dallas should tell cowboys

smazza · May 1, 2004

goodbye before paying for a new stadium

and you won't find a bigger cowboy fan

let jones mortage team,take aloan an dbuild his own stadium like anyone of us would have to do

it is outrageous that these guys have balls to ask and it would be criminal for politicians to go for it.

smazza · May 1, 2004

The Dallas Cowboys proposed Friday to build a $650 million stadium at the home of the Texas State Fair with a plan that includes $425 million in public funding.

The proposal calls for Dallas County to levy a 3 percent hotel occupancy tax and a 6 percent rental car tax. The Cowboys would contribute $225 million for the stadium.

The Cowboys have asked the county to commit to the plan by June 30 and they want project construction to begin no later than September 2005.

County officials say there is little new in the plan other than the deadline to commit.

"They should have presented it probably a little bit earlier if they think we're going to do all this in two months," said Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher.

"They've been working on this thing for two years. I can't see us getting our homework done on behalf of the taxpayers in a two-month period of time." .

The Cowboys want a multipurpose sports and entertainment facility with 75,000 seats and a retractable roof. It would have 6,000 club seats and 380 private luxury suites. More than 22,000 parking spaces will be available at the site.

The measure would move the home venue for Cowboys from Texas Stadium in Irving to the home of the Texas State Fair, which is near downtown Dallas.

Commissioner John Wiley Price said: "The romanticism of going back to Fair Park is fine. Romance without finance won't get us there."

State Sen. Royce West filed a bill Thursday that would allow cities and counties to tax hotels and car-rental businesses to build stadiums in city parks.

Current state law would bar use of such taxes for a Fair Park site.