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02-21-2004, 12:37 PM
Dallas pushes plan; Miller won't support downtown idea
Dallas officials have made a new push to bring a new Dallas Cowboys stadium to Fair Park, and team officials said they are seriously considering the proposal to return to the area they left 33 years ago.
Dallas Mayor Laura Miller pitched the idea Thursday after telling the club she would not support city funds to redevelop an industrial area the Cowboys have prospected near downtown. Fair Park, which is already developed, would require less public investment and benefit from having the Cowboys there.
"It is important that they come up with a project that dovetails with the city's agenda," Ms. Miller said Friday. "They told me they are seriously interested in going to Fair Park."
Cowboys officials said they would study the option of building a Fair Park stadium, which would replace the Cotton Bowl. For years the city has tinkered with the future of the Cotton Bowl, as college teams made their annual demands about adding seats and reaping more profits.
"It may be different from what we would do downtown, but that is part of the mandate – to see what we can do," said George Bayoud, a former Texas secretary of state and adviser to the Cowboys. "What is important is that it make sense for the community and the Cowboys."
Mr. Bayoud and team executive vice president Stephen Jones met with Ms. Miller on Thursday.
The team has not announced a location for the $600 million Dallas Cowboys Park, but it has scouted sites along Industrial Boulevard in Dallas and in Irving's Las Colinas. The Dallas site is home to metal-plating shops, scrap yards and warehouses.
Ms. Miller said she asked the city staff about two months ago to analyze the cost of preparing the location for redevelopment. The staff's analysis, dated Dec. 8, estimated the cost of transportation improvements, environmental remediation and land acquisition at $166 million.
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A wastewater pump station on nearby Cadiz Street would have to be relocated, adding $36 million more, Ms. Miller said.
Sports clubs typically ask government to pay for some public improvements around stadiums.
"When I talked with the Cowboys I told them that I could not support the site," Ms. Miller said. "The $200 million figure is too onerous."
Voters have a say, too
The team also stands the risk of voters telling it that $600 million in new hotel and rental-car taxes is too much. Dallas County commissioners, who are negotiating with the team to build the project, recently balked at the team's request to implement a 3 percent hotel tax and 6 percent rental-car tax.
Commissioners also have been worried about the public's appetite for funding another sports complex. Voters narrowly approved an increase in hotel and car-rental taxes for American Airlines Center in 1998.
"It is easier to talk about renovating Fair Park," Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher said. "If the goal is to get a stadium, Fair Park has a lot to offer."
The city of Irving still believes it has more to offer, and a City Council member there reacted coolly to the news that Fair Park was back in the hunt. Council member Herb Gears called Fair Park "subpar."
"No site is a better site than Las Colinas," Mr. Gears said.
The Cowboys' goal – in downtown Dallas or Las Colinas – was to build more than a stadium.
The team envisioned a $1 billion development surrounded by hotels, shops, a Cowboys museum and public fields. Team owners promised to build the development at the same time it constructed the stadium.
Many of the team's political advisers thought voters would be more willing to approve higher taxes if they were promised more than just a stadium.
A change of plans?
The public's warm feelings for Fair Park may allow the team to build only a stadium, officials said.
"There may not be the need for a lot of additional development because there may be enough innate support for the stadium within the fairgrounds," said Walt Humann, a longtime Dallas civic leader who is chairman emeritus of the Science Place at Fair Park.
Mr. Humann and others are excited about a new stadium at the park, for which the City Council recently approved a new master plan. The master plan emphasizes links to downtown and an entertainment district on nearby Second Avenue.
"Instead of starting from scratch, ... [the Cowboys] have a 300-acre park with many buildings in it already," Ms. Miller said. "They could make that master plan happen. On our own, we could not do it for two decades."
Ms. Miller qualified her optimism, saying she would not support the project unless the Cowboys increased their funding.
"I would expect them to lower the taxpayer subsidy significantly," she said.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022104dnmetstadium.106f8190.html
Dallas officials have made a new push to bring a new Dallas Cowboys stadium to Fair Park, and team officials said they are seriously considering the proposal to return to the area they left 33 years ago.
Dallas Mayor Laura Miller pitched the idea Thursday after telling the club she would not support city funds to redevelop an industrial area the Cowboys have prospected near downtown. Fair Park, which is already developed, would require less public investment and benefit from having the Cowboys there.
"It is important that they come up with a project that dovetails with the city's agenda," Ms. Miller said Friday. "They told me they are seriously interested in going to Fair Park."
Cowboys officials said they would study the option of building a Fair Park stadium, which would replace the Cotton Bowl. For years the city has tinkered with the future of the Cotton Bowl, as college teams made their annual demands about adding seats and reaping more profits.
"It may be different from what we would do downtown, but that is part of the mandate – to see what we can do," said George Bayoud, a former Texas secretary of state and adviser to the Cowboys. "What is important is that it make sense for the community and the Cowboys."
Mr. Bayoud and team executive vice president Stephen Jones met with Ms. Miller on Thursday.
The team has not announced a location for the $600 million Dallas Cowboys Park, but it has scouted sites along Industrial Boulevard in Dallas and in Irving's Las Colinas. The Dallas site is home to metal-plating shops, scrap yards and warehouses.
Ms. Miller said she asked the city staff about two months ago to analyze the cost of preparing the location for redevelopment. The staff's analysis, dated Dec. 8, estimated the cost of transportation improvements, environmental remediation and land acquisition at $166 million.
Also Online
Video Steve Stoler reports
A wastewater pump station on nearby Cadiz Street would have to be relocated, adding $36 million more, Ms. Miller said.
Sports clubs typically ask government to pay for some public improvements around stadiums.
"When I talked with the Cowboys I told them that I could not support the site," Ms. Miller said. "The $200 million figure is too onerous."
Voters have a say, too
The team also stands the risk of voters telling it that $600 million in new hotel and rental-car taxes is too much. Dallas County commissioners, who are negotiating with the team to build the project, recently balked at the team's request to implement a 3 percent hotel tax and 6 percent rental-car tax.
Commissioners also have been worried about the public's appetite for funding another sports complex. Voters narrowly approved an increase in hotel and car-rental taxes for American Airlines Center in 1998.
"It is easier to talk about renovating Fair Park," Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher said. "If the goal is to get a stadium, Fair Park has a lot to offer."
The city of Irving still believes it has more to offer, and a City Council member there reacted coolly to the news that Fair Park was back in the hunt. Council member Herb Gears called Fair Park "subpar."
"No site is a better site than Las Colinas," Mr. Gears said.
The Cowboys' goal – in downtown Dallas or Las Colinas – was to build more than a stadium.
The team envisioned a $1 billion development surrounded by hotels, shops, a Cowboys museum and public fields. Team owners promised to build the development at the same time it constructed the stadium.
Many of the team's political advisers thought voters would be more willing to approve higher taxes if they were promised more than just a stadium.
A change of plans?
The public's warm feelings for Fair Park may allow the team to build only a stadium, officials said.
"There may not be the need for a lot of additional development because there may be enough innate support for the stadium within the fairgrounds," said Walt Humann, a longtime Dallas civic leader who is chairman emeritus of the Science Place at Fair Park.
Mr. Humann and others are excited about a new stadium at the park, for which the City Council recently approved a new master plan. The master plan emphasizes links to downtown and an entertainment district on nearby Second Avenue.
"Instead of starting from scratch, ... [the Cowboys] have a 300-acre park with many buildings in it already," Ms. Miller said. "They could make that master plan happen. On our own, we could not do it for two decades."
Ms. Miller qualified her optimism, saying she would not support the project unless the Cowboys increased their funding.
"I would expect them to lower the taxpayer subsidy significantly," she said.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022104dnmetstadium.106f8190.html