Dallas Cowboys choose Fair Park for new stadium(but how big a tax hike?)

Channel 8(Dallas) | 4/29/04 | Dandy Don

[Diddle E. Squat]

Breaking News! Well at least according to channel 8. Gloria Compost breathlessly announced that the Dallas Cowboys have finally officially named Fair Park their choice for building the new stadium and Jerry's World complex. Still no decision on financing, local state reps are looking into extending the car/hotel taxes to cover the Fair Park site(which may or may not be allowed under current convoluted law.) The timing may or may not be tied to the BCS debating this week about adding a 5th bowl to the mix, and any new stadium would put the Cotton Bowl in the running.

IIRC, any tax increase will have to go before Dallas County voters.

[Diddle E. Squat]

2nd choice is Irving, near where the new 161 tollway and I-635 meet(southeast corner towards Las Colinas)

[PAR35]

very, very little of the promised development around Victory or the Ballpark has taken place.

They will just have to wait their turn. First, they need to do the promised development around Reunion Arena that was promised 20 or 30 years ago.

[mylife]

train smain...I lived in san diego and used the trolley often.

you have to have tons of spurs and access points to make it work . san diego did it and it is still underutilized.

Add in the, I have a by god car factor.

I just dont see how they can do it, but it does beat the trinity river plan....lets invest in a mud crick

[mylife]

Laura Miller is a dem but has my respect on trying to make the city livable.

She is a tough gal

[Diddle E. Squat]

I completely disagree. He wants partially taxpayer financing, and after the as yet unfilled promises of Victory and the Ballpark, there is almost zero chance voters would approve a tax right now for just another stadium. The Fair Park fixup is the carrot to dangle before the voters, and frankly it is a wise strategy from his point.

Grand Prairie doesn't have any site in the running. Arlington has a site west of Hwy 360 in the Trinity floodplain, but it is in Tarrant County and the odds of getting taxpayer financing there is even worse. Dallas County is his best choice for tax money, and Dallas County prefers the Fair Park fixup.

Now should the tax proposal fail, sure he could look elsewhere, and Collin Co., SE Denton Co, or Grapevine might make the most sense economically. But those are all Plan B's.

[lavrenti]

That was actually one of the spots I was thinking of.

[justlurking]

2nd choice is Irving, near where the new 161 tollway and I-635 meet(southeast corner towards Las Colinas)

I never realized the Bush 41 tollway was "161" down there. It's "190" up in Richardson/Plano/Carrollton.

[mylife]

the 190 would be a great road if not for the "pay a toll brfore you reach the speed limit" nature of it

[Diddle E. Squat]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/043004dnmetstadium.3acb8.html

Cowboys' choice: Fair Park

11:16 PM CDT on Thursday, April 29, 2004


By DAVE MICHAELS and DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News



The Dallas Cowboys have proposed Fair Park as the home of their new stadium and will issue a document today that details its financing, elected and team officials said Thursday.

"We are committed to getting something done, to have a new stadium in this area," said Stephen Jones, the Cowboys vice president. "We hope we can come up with something the county feels is good to put in front of the voters."

Dallas County commissioners were briefed on the team's selection of Fair Park late Thursday. County officials said the club described it as a "first site," saying they would consider other areas if they could not strike a deal for a public subsidy.

"The public would like to see it at Fair Park," Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher said. "If the negotiations do not go well at Fair Park, they have some other options. I think they are open to exploring those options."

Irving Mayor Joe Putnam reacted coolly to his city's chances of losing the stadium, saying he was not surprised by the news. Mr. Putnam added that his city could negotiate to keep the team in the suburb.

"They determined, and rightly so, that a new stadium is best in Dallas at Fair Park," Mr. Putnam said. "We'll lose the prestige of saying the Cowboys play in Irving. The economic impact, though, would be negligible."

But Irving City Council member Herbert Gears said he rejects the notion that Irving's battle for the Cowboys is lost.

"The home of the Cowboys is Texas Stadium in Irving. Period," he said. "It's of no concern of ours whatsoever that this is their first choice from a political perspective."

I don't believe Dallas has the ability to bring to the table what Irving can bring to the table" in terms of infrastructure and financing, Mr. Gears said.

He added that he doesn't think the Cowboys will ultimately choose Fair Park for the team's stadium site. Dallas isn't capable of offering a financial package attractive enough, he said.

Dallas Mayor Pro Tem John Loza disagreed.

"Everything they've concluded is that Fair Park is the only place they're considering in Dallas County," Mr. Loza said of the Cowboys.

Since last year, the Cowboys have described a $650 million stadium with a retractable roof. Team officials have said they planned to ask for $400 million in public funds, raised through higher taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars.

Recently the team opened the door to other sources of funding, such as higher taxes on parking, tickets and luxury suites at the stadium.

Mr. Jones declined to discuss the financial details of his team's proposal or the timetable for negotiations. Commissioner John Wiley Price said he thinks those details, not the talk of revitalizing Fair Park, will make the difference.

"That is where the rubber meets the road," Mr. Price said. "How are we going to finance it and what makes sense? All this other stuff is posture."

Opponents of public funding for sports stadiums said they would oppose any effort to raise taxes. The team initially proposed an additional 3 percent hotel tax and a 6 percent rental-car tax.

"People using the facility should be paying for the facility," said Dave Capps, the owner of a rental-car business and leader of a group called No Jones Tax. "No other business pays for my facilities."

Mr. Price, once a supporter of a new stadium, has tempered his enthusiasm as the scale of the Cowboys' project changed. Last year the team's ads described a stadium surrounded by public sports fields, an entertainment venue called Cowboys Experience and a shopping village christened Legends Square.

The total value of that project, stadium included, was $1 billion.

As the team moved its focus to Fair Park, it downsized the project to a stadium, practice fields, a Cowboys Hall of Fame and team offices. Its mailings then emphasized the domed stadium's ability to attract the country's largest sports events, such as a Super Bowl and a major college bowl game.

Others, including Dallas City Council members and Fair Park's museum directors, ratcheted up their support after the Cowboys agreed to look at Fair Park earlier this year.

Leo Chaney, a Dallas council member who represents the Fair Park area, said the city would have to be willing to invest some money to land the project. Otherwise, Irving, which has dangled $100 million in public money in front of the team, might strike a deal to keep the team in Texas Stadium.

"The Cowboys are shrewd negotiators," Mr. Chaney said. "We have to maybe do something similar to Irving. I'm not saying we'd do as much.

"But the city of Dallas needs to be as aggressive as the suburban cities."

Dallas Mayor Laura Miller did not return phone calls.

The Cowboys hope to have the issue placed on the November ballot. Their consultants have noted that general-election voters are younger and less conservative than the voters who would turn out for a special election, and therefore more likely to support tax funding for a stadium.

The mostly Republican Dallas County Commissioners Court opposes a November election, saying the issue might help Democrats and would probably be overwhelmed by the clamor of presidential politics. If they do delay the vote beyond November, the commissioners would incur a $1.3 million cost to hold a special election.

"The election of a president and congressmen and sheriffs is more important in the long run than a football stadium," Commissioner Jim Jackson said.

Mr. Jones said he thought voters would support the measure if the team could strike a deal with Dallas County.

"I think that the citizens believe that we ought to have a facility like this," Mr. Jones said. "When you tie that into potentially having a site like Fair Park and the emotion that goes with that, I think we would get a positive vote."

County commissioners have negotiated an agreement with the club that calls for the team to reimburse the county's expenses through June. Commissioners said they would probably have to extend that deadline to allow enough time for negotiations.

"This may be a long, drawn-out process, and I don't want to be working on someone else's timetable," Mr. Jackson said.

The Cowboys' announcement coincides with the submission of a bill in Austin that would fix one of the hurdles to tax funding for a Fair Park stadium. George Bayoud, a political adviser to the team, said he talked with State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, about filing the bill.

The bill would allow cities and counties to tax hotels and car-rental businesses to build stadiums in city parks.

Mr. Price said he believed the bill would pass in Austin, even while the Legislature is occupied with the divisive subject of school finance.

The Hotel Association of Greater Dallas has said it would probably oppose any increase in the hotel occupancy tax, which is already 15 percent in the city of Dallas.

Mr. Bayoud, a former Republican Secretary of State, said he believed that Gov. Rick Perry would add the bill to the Legislature's agenda.

"I think in the future the governor may open up the call, and we are hopeful that this bill will pass," Mr. Bayoud said.

E-mail dmichaels@dallasnews.com and dlevinthal@dallasnews.com

[davidtalker]

Just say NO to welfare for billionaires. If Jerry wants his stadium at Fair Park great. Let him build it. Numerous studies say private stadiums earn the owners handsome profits. Why should taxpayers (yes that includes tourists who create jobs for Texas taxpayers)be taxed for Jerry's dream?

Get ready for pie in the sky promises of rejuvination of the "Southern Tier." Get ready for artist renderings of beautiful malls full of restaurants and kiosks and thousands of smiling affluent white shoppers around the stadium. Remember, the AA Center hype?

I'm all for a new stadium for Jerry. Let him build one. Otherwise, "NO TAXES FOR JERRY'S STADIUM."

[sinkspur]

Get ready for pie in the sky promises of rejuvination of the "Southern Tier." Get ready for artist renderings of beautiful malls full of restaurants and kiosks and thousands of smiling affluent white shoppers around the stadium. Remember, the AA Center hype?

LOL!! You're right. Smiling families with baby carriages waving to mini-vans cruising Grand Avenue, full of white people.

This thing won't get built without tax money. You know that as well as I.

And Dallas voters, especially those who live in Oak Cliff, will approve it.

[lewislynn]

Will My car be stolen while I drop $200 dollars on a game?

Not if you ride the train.

Texas bad guys aren't smart enough to know there are unattended cars parked at train stations?

[HHFi]

Absolutely. We live near Fair Park in historic Old East Dallas, so I'd like to see the neighborhood fixed up, but I'm worried the development they're talking about would ruin the historic charm of Fair Park, while also sticking us with yet another huge tax bill to pay for yet another playground for millionaires working for billionaires.

Last time they did this, one of the taxes that was supposed to pay for it was a car rental tax that of course was only going to be paid by those out-of-town visiting suckers. Then my car broke down and took a week to get repaired. I cannot repeat the language I used when I saw the tax on my bill.

[Diddle E. Squat]

And for the rest of America:

Q: What do you call a drug ring in Dallas?
A: A huddle.

Q: Four Dallas Cowboys in a car, who's driving?
A: The police.

I understand Chicago is trying to sign Michael Irvin. They got rid of the refrigerator, so now they want a coke machine.

The Dallas newspapers reported yesterday that Texas Stadium is going to take out the artificial turf because the Cowboys play better on "grass".

The Dallas Cowboys adopted a new "Honor System", Yes your Honor, No your Honor.

The Cowboys had a 12 and 5 season this year, 12 arrests, 5 convictions.

Q: How do the Dallas Cowboys spend their first week at spring training?
A: Studying the Miranda Rights.

[justlurking]

the 190 would be a great road if not for the "pay a toll brfore you reach the speed limit" nature of it

I use it almost daily, and am very happy it was built as a tollway. If it had been built as a regular freeway, we wouldn't have the funds to complete it for another decade.

With a Toll Tag and the new high-speed lanes in the main plazas, it's as convenient as a regular freeway.

[1066AD]

Hmmm. Fair Park is better than it was a few years ago, as long as you park inside the grounds. Dallas' taxes on visitors (hotels & rent cars) is already among the highest in the nation.
I hope the city didn't give away the farm like they did for Reunion Arena then the new American Airlines Center. For the latter the City Manager got a cushy job with Hicks after the dead-men-voting approval.
If a team wants a stadium, it and its fans should pay the bulk of the cost.

[1L]

Jones is simply playing the City of Dallas for fools. Yes, he wants taxpayer financing, and he'll get some of it in Irving. In fact, the Irving CC will take the position he will get more in Irving, have much less trouble with their council, and have no problems with land acquisition. None of these will be the case in Dallas.

When the first mention of Fair Park came about, someone went to Jerry and said, "Jerry, if we move to the Fair Park area, that's where you will have to go to work everyday." I guarantee you, that was the end of any real intent to go Fair Park.

The only way this thing goes back to FP is if all other options become, for whatever reason, unavailable. I firmly believe, and will until proven wrong, that Jerry has NO intention of going to Fair Park -- unless Jerryland is 10x better there than any alternative (i.e. -- 120,000 seat retractable roof stadium that wouldn't be built elsewhere, shopping, etc.) The problem with that is that while folks will go to games in Fair Park, they won't go shopping there. You would have to have a wholsale cleanup of 20 square miles (or more) before anyone even wants to go down there.

[GunnyHartman]

OUCH! OK here's another...
Q. What does Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and a bullfrog have in common?
A. Both have a big head that consists mostly of mouth


Oh, by the way...

Super Bowl Victories-5 (Only matched by the Forty Whiners)
Super Bowl Appearances-8 (Unmatched by ANYBODY)
Playoff Victories-52 (Unmatched by ANYBODY)

[Diddle E. Squat]

Houston Oilers:

Superbowl victories - 0
Superbowl appearances - 0
Playoff victories - not enough
Slimeball weasel traiterous owner stabbing the fans in the back - 1

RIP Oilers, RIH Bud Adams