Conflict of interest?

The deal to keep the Texas-Oklahoma game in Dallas through 2015 will bring each school about $4.7 million for each game starting in 2008. The Dallas Morning News publisher apparently played a role in the negotiations.

From the Dallas Morning News story:

(Almong those praised for making the deal happen) were Texas athletic director Mr. DeLoss Dodds; Texas President Bill Powers; OU President David Boren; OU athletic director Mr. Joe Castiglione; John Scovell, president and chief executive of Woodbine Development; and Jim Moroney, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, for their work in negotiating a deal.

Mr. Schenkel said Friday that a March 26 meeting in Austin among himself, Texas football coach Mack Brown and Mr. Dodds, Mr. Powers and Mr. Moroney proved particularly pivotal in allaying Texas' concerns about Cotton Bowl improvements and establishing some of the ultimate contract's terms.

Ethical? A conflict of interest? Just being a good citizen? Discuss.

 

I think it's a slippery slope, but if anyone affiliated with a newspaper were to be involved it would have to be a publisher. Besides, I can count on one hand the number of publishers I've seen with an editorial background. They almost always come from advertising/sales.

 

Agreed. If it was the sports editor, yeah I see an issue with that.
But a publisher represents the business side and it isn't any different than sponsoring fireworks or a music fesitival. BECAUSE it came from the business side and not editorial, I see it as being a good citizen

 

My only question is why, after letting the Cowboys go to Arlington and the Cotton Bowl go to the Cowboys' new stadium, did Dallas suddenly get interested in keeping the UT-OU and Grambling-Prairie View games? How much money will Dallas plow into that shithole stadium for two games a year?

Moroney is a little late to the party.

(And to answer the question, I don't see conflict of interest any more than I see the big "Dallas Morning News" signs all over the Ballpark.)

 

Because its the fairgrounds. Because it's tradition.

 

Yes, but isn't the Cotton Bowl (the bowl game) moving when the Cowboys' new stadium opens? So much for tradition then.

 

The OU-Texas game has been played during the Texas State Fair every year since the 1920s. The Cotton Bowl stadium is on the grounds of the fair grounds. So their will still be tradition by keeping in the "old" Cotton Bowl.

 

That's cause the Cotton Bowl wants to get back into the glory days when it used to be one of the Big FOur on New Year's Day... can't do that without a new place to play.

 

To me, it's no more of a conflict of interest than seeing signage in arenas, stadiums and on the boards of hockey games.

 

I honestly don't get why this would be a conflict of interest ... in fact I wouldn't have thought twice about it had you not brought it up. As it's been said, it's the publisher and they like to give off the appearance of goodwill and community from time to time. You work for a business and he's your CEO.

Now if reporters were somehow dragged into this and forced to give it some undue consideration than that could be a conflict of interest ...

 

Publishers have been doing things like this since time immemorial (I love that phrase). As I recall, the publisher of the Florida Times-Union was heavily involved in Jacksonville's NFL expansion effort.

 

Speaking of that ... they no longer exist. No DMN mention in the Ballpark or outside of the Ballpark. The only newspaper-type mention is the S-T's sign off the highway that got pelted with baseball-sized hail and tornado-force winds over the past two weeks.

Methinks the DMN spent their "well-earned" money on "Dallas Morning News Qualifying Days" at TMS.