The $25-million Cotton Bowl renovations, first sneak-peeked back in Juy 2012, are done now, which means freshened-up concourses, redone press boxes, 320 club seats, club lounges, a VIP elevator, a shiny new facade. Maybe you glimpsed the changes during Texas-OU or the eighth annual Diwali Mela celebration. In all, it’s yet another nice touch-up for the 83-year-old facility formerly known as Fair Park Stadium.
Click to enlarge: Bruce Springsteen at the Cotton Bowl on September 13, 1985 -- the night the crickets attacked (Ed Sackett/Staff photographer)
So … now what?
That was more or less the one question asked over and over and over at Monday’s meeting of the Dallas City Council’s Quality of Life & Environment Committee, where chairman Dwaine Caraway demanded to know how the city intends to compete with other cities he believes are stealing Dallas’ entertainment and sports dollars.
“We got a great vision,” he told Park and Recreation Director Willis Winters and Executive General Manager Daniel Huerta, who briefed the council the day before Chanel takes over Fair Park. “We’re kicking the ball off in the right direction. The Cotton Bowl has all of my support.” The problem, he said, is that “we’re in competition, and folks don’t really care about us. Frisco doesn’t really care about us. Jerry Jones doesn’t really care about us. They want to take the fruits of our labor and take it to another level.”
The briefing is below and offers a sneak peek at the 2014 calendar, with an unnamed music fest in the spring and a international soccer tourney in the summer. But some on the council feel that’s just not enough.
Caraway said it’s about protecting not just the Cotton Bowl but all of Fair Park, which has a needs list as big as Big Tex. At which point he floated the idea of a half-cent sales tax that would fund improvements to the park and add staffers who would promote Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl as viable venues. It’s been tried before: In August 1992 Dallas voters were asked how they felt about a one-year, half-cent sales tax that would kick $60 million toward Fair Park. It was met with a decidedly Big Tex response.
Caraway, who found at least one supporter in Carolyn Davis, said he’s well aware how that last vote turned out. But he’s never been one to take “no freaking way” as an answer.
“North Dallas may not like it, but if the needs are put before us and we can see how it will benefit us in the long run,” then it’s something worth considering, he said. “How much in promotional dollars do we need to have? We need to increase the staff. Once folks know we are a viable facility, then folks will begin to take a different look at us.”
Said Davis, “We’re either going to have to increase our bond dollars for 2017, or we’re going to have to do something like a sales tax.” She also recommended trying to bring the annual Madison-Lincoln game to the Cotton Bowl — the so-called “South Dallas Super Bowl.”
Click to enlarge: Back when the Cotton Bowl was home to Your Dallas Cowboys (File photo)
Huerta told the council that the reason Dallas has invested so much in the Cotton Bowl — $25-plus million this time around on the heels of $58 million spent in 2007 and ’08 — is because of “changes in the market demand,” referring to, among other things, AT&T Stadium, SMU’s Gerald J. Ford Stadium, the American Airlines Center, the Verizon Theatre at Grand Prarie and others.
“It’s very important we continue to invest in the stadium,” said Huerta, who noted that without the massive expenditure in recent years, the Texas-Oklahoma game would very likely have marched back to Austin and Norman without giving Fair Park a second thought. Alan Walne, former council member and chairman of the board of directors of the State Fair of Texas, said Pete Schenkel, chairman of the State Fair’s sports committee, is actively working to bring another college ball game here.
“The reception has been very good,” said Walne. “There are a lot of discussions going on, but there’s a lot of confusion over the playoff series and how that’ll work. The formula has not been revealed to the teams as to how you’re going to quality.”
Click to enlarge: The I-30 traffic jam headed to the 1987 Texxas Jam in the summer of '87 (Richard Michael Pruitt/Staff photographer)
Fine, then, said council member Rick Callahan. What about music? What about concerts? What about … the Texxas Jam? (Which, incidentally, is the subject of a loooong-awaited documentary that will finally hit iTunes in March or thereabouts.)
“I still like to think there’s a few more large festivals that could go into the Cotton Bowl,” said the council member. Caraway also suggested bringing in smaller concerts and finding ways to “reduce” the size of the Cotton Bowl by, say, moving a stage closer to the 50-yard-line.
“We need to come with a plan that’s a little more visionary and put that plan out there,” he said. Caraway also said the city needs to make better use of the aging, in-need-of-painting Coliseum. (As an aside: The State Fair of Texas has long been trying to find someone willing to buy the naming rights to both the Cotton Bowl and the Coliseum; so far, no takers.)
Max Wells, president of the Park and Recreation Board, said Dallas is just lucky that the Cotton Bowl still stands at all after all these years.
“When you’re the stadium or field house that’s left, it’s not a kind world,” said Wells. “And if you look at Dallas, Reunion Arena isn’t there anymore. And Houston can’t figure out what to do with the Astrodome. In the end you’ll see it come down. When you’re the second big arena in town, life is cruel some days. I am very impressed with where we are. We do have lots to do.”