If you have a weak stomach, don't click on this link. D-FW sports stars and politicos joined forces for a karaoke version of Faith Hill's song "This Kiss." The likes of Tony Romo, Dirk Nowitzki, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Jones, Ian Kinsler, Tom Leppert, Michael Johnson and Roger Staubach sang (that's putting it very loosely) on this video that was played before Faith Hill's Super Bowl Kickoff Concert on Saturday night at Bass Performance Hall. There's not a singer in the group, but it is hilarious.

Below the video are some other observations about the night.

Troy Aikman and Joe Buck were the emcees for the evening, and really, they should take their show on the road. Troy managed to diss the Fox robot that introduces NFL games, along with Rupert Murdoch. They also did a funny bit in which Buck took off his shirt to reveal a pink Tony Romo t-shirt underneath. These two are obviously very comfortable with each other.

Faith Hill flew in from Los Angeles for the show, and sang all of her big hits, plus a few covers. She took questions from the audience, and got suggestions on what she should wear to the Oscars the next night. Hill's husband, Tim McGraw, was "The Blind Side" with Sandra Bullock.

All in all, it was an entertaining evening. The next concert in the series will be in May at the Winspear Opera House with Sting. Committee officials plan to announce the act for the last concert in the next couple of weeks. That show will likely be a big act, since the venue is Cowboys Stadium in September.

Super Bowl committee officials want this to be a year-long celebration of the first Super Bowl in North Texas, so look for more events along the way.

In keeping with a year filled with events leading up to next year's Super Bowl, State Fair of Texas officials have selected "Super Sized Fun" as the theme for the 2010 State Fair running Sept. 24 - Oct. 17.

Organizers say "Super sized fun" describes what the Fair has brought to Dallas since 1886. The Fair is known for its oversized signature icons - including the tallest Ferris wheel in North America, the largest new car show in the southwest, the 52-foot Big Tex, and one of the greatest rivalries in college football - the annual Red River Rivalry between Texas and OU.

Fair officials are working closely with the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee to get everyone involved leading up to the big game. Fair Park also will host one of the official parties during Super Bowl week.

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Barry Horn had a behind-the-scenes look at how Jerry Jones snagged this weekend's boxing match.

Jones believes his stadium's seating capacity, its ambiance and its heavyweight video screen combined with North Texas' growing population - which includes a large Hispanic demographic that embraces boxing - are his aces in the hole.

Ross Greenburg, HBO sports president, calls Cowboys Stadium "a potential Woodstock for sports," equating big fights with major events like NCAA Final Fours and NBA All-Star Games.

"Put on a quality event and people will come," he said.

Top Rank boxming promoter Bob Arum and Jones preach that the sheer number of seats at Cowboys Stadium offsets the tonier price of seats in Las Vegas.

"It's simple math," Arum told Horn. "And watching replays on the big screen during the fight is something that has to be mind-boggling. ... Anybody misses anything, and believe me that happens even at ringside, and there it will be replayed bigger than life."

For Pacquiao-Clottey and its heavily Hispanic undercard, Cowboys Stadium has been configured for 45,000 seats. More than 35,000 tickets have been sold. That's a big number for boxing in Texas, where day-of-the-event ticket sales traditionally are huge.

Mega-fights, matches between two high-powered boxers, don't come along every year. But competitive fights that include at least one big-name boxer are relatively plentiful. Jones said he thinks he can host "three to five fights" a year.

Arum said talks already are under way for a bye-week fight at Cowboys Stadium during the football season.

Arum and Jones agree that they will both make money on the first fight card at Cowboys Stadium.

"Even if we didn't make a dime," Jones said, "in the context of exposure worldwide for our stadium and opening it up to the small guy who can't buy Cowboys tickets, this will be a successful promotion."

Jeff Mosier broke the story over the weekend that there will be no Cowboys Hall of Fame at Cowboys Stadium this year. The Cowboys have changed their plans somewhat and have incorporated some Hall of Fame features into the stadium tours.

With the Super Bowl approaching, a completed hall of fame could have received some national attention. But Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said there was no urgency to get it completed by then.

He said the NFL essentially takes over the stadium for days before the Super Bowl. When most people are in town for various events, Daniels said the team pro shop and most other parts of the stadium would be off limits to the public.

"They [NFL] kind of shuts you down from an operational perspective in the days leading up to the game," he said.

A completed hall of fame might only have been open on game day of Super Bowl week, Daniels said.

Jerry Jones apparently has Vegas officials on edge, and this has nothing to do with a simpler card-counting system or guaranteed way to beat roulette.

Tourism officials think the Cowboys are trying to swipe the Super Bowl of cowboys: the annual national National Finals Rodeo, according to the Las Vegas Sun. The December event brings an estimated 35,000 people from out of town and has a projected economic impact of $50 million annually.

The rodeo has been held for the last 25 years at the Thomas & Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Pat Christenson, head of Las Vegas Events and one of the city's top rodeo ramrods, is painfully aware that Thomas & Mack isn't even close to being in the same league as Cowboys Stadium. UNLV's arena, which is the valley's largest, holds about a sixth as many people as Jones' stadium. But the bigger problem may be that it's also 26 years older and showing its age.

The obvious worries from Vegas officials are that Cowboys Stadium is bigger and fancier. Also, the region is more centrally located for fans.

AP Photo/Ralph Lauer

We've suspected it all along, but when it comes to sports, there may be nothing that Cowboys Stadium can't handle, and nothing that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones won't try to put in the stadium.

David Moore on the Cowboys blog reports that Jones was asked Sunday if his recent excursion to Vancouver was a scouting trip to prepare a future bid for the Summer Olympics that would be staged around the Metroplex and at Cowboys Stadium. You may recall that in the late 1990s, the region went after the 2012 Olympics (won by London) but it didn't have Cowboys Stadium as a potential arena back then.

"Hey, I'll tell you what,'' Jones said. "Truthfully, we are looking at possibly doing one of the big qualifying swimming deals (tournament) there.''

When asked how the club would pull that off, Jones joked that he would fill the stadium with water and that, "it would be 300 feet deep.'' He then said a pool could be built in the stadium and stressed he was serious about hosting qualifying tournaments that lead to the Olympics.

"Now that's ambitious, but that's something we're looking at,'' Jones said. "We think it would be a tremendous draw.''

Jones also said he's talked to the National Hockey League about having a hockey game there. (The NHL All-Star game, perhaps, to match the recent NBA All-Star game?)

Right now, we're in the stadium's dirt season, with bull riding and monster trucks as the recent events. Later this month, it'll be Motocross.

Here's the Marketing Information Masters report estimating how much economic impact next year's Super Bowl will have on North Texas.

These estimates will help the state decide how much sales tax revenue will be placed in a fund to help pay for the costs of staging the Super Bowl. The Major Events Trust Fund can be used for huge events, such as the Super Bowl and the recent NBA All-Star game at Cowboys Stadium.

Super Bowl XLV Economic Impact

In his State of the City address Thursday, Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief prominently mentioned Super Bowl XLV. Fort Worth has already been named the official AFC host city, and the Taste of the NFL will be held at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Jeff Mosier attended the speech, and noted that Moncrief said that one down-home element is likely to be particularly effective in boosting Cowtown's profile. The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is scheduled for the same time.

"Where do you think those visitors will go looking for that true Texas experience?" he asked the crowd.

And Fort Worth certainly knows how to play up its cowboy heritage. Remember, this is the place that took longhorn cattle to Times Square in New York City in 2005 to promote the city.

Jeff Mosier also reports that the Texas Rangers baseball team has been on the books as a $1 million founding sponsor of the Super Bowl XLV host committee since last year. Now, it's just listed as a commitment from Tom Hicks.

Although Hicks announced the pending sale of the baseball team last month, Super Bowl host committee officials said they're still counting on the donation to help them reach their goal of 15 $1 million contributions. Bill Lively, host committee president and CEO, said the money could be donated by Hicks personally or through some of his other business interests.

"We have not burdened him with meetings until this whole thing is finished," Lively said.

Hicks Sports Group, which also owns the Dallas Stars, defaulted on $525 million in loans last year. Hicks has said that was a strategic default to force lenders to renegotiate the terms of the loans.

Lively said he's had no indication that Hicks has changed his mind about the $1 million sponsorship.

The decision to make it through the Rangers was symbolic though, Lively said. That would have meant that one of the $1 million sponsors would be based in Arlington, where the 2011 Super Bowl will be played.

Jeff Mosier had several interesting notes in his column this week, including one about the Super Bowl host committee's goal of enrolling 20,000 children in a Super Bowl-related community service project.

A week after teams could start signing up, the SLANT 45 effort has 104 teams with more than 1,000 children. Tony Fay, a spokesman for the North Texas host committee, said members didn't know what to expect from the first week of enrollment. The program is unique to this Super Bowl.

"Twenty thousand kids in a year is an aggressive number, but we're off to a good start," he said.

SLANT 45, which stands for Service Learning Adventures in North Texas, is an effort to combine community service, education and art. Host committee officials hope to have children in grades three through five complete 45,000 hours of community service along with art projects. The best art will be displayed publicly.

Teams can also apply for funding of up to $50.

Fay said online enrollment at started only days ago, but host committee officials - including former Dallas Cowboys star Daryl Johnston - have been giving speeches, appearing on TV and promoting this effort for months.

There is no deadline for SLANT 45 enrollment. Fay said that teams will be able to sign up at least through Thanksgiving.

Next year's Super Bowl in Arlington is projected to have a record economic impact of $611.7 million, according to a report commissioned by local organizers. But there will be questions raised as the Texas Comptroller's office finalizes its report about the game in the next couple of weeks.

The study was created by California-based Marketing Information Masters, which has done similar work on previous Super Bowls, nearly two dozen college bowl games and this month's NBA All-Star game at Cowboys Stadium. Spending attributed to that basketball game was estimated at $152 million.

Philip Porter, an economics professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, said he was stunned by the more than $600 million estimate. He said extensive research of sale tax collections in Super Bowl host cities and regions has never shown that kind of boost.

"I'm blown away by this," he said. "The numbers get bigger and bigger and more absurd. They don't at all reflect anything that ever occurs."

Porter said little of the additional spending during a Super Bowl stays in the area. Most of it "leaks" out to corporate shareholders and executives elsewhere, he said.

This new report, made public this week, also breaks down where spending is expected to occur and shows Dallas as the biggest winner. The study estimates that more than $5 million in city tax would be generated here. That's more than the estimates for 12 other local cities combined, including Arlington and Fort Worth.

More than 2,000 business people were at Cowboys Stadium Thursday trying to find out how to make money from scores of events leading up to next year's Super Bowl. It was the largest crowd ever for one of the NFL's Emerging Business workshops.

The league doesn't set goals for minority- and women-owned businesses, but encourages them to seek contracts. My business news colleague Sheryl Jean was in Arlington yesterday to cover the workshop. Here's her story about the event.

The world's top 24 bull riders are competing at Cowboys Stadium on Saturday night in the PBR's "Dickies Iron Cowboy Invitational." It's he first ever tournament-style bracket format in the sport's history.

On Thursday, Cowboys Stadium was dedicated as the largest dirt arena in the world -- it's just another Guinness World's Record for the stadium.

Tickets are priced from $20 to $150 for the event, which includes fireworks and a concert by country music star Gary Allen.

The format was created exclusively for Cowboys Stadium, and organizers say the 2010 Dickies Iron Cowboy Invitational will be the first true, head-to-head competition in the history of the PBR.

The event is also specifically designed for Cowboys Stadium which will make the physical appearance different from a typical PBR event. At the other regular season tour stops, there's only one set of bucking chutes at one end of the arena. At Cowboys Stadium, the field will be split into two arenas with four chutes in each corner.

Check back on the blog on Monday to give us your thoughts about Cowboys Stadium as a rodeo arena.

The North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee has been tech crazy with its embrace of social media, podcasts and streaming video. Now, they're tapping into the iPhone (as well as iPad and iPod touch) market.

The committee just released its official iPhone app this month. The freebie includes a countdown clock to the Arlington Super Bowl (354 days, 2 hours, 4 minutes, 9 seconds, just before I posted this). It also features a link to the Cowboys Stadium parking map, driving directions to the stadium, trivia, news releases, etc.

Give me your thoughts about the app if you've downloaded it. I just checked it out, and it seems to be hit and miss. Some features are only links to the host committee Web site rather than content customized for the iPhone.

I asked the DMN's tech writer and blogger Victor Godinez, and he agreed that one of the main purposes of apps is to provide people with information or entertainment that's designed to fit the iPhone screen. You can go to most Web sites on the iPhone browser, but you'll generally have to make the text larger and scroll side to side to see everything. A good app will keep you from needing to do that.

Some content on the host committee app (countdown clock and trivia) is designed specifically for the iPhone. Others (news, stadium, get involved) are only links to the host committee Web site and aren't usable without manipulating the screen.

So far, the app has a three (out of five) star rating after 44 people have weighed in. It was released Feb. 4. There was also an official app for the South Florida Super Bowl played earlier this month, but that one was $4.99 and also had a lot more features (essay from CSI: Miami star David Caruso, Super Bowl history, digital version of the game program and others).

The North Texas app was developed by Austin-based Bearded Pony, which has a quirky collection of software for the iPhone. Their other apps include a supermodel database, iDrunkDialer, countdown clock for the Texas-Oklahoma football game and iBug stealth recorder.

Eddie Sefko has the news today about Dallas Mavericks owner Make Cuban wondering if the Mavericks should play some games at Cowboys Stadium.

The idea is just in early stages, but it's obvious that the success of the NBA All-Star game got Cuban to thinking.

"If we can make the economics work, we'd look at having a regular-season or a playoff game over there," Cuban said. "We'd basically have to buy out the AAC date, as if it were an active date, and make sure all our partners [are on board].

"But there are a lot of strategic reasons, as well as economic reasons, to play a game over there. You can bring in twice as many fans, so economically it would probably work out. And it would be a unique attraction for people who wanted to come play for the Mavs."

Cuban told Sefko this idea is merely in the formative stage and he has not run it by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones or NBA commissioner David Stern.

Cuban said there would be no way he would play all games at Cowboys Stadium. But doing so occasionally intrigues him.

"You could do it as a fun game, for the spectacle," he said. "Instead of bobbleheads, have a Cowboys Stadium day."

So what do you think? Would a few games a year (and playoff games) at Cowboys Stadium be a good idea for the Mavericks?

The NBA dished out plenty of praise for local officials who helped organize Sunday's All-Star game and the events leading up to it.

Surprising kudos go to the University of Texas and University of North Carolina basketball teams. The two colleges played in Cowboys Stadium in December and gave the NBA a good overview of the stadium as a basketball venue.

Ski Austin, a league executive vice president, said that game allowed them to open up more seating areas they thought initially would have obscured sight lines. The seating on the floor is a radically different configuration than for other sports.

The Cowboys used the NBA's proposed All-Star configuration - minus the entertainment stage - at the college game to give the league a better look.

Even with that, it was apparently tough for the NBA. They are accustomed to playing at venues that are built specifically for the sport and have hosted hundreds of games. Without that test, the NBA would have had to find a hole in the Cowboys' schedule and have a dry run before All-Star week arrived.

"As an event producer, that's not a lot to work with in terms of preparation," Austin said. "That was the biggest challenge, not having the multiple trips to come down and work out every detail, place every camera locations."

Dianne Solis attended a news conference this afternoon by federal officials, who said almost $200,000 worth of counterfeit sports merchandise was seized over the weekend during the events surrounding the National Basketball Association's All-Star 2010 game in Dallas.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, working with four law enforcement departments, seized more than 4,000 jerseys, t-shirts, caps and other products peddled at the Dallas Convention Center, Cowboys Stadium, American Airlines Center and flea markets, said Nancy Kratzer, deputy Special Agent-in-Charge for ICE's Dallas regional office.

And much more could have been seized among the impromptu vendors, said Kratzer, standing before boxes marked "evidence."

Consider it law enforcement's dress rehearsal for the Super Bowl next year, she said.

"This was probably a dry run to see the trends, to see what we will see at the Super Bowl...We wanted to see what sort of manpower we need and what type of merchandise we'll see. We will be very prepared for the Super Bowl."

Many of the items were substandard with smudged lettering, or tags that featured what appeared to be holograms but lacked serial numbers that prove the items were genuine. Dirk Nowitzki's name was barely legible on one royal blue tee-shirt. And Chris Bosh's name looked smeared.

Jeff Mosier has a breaking scoop from the NBA following the huge All-Star weekend.

Ski Austin, an NBA executive vice president, told Jeff that the record crowd of 108,713 last night for the NBA All-Star game isn't necessarily a one-time feat.

The NBA has no interest in moving its All-Star game regularly to football stadiums, Austin said, but Arlington might be the exception. He described the game and week as a great success and the stadium as a unique venue.

"When you talk specifically about Cowboys Stadium, it's an intriguing idea," Austin said about holding future All-Star games there. "Things went so well for us, I think it has to be on the short list of cities and markets that we would put into a rotation."

The crowd at Sunday's game -- the largest crowd to ever see a basketball game -- was more than attendance at the six previous NBA All-Star games combined. Each of those were held in traditional basketball arenas.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones spent a lot of time talking last night about playing basketball at Cowboys Stadium and the world-record crowd it attracted. Here are some nuggets from the lovefest, compiled by reporters Brad Townsend and Brandon George.

CUBAN:

Regarding what he and Jones said and thought when the idea of hosting the game came up three years ago: "Can we pull it off? We know what we can do, but can we really pull it off?"

"I think we did."

And what happened when they came together at halftime and were given the attendance figure? "We gave each other a big hug. Especially with the weather, we worried that maybe it would keep people from coming and [out of towners] from getting here. But everybody found a way and I think had a great time.

It was mentioned to Cuban that the NBA All-Star game will probably never be this big again. "Don't put it past us," Cuban said with a laugh.

"Could any other city and stadium break the record? "I don't think so. I don't know where else you could do this.

"It would have to be an indoors stadium that holds this many. Jerry deserves so much credit because it's one thing to put that many seats in an indoor stadium. But it's another thing to do it so that, with the Jumbotron and amenities, people can come and really enjoy themselves.

"It was a big occasion for North Texas and we came through with flying colors."

Any moment that was a highlight for you? When you walked out for the first time, you could just feel the energy. It was incredible. An All-Star Game with that much energy, I've never experienced it like that. It felt like the Finals, and that was incredible. Everybody in the crowd, their eyes were wide and they were having fun. We did it.

JERRY JONES

Was this a one-shot deal? "I don't want to be presumptuous. I really am out of my league here. But if this could be a great experience for the fans and good for television, if all those things could come to bear and are positive, then maybe we could look to the future."

Part of learning process for the Super Bowl? "I think there's similarities and obviously the handling of these numbers of people will really give us some perspective. We're close [in crowd size] to what we'll have for a Super Bowl."

"This says everything about why the scope of this building is important, where the size came from, just to handle what I refer to as the back of the house. Our ground level concourse, two trucks can pass each other underneath the stadium. That's unheard of as far as logistics."

"The facility was built for this kind of fan participation, these numbers."