COWBOYS CONSIDER ARLINGTON FOR NEW STADIUM
November 9, 2000
Copyright 2000 MediaVentures
The Dallas Cowboys are considering a site near the Rangers ballpark in Arlington for a new football stadium. The Cowboys are also considering building a new venue
in their current home of Irving, but say Arlington could be a good second choice if things donŐt work out.
The Cowboys have a lease that runs through 2008 and could leave as early as 2006 with payments to Irving. The team would like a 100,000-seat stadium and
entertainment district. The team would also like to host the 2007 Super Bowl.
Stadium plans advance on Jones' priority list
Mum on options, he says team can move in 2006
09/07/2000
By Richard Alm / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING – Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Wednesday that he wants to get moving on a new stadium for the team, a project that's been gestating in his mind for several years.
Jones has talked on several occasions about a 100,000-seat stadium of Super Bowl quality, with grass, a retractable roof and a surrounding entertainment district. So far, it's been just talk, with no sense of urgency – a fact Jones doesn't dispute.
"It's never had a time frame that realistically created any energy or any momentum," Jones said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. "I didn't have that three or four years ago. Ten years out, it was hard to get a lot of people's attention for something that wasn't going to happen [right away].''
Now, it's an issue for Jones. It takes four or five years to design, finance and build a new stadium, so Jones says it's time to move beyond talk, or the Cowboys won't be able to take advantage of the window of opportunity for improving their facilities.
The earliest the Cowboys can leave Texas Stadium is 2006, Jones said. The team's lease runs through 2008, but Jones said the franchise can escape two years before that by making payments to Irving, which owns the stadium.
"What we've got to do is resolve whether we're going to renovate and for all practical purposes have a new stadium there in Irving or someplace else," Jones said.
The "someplace else" signals that Jones hasn't made a commitment to stay in Irving. Beyond that, he declined to discuss possible locations for the new stadium.
"I haven't thought about what I'll do as it relates to having any other cities involved," Jones said.
Irving Mayor Joe Putnam said he would expect Jones to give Irving a chance to retain the Cowboys, either with a new stadium or a rebuilt Texas Stadium.
"We have not received a proposal from the Cowboys, so we have not had anything to respond to," Putnam said.
Texas Stadium, which seats 65,675, cost $35 million to build in 1971, but football palaces are considerably more expensive these days. The new Houston team, for example, will spend $365 million on its stadium, which will include a retractable roof.
Jones doesn't intend to pick up the tab himself. Funding the new stadium, he said, would involve the Cowboys, seat license money from season-ticket holders and local tax money.
"The practical way to build a new stadium is similar to what was done with the American Airlines Center," he said of the arena being built in Dallas for the Mavericks and Stars. "It's a partnership that's usually three-pronged – the team, the government and the fans."
Jones said he envisioned a stadium of 2 million square feet, about twice the size of Texas Stadium. At the existing location in Irving, a facility that size would require redirecting the traffic flow on the highways that surround Texas Stadium.
Jones said he had set some deadlines in the stadium process, but he declined to give specifics.
The Dallas 2012 committee wants to bring the Summer Olympics to Dallas. Jones said he was eager to cooperate with Dallas 2012, saying he and the other National Football League owners have a storehouse of knowledge about building stadiums.
At Dallas City Hall, officials voiced little inclination to jump through hoops to bring the Cowboys back to Dallas. Mayor Ron Kirk said he is unaware of Jones making overtures to Dallas officials. With Irving still the Cowboys' home, Mayor Kirk said "it would be pretty premature" for Dallas to express an interest in relocating the team.
"I imagine the city of Irving will be as aggressive in its efforts to keep an excellent corporate asset as we were in keeping the Mavericks and the Stars," Kirk said.
Jones says that he is personally involved in all details of stadium planning for the Cowboys and that he has looked at what other teams have done and honed his ideas about what he's looking for in a new facility.
"I've not been idle," he said. "I've been at work within our own organization."
Staff writer Victoria Loe Hicks contributed to this report.
