kepdawg
12-23-2008, 04:15 PM
Texas Stadium bonds to begin paying off for Dallas Cowboys fans on Friday 2:56 PM CT
03:00 PM CST on Tuesday, December 23, 2008
By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
bformby@dallasnews.com
Saturday may have been Texas Stadium’s farewell, but for those who helped finance the famous icon, Friday’s the day they’ve been waiting for.
That’s when the bonds fans bought to finance the stadium’s construction reach their maturity — 41 years to the day after they first went on sale.
“I got them right away,” Eugene Campbell of Dallas said of the two stadium bonds he bought for $500.
Bond holders will get about $300 for each bond — meaning they profit about $50 after more than 40 years. Mr. Campbell said that’s not much of a return, but he’ll be happy to collect anyway.
“They served their purpose and I’ll get my money,” he said.
Thousands of Dallas Cowboys faithful, some of them begrudgingly, bought the bonds in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The instruments secured fans the right to buy season tickets, funded a new stadium for the Cowboys and brought a professional football team to Irving without the use of taxpayer money.
The bond sales raised about $31 million. The stadium cost about $35 million. When the team vacates next year, the city will retain the land and the stadium. The fact that tax monies weren’t used on either is something that still delights city officials who helped bring the team to Irving in the first place.
“It’s been a good run,” said Robert Power, who was Irving’s mayor when the team announced their move to the city in the late 1960s. “I’m pleased with what we did.”
Mr. Campbell said he’d be interested to know what funds the city will use to pay back bondholders. City officials did not return several phone calls Tuesday.
Irving’s Web site directs Texas Stadium bond holders to contact the Bank of New York Mellon at 1-800-254-2826.
“That number is staffed by people who would be able to explain the process for redeeming the bonds,” said Kevin Heine, a spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon.
The city’s Web site also tells people who want to “redeem seat option bonds” to contact the Cowboys. The team, however, didn’t issue bonds. It issued personal seat licenses, but those were only good as long as the Cowboys played in Texas Stadium. Personal seat license holders got the first opportunity to buy licenses at the new stadium, but cannot redeem the options they bought for Texas Stadium.
“You do not get any money back from purchasing the seat license,” said Rich Dalrymple, the Cowboys’ public relations director.
While the bond system was considered an innovative financing method at the time, the expense of current stadiums makes such a set-up cost prohibitive. The new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, for instance, is expected to cost $1.1 billion. Arlington has issued about $300 worth of bonds backed by sales tax revenues. The Cowboys will pay the rest. Texas Stadium bonds, however, were forerunners of personal seat licenses now commonly used to help finance various stadiums around the country.
The bonds, like the team and Texas Stadium, were woven into the social fabric of North Texas. Bonds became prized possessions regardless of where the seats were or how the Cowboys did on the field. They were so valuable that they even sparked battles among couples headed for divorce court.
Mr. Campbell said he held on to his season tickets until about four years ago. He said he’s glad he bought the bonds, even though he wasn’t initially pleased with the plan.
“I wasn’t that thrilled that that’s what I had to do to get a season ticket but it was OK,” he said. “It certainly wasn’t any kind of investment.”
03:00 PM CST on Tuesday, December 23, 2008
By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
bformby@dallasnews.com
Saturday may have been Texas Stadium’s farewell, but for those who helped finance the famous icon, Friday’s the day they’ve been waiting for.
That’s when the bonds fans bought to finance the stadium’s construction reach their maturity — 41 years to the day after they first went on sale.
“I got them right away,” Eugene Campbell of Dallas said of the two stadium bonds he bought for $500.
Bond holders will get about $300 for each bond — meaning they profit about $50 after more than 40 years. Mr. Campbell said that’s not much of a return, but he’ll be happy to collect anyway.
“They served their purpose and I’ll get my money,” he said.
Thousands of Dallas Cowboys faithful, some of them begrudgingly, bought the bonds in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The instruments secured fans the right to buy season tickets, funded a new stadium for the Cowboys and brought a professional football team to Irving without the use of taxpayer money.
The bond sales raised about $31 million. The stadium cost about $35 million. When the team vacates next year, the city will retain the land and the stadium. The fact that tax monies weren’t used on either is something that still delights city officials who helped bring the team to Irving in the first place.
“It’s been a good run,” said Robert Power, who was Irving’s mayor when the team announced their move to the city in the late 1960s. “I’m pleased with what we did.”
Mr. Campbell said he’d be interested to know what funds the city will use to pay back bondholders. City officials did not return several phone calls Tuesday.
Irving’s Web site directs Texas Stadium bond holders to contact the Bank of New York Mellon at 1-800-254-2826.
“That number is staffed by people who would be able to explain the process for redeeming the bonds,” said Kevin Heine, a spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon.
The city’s Web site also tells people who want to “redeem seat option bonds” to contact the Cowboys. The team, however, didn’t issue bonds. It issued personal seat licenses, but those were only good as long as the Cowboys played in Texas Stadium. Personal seat license holders got the first opportunity to buy licenses at the new stadium, but cannot redeem the options they bought for Texas Stadium.
“You do not get any money back from purchasing the seat license,” said Rich Dalrymple, the Cowboys’ public relations director.
While the bond system was considered an innovative financing method at the time, the expense of current stadiums makes such a set-up cost prohibitive. The new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, for instance, is expected to cost $1.1 billion. Arlington has issued about $300 worth of bonds backed by sales tax revenues. The Cowboys will pay the rest. Texas Stadium bonds, however, were forerunners of personal seat licenses now commonly used to help finance various stadiums around the country.
The bonds, like the team and Texas Stadium, were woven into the social fabric of North Texas. Bonds became prized possessions regardless of where the seats were or how the Cowboys did on the field. They were so valuable that they even sparked battles among couples headed for divorce court.
Mr. Campbell said he held on to his season tickets until about four years ago. He said he’s glad he bought the bonds, even though he wasn’t initially pleased with the plan.
“I wasn’t that thrilled that that’s what I had to do to get a season ticket but it was OK,” he said. “It certainly wasn’t any kind of investment.”