinie with both her hands and a flashlight. From an outside perspective, she is the worst mayor in the history of Dallas. I hope her political career rots and she goes back to muckraking. At least she was effective with that. Bring back Mayor Kirk.

[abezontar]

While I'm not particularly fond of Mayor Miller to ignore the fact that the deal that was offered to Arlington was substantially different in what it asked of the two cities is to ignore reality. Now, had we had a mayor that was less abrasive and stubborn and an owner that was less about forcing others to do what he wanted it may have happened, but sadly that is not the leadership we currently have.

[PK]

One of the better breakdowns of the events leading to the loss of the Cowboys' Stadium.

Cotton Bowl on shaky ground

Mistrust doomed Dallas' talks with Cowboys; but what happens to Cotton now?


08:32 AM CST on Sunday, February 25, 2007
By BRUCE TOMASO / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

When Craig Holcomb talks about the Cotton Bowl, it's almost as if he's pulling out a cherished, if dusty, scrapbook.


DMN File
The Cotton Bowl has been home to big-time football contests for decades, including LSU vs. Texas in 1963. "It's the stadium that Doak Walker built," says the 58-year-old executive director of Friends of Fair Park. "It's the stadium where Billy Graham preached, and where Elvis Presley performed.

"The Cotton Bowl is rich in history. Dallas doesn't have a lot of history."

But Doak Walker, the All-American kid from Highland Park, died eight years ago, at 71. Elvis is long gone, and Billy Graham, bent by disease and age, seldom ventures outside his home in the hills of North Carolina.

And the Cotton Bowl? Once the grandest stadium in the South, its future is cloudy.

"It's a dinosaur," said Mitchell Rasansky, a Dallas City Council member. "It's outgrown its day."

Yet the city is committed to spending $50 million, including $30 million in bond money, to renovate the stadium, notorious for its cramped seating, narrow concourses and lack of amenities.

"It's money down the drain," Mr. Rasansky said.

Also Online
Sports radio personality Norm Hitzges sees dark days ahead for the Cotton Bowl.

Friends of Fair Park leader Craig Holcomb can't imagine Dallas without the Cotton Bowl.

Tell us: Should Dallas have played ball with Jerry Jones?

Other officials disagree, arguing that the stadium remains an asset worth protecting. Even so, the Cotton Bowl hosts only three football games a year – and one of those, the January AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, may bolt when the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium opens in Arlington in 2009.

Cotton Bowl Classic officials, eager to boost the game's prestige and have a shot at a national collegiate title game through the Bowl Championship Series, expect to announce their decision soon. Many observers – including current and former elected officials – say a move to the Cowboys' billion-dollar stadium is all but inevitable.

Supporters say the Cotton Bowl's future – and, by extension, that of Fair Park and its surrounding neighborhoods – could have been vastly brighter had the city and county been able to swing a deal three years ago to bring the Cowboys back to their original home.

"This was our last chance ever to get the Cowboys back to Dallas," said Norm Hitzges, who hosts a daily sports talk show on "The Ticket" KTCK-AM (1310).

"Once they sink their roots out in Arlington, they'll be there for decades. And meanwhile, Fair Park will continue to rot – and we'll continue to pump money into it while it rots."

Get Mr. Hitzges going on the topic, and he doesn't quickly wind down.

"I challenge anybody at City Hall, or anybody else in this city, to tell me: When do you think the next time will be when a man who lives here is going to walk in and say, 'I want to come to downtown Dallas. I'm willing to spend two-thirds of a billion dollars [the Cowboys' portion of the cost of the Arlington stadium] on a development downtown.'

"When in the world do you think that's going to happen again? This was a golden opportunity. And we didn't want it. Our elected leaders couldn't be bothered.

"And meanwhile, you could shoot off a Scud missile in downtown Dallas on a Wednesday night and not hit anybody."

Sources familiar with the talks between the Cowboys and Dallas County officials said those talks, marred from the start by mistrust on both sides, never really got off the ground.

In April 2004, the team picked Fair Park as its preferred site for a new stadium. An earlier option, a parcel along the Trinity River south of downtown, was ruled out because of the high costs of environmental remediation there.

And in June 2004, the team abruptly broke off talks, citing a lack of progress. Arlington jumped in, and on Nov. 2, 2004, voters there handily approved a $325 million stadium financing package.


Spreading blame

People familiar with the failed talks cite various reasons for the breakdown: missteps by an inexperienced county judge, a reluctance by the Republican-dominated Commissioners Court to raise taxes, a brash mayor who made no secret of her disdain for handouts to wealthy sports owners, and arrogance on the part of the Cowboys, who, in the view of some, blew into town with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude.

"Their interpretation of negotiating was to get us to say yes," said Jim Jackson, a former Dallas County commissioner who participated in the talks.

"It was sort of like, 'Just do what we tell you to do, or else,' " said Mr. Jackson, now a Republican member of the Texas House. "I didn't find that acceptable."

Margaret Keliher, the county judge at the time, said neither Jerry Jones, the Cowboys' owner, nor his son Stephen, the team's executive vice president, ever met with her, preferring to do business through consultants and lawyers.

"I found that kind of offensive," said Ms. Keliher, who was defeated by Democrat Jim Foster in November.

Mr. Jackson, among others, questions whether the Cowboys ever intended to move to Fair Park. "I do kind of wonder if ... they weren't just playing a game with Dallas," he said.

Nonsense, said Brett Daniels, a spokesman for the Cowboys.

"We were very sincere in our efforts in trying to bring a new stadium to Dallas," he said. "Despite efforts on both sides to reach some kind of agreement, eventually there came a time to move forward elsewhere."

He said team executives didn't care to rehash the failed negotiations. "We're looking forward to our future in Arlington, not looking back." He added, "We believe that this facility will benefit not just Arlington, but the entire region."

Others familiar with the negotiations and with the Joneses said the Cowboys were earnest in their overtures to Dallas.

"I can tell you from numerous intimate conversations that I've had with members of the Jones family that they desperately, genuinely and sincerely wanted to be in Dallas," said former Mayor Ron Kirk.

Mr. Kirk, who left office in 2001 to run for the U.S. Senate, said the Cowboys were talking about a move to Dallas as early as the late 1990s. That's when Mr. Kirk, as mayor, was working on getting American Airlines Center built as the home of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars.

"I never had a conversation with Jerry Jones during all that time when he didn't say: 'Mr. Mayor, don't spend all of your money on the Stars and Mavericks. Save some for us,' " Mr. Kirk recalled.

Mr. Holcomb, the former City Council member who now directs Friends of Fair Park, recalled a meeting between preservationists and Stephen Jones to discuss how a new stadium could be built on the site of the Cotton Bowl in a way that would complement Fair Park's art deco feel.

"I don't know why any businessman as busy as Stephen Jones would spend an hour and a half meeting with preservationists if he wasn't serious," Mr. Holcomb said.

In the stadium negotiations, the Cowboys chiefly dealt with the county, not the city. One reason was that there were, at least for a time, sites on the table that were in Dallas County but not within the Dallas city limits. Another is that the team was pushing a countywide increase in hotel and car rental taxes as the best way to raise $425 million toward a new stadium's cost.

But still another reason, one person close to the negotiations said, was that team representatives wanted to avoid a donnybrook with Mayor Laura Miller.


Miller a liability?

As a columnist for the Dallas Observer in the mid-1990s and later, as a City Council member, Ms. Miller railed against what she called the lopsided deal the city made to pay for American Airlines Center. She saw the use of tax money for the arena as a public subsidy for money-grubbing multimillionaire developers.

As mayor, her views didn't seem to change much. In December 2002, 10 months after her election, she told The Dallas Morning News that new spending for sports facilities "is not a priority."

Ms. Miller did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

When it came time for the Cowboys to begin talks about a home in Dallas, said a Cowboys supporter familiar with the negotiations, "Our attitude was: Laura Miller, please stay out of this. We don't want you, we don't need you, don't interfere.

"She was a powder keg."

Ms. Keliher said, "Unlike Mayor Miller, I didn't care if Jerry Jones was going to make money off the deal. That wasn't my concern. My concern was whether spending tax money for a new stadium made sense from the standpoint of Dallas County taxpayers."

There was another concern, as well. The Cowboys insisted that a stadium financing referendum go before voters in the November 2004 general election. The conventional wisdom is that it's easier for naysayers to defeat such measures in special elections, when the turnout is much smaller.

But the conventional wisdom is also that referendums for new sports stadiums typically bring out a "Bubba" voter – young, male, blue-collar, and more likely than not Democratic. To some Republican officials, that was a potential problem.

In 2004, a presidential election year, GOP candidates found themselves in some hotly contested races. Danny Chandler was facing Democrat Lupe Valdez in the election for Dallas County sheriff. Republican Pete Sessions was squaring off against Democrat Martin Frost in a congressional race.

"The election of a president and congressmen and sheriffs is more important in the long run than a football stadium," Mr. Jackson said in the spring of 2004. He and other Republicans on the Commissioners Court opposed putting the Cowboys' question on the November ballot.

In a recent interview, Mr. Jackson acknowledged that he was worried about influencing the November turnout in favor of Democrats. But more important, he said, he didn't think the Cowboys had provided enough financial details to make a sound decision in time for the fall ballot.

Ms. Keliher, the former county judge, said she, too, had heard concerns that a stadium measure on the November ballot "might not be good for Republican candidates," but she said she didn't necessarily agree.

"My position was if it was a good deal, Republicans would vote for it." In any case, she said, she didn't like being pressured by the Cowboys for a November vote.

"If it was a good deal in November, why wasn't it a good deal later on?"

But the Cowboys didn't wait.


Heading west

In the spring of 2004, team representatives imposed a June 30 deadline for a commitment from Dallas County – a deadline the county commissioners called unreasonable.

As the deadline neared, the team, sensing an impasse, ended the talks.

They took their ball to Arlington.

Ms. Miller, according to news reports at the time, gave it one last try. In July, she met with Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones.

"We couldn't agree," she said afterward.

"They made it very clear that they were going to find a town that would pay for a significant amount of the stadium. I made it clear that we weren't willing to pay for half their stadium."

The mayor added, "I have no regrets that they went to Arlington. It's too rich for me."

Even without the Cowboys, most people say, the Cotton Bowl is worth saving. All by itself, they say, the annual football game between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma, played during the State Fair, sprinkles enough cash on the city to justify continued improvements to the stadium. There's also the annual game between Grambling State University and Prairie View A&M.

"The Cotton Bowl has a relevant future in Dallas," said Mr. Kirk, the former mayor. "It can continue to be an important part of the State Fair and of the future of the Fair Park neighborhood for many years to come."

But wouldn't it have been better to have all that the stadium now offers, plus the Dallas Cowboys?

"That's like saying, 'Wouldn't I be in better shape if I'd quit eating donuts 10 years ago,' " he said.

"In retrospect, obviously it would have been better. But there's nothing we can do about that now. We can't put the genie back in the bottle."

A COTTON BOWL CHRONOLOGY

1921 – Fair Park Football Stadium, a 15,000-seat predecessor to the Cotton Bowl, is built.

1929 – The Texas-OU game is established as an annual event.

1930 – A 46,000-seat stadium, later to be named the Cotton Bowl, is built. It's the largest in the South.

1936 – President Franklin Roosevelt visits.

Jan. 1, 1937 –First Cotton Bowl Classic pits Marquette against Texas Christian University, led by quarterbacks Sammy Baugh and Davey O'Brien. TCU wins, 16-6.

1948 – The stadium is virtually rebuilt, and its capacity increases to 67,431.

1949 – Further expansion increases seating to 75,504. New dressing rooms and a three-story press box are added.

1950 – The Cotton Bowl hosts the first major doubleheader in college football history: Texas-OU in the afternoon, Southern Methodist University and Oklahoma A&M at night. The total attendance of 150,000 is a one-day record for a stadium.

Jan. 1, 1953 –CBS-TV televises the Cotton Bowl Classic nationally for the first time.

1958 – The first Cotton Bowl Parade is held.

Jan. 1, 1960 –Syracuse University (10-0) meets Texas (9-1) in the first Cotton Bowl Classic that decides the national championship. Syracuse wins, 23-14.

Sept. 24, 1960 –The Dallas Cowboys play their first regular-season game at the Cotton Bowl, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 35-28, before a crowd of about 30,000.

1968 – Stadium bleachers are replaced with chair-back seats, reducing capacity to 68,250.

Oct. 11, 1971 –The Cowboys play their last game at the Cotton Bowl before moving to Texas Stadium in Irving.

1984 – The first State Fair Classic between Grambling University and Prairie View A&M University is played.

1989 – Jerry Jones buys the Cowboys.

1993-94 –The Cotton Bowl is renovated in preparation for the 1994 World Cup. Seating for football increases to 72,000.

March 23, 2003 –The Cowboys unveil preliminary plans for a new, $1 billion stadium complex.

April 29, 2004 –The Cowboys name Fair Park as their top choice for a stadium site.

June 8, 2004 –Saying they're at an impasse, the Cowboys break off talks with Dallas County.

July 26, 2004 –The Cowboys agree to work exclusively with Arlington.

Nov. 2, 2004 –Arlington voters approve a $325 million stadium financing package.

May 4, 2006 –UT and OU officials announce a deal to keep their game at the Cotton Bowl through 2010.

Nov. 16 –North Texas civic and business leaders announce they'll bid for Super Bowl XLV, in 2011, to be held at the Cowboys' new stadium in Arlington.

Dec. 12 –The Cowboys formally unveil their new stadium, the most elaborate and ambitious in NFL history.

SOURCES: Dallas Morning News archives; The Handbook of Texas Online; The Cotton Bowl: Its Founding and History, by Frank X. Tolbert

[smupony94]

I just spoke to my 97 year old grandfather about this as he was the Cotton Bowl Chairman in the 80's and he blames the city of Dallas for not recognizing what the exposure means to Dallas. He fought vehemently to make the Cotton Bowl the 5th BCS Bowl. As a consolation he would not mind it played in Arlington as long as most of the traditions stay in place