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A look at the Cowboys' new stadium

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by finishthehat, Dec 13, 2006.

  1. finishthehat

    finishthehat Active Member

    It's another flying saucer on the outside, and another luxury hotel on the inside:

    http://tinyurl.com/yfb7mx
     
  2. Hed bust

    Hed bust Guest

    When Jerry J. took over the team back around 1990, he spoke of what he envisioned for the annual tryouts and selection of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
    "We want to have the pick of the litter," he eagerly exclaimed.

    On the screen it looks like, as NFL stadiums go, the Cowboys will indeed have the pick of the litter compared to most other league venues. It looks pretty cool.
     
  3. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    Soon, the Cowboys will play closer to Fort Worth than Dallas.
     
  4. Columbo

    Columbo Active Member

    So Arlington will have footed the bill for about $700 million in stadia with nary a mention of the town on either of the team names.

    Wow.
     
  5. the inside is kinda fly, I certainly wouldn't mind covering a game there. Still, if this thing does hit a billion in costs, who the hell in their right mind would approve a tax for that?
     
  6. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    The people of Dallas.
     
  7. spup1122

    spup1122 Guest

    That is an awesome stadium. I did a story at my last shop about the acquisition of land to build the stadium because of some ties to the town I was living in. It was an exciting place to learn about then. Now that I can see it, it looks awesome. I wish I had waited until NOW to do the story when there was better art.
     
  8. Columbo

    Columbo Active Member

    That was sort of the point of my previous post... the people of Dallas aren't paying for it, if I read correctly.
     
  9. KP

    KP Active Member

    Holy crap! [/Peter Boyle, RIP]

    Cost, $1B [/Dr. Evil]
    Just a ho-hum $700 million over budget

    People of Arlington are on the hook for about 1/3 of the total.
     
  10. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    I believe that Arlington's share was through a one-cent sales tax that either has already expired or will soon. The money is already collected and JJ will foot the rest with corporate backing.

    It's gonna be awesome ... but it should've been in Dallas. In fact, the Mavs and Stars would be playing in Lewisville right now if it hadn't been for Ross Perot Jr. stepping to the plate. Thanks again for nothing, Mayor Laura Miller.
     
  11. KP

    KP Active Member

    Safe to say the bulk of the people paying the sales tax in Arlington is from non-Arlingtonians going to Ranger games and Six Flags? Been there once but went in and out of Dallas and Frisco.
     
  12. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    Allow me to clear up a few misconceptions.

    The sales tax to pay for the stadium became effective April 1, 2005. The money to pay for the stadium has not already been collected and the tax is not about to expire. You might be thinking about the sales tax to pay for the Ballpark -- oops, Ameriquest Field. That expired a couple years ago. When it did, Arlington went searching for a project to give them a reason to keep that tax. Voters actually turned down several of them before the Cowboys project showed up.

    The statement that the bulk of the people paying the Arlington sales tax are non-Arlingtonians is false. Arlington is a city of more than 300,000 people, and while Six Flags draws a lot of tourist cash, that is far from the majority of the tax revenue being generated.

    The people of Dallas are definitely not paying for the stadium, Arlington is. That is the biggest flaw in an extremely flawed public financing plan. The entire burden of the public portion of the funding falls to Arlington, even though whatever benefit the stadium provides (and, as has been stated in several other threads, there is evidence that that stadiums provide little or no economic benefit) will be spread throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Consider: When the Super Bowl comes to town (and it assuredly will), visitors will stay all over the region, and the big spenders will stay in the big hotels in downtown Dallas or Fort Worth, or near the airport. When they go out, they'll go to Sundance Square or Billy Bob's or the Stockyards in Fort Worth or Deep Ellum or the West End in Dallas. How much of that spending will take place in Arlington? 25 percent? 10 percent? But Arlington pays 100 percent of the cost. A more sane model is the Colts' new stadium in Indianapolis, which I believe will be paid for by the eight counties in the Indianapolis area.

    Dallas did not drop the ball on this project. In fact, one can say the city was really smart, because it will get some of the payoff while paying none of the cost. Jones tried to rush Dallas into putting the stadium proposal on the November ballot without sufficient time to really study it. When Dallas didn't bite, he went to Arlington, which snapped up the bait. The second paragraph of the economic impact study commissioned by the Arlington City Council states that because there wasn't enough time to do a true analysis, it used numbers and projections provided by -- you guessed it -- the Dallas Cowboys. Not surprisingly, the ``study,'' which took all of three weeks to produce, predicted a huge profit for the city. The real impact is still unknown.

    Someone mentioned the land acquisition for the stadium. Much of that was accomplished by eminent domain -- forcing homeowners out of their homes and giving them ``market value'' for them. In reality, the market value for that land would have been much higher if they had been selling to a billionaire who wanted it to build a stadium.

    Arlington's portion of the stadium cost is capped at $325 million, though when interest is factored in, the city will actually pay about $650 million (by the city's own estimate). And to say Jones is paying for the rest is a bit misleading. All revenue generated by taxes on ticket sales (10 percent) and parking ($3 per car), advertising rights and stadium rental for other events goes to the Cowboys, not the city. I believe the Cowboys also get some or all of the money raised by the hotel and rental car taxes. In addition, the Cowboys get 95 percent of stadium naming rights money, even though the stadium will technically be owned by the city of Arlington(which, by the way, means Jones does not have to pay property taxes).

    Excellent point about Arlington paying so much for stadiums with no name recognition. Nobody ever says their team is going to play in Irving. They say they're playing in Dallas. Media outlets everywhere refer to Dallas and Big D in reference to the Cowboys' home. When people talk about past Super Bowls, they never say the game was played in Tempe or Pasadena -- it's always Phoenix and Los Angeles.

    And don't even get me started on Jones' $5 million propaganda/disinformation campaign leading up to the stadium vote. I think I went over that on another thread.
     
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