TBA will be conveyed to the owners in 2006. Club is paying $5 mil / yr rent & maintenance, and the payments are applied toward the 'purchase price' of $60 mil (some ~$110 mil less than the cost to build). Since the rent & maint payments are SOP, the conveyance will be, in effect, an outright giveaway.
After that, the sales tax bump will still be in effect, and payments on the construction bonds will still need to be made on a property that the public no longer owns.
The rent on the Astrodomain (Astrodome and surrounding complex I belive was included) was a nominal figure of $1. That property was rented to the owner of the Houston Astros (and it was still under contract to the team owner when the new baseball field was built miles away from the property).
This goes back over 35 years in team history to the way things were done. Maintenance was a part of that agreement, but guess what, the team owner did not hold up his part of the bargain and the locals had to pay millions in repairs.
How is the Arlington deal different than other cities?