Blame Lincoln (not Miller) for Cotton Bowl move

by Shawn Williams of Dallas South

With the news of the Cotton Bowl game moving to Jerry World in Arlington, critics have again placed the blame at the feet of Laura Miller and the City of Dallas. The mayor and the council are easy targets. I mean it has to be somebody's fault that the new stadium wasn't built in Dallas….right.

But the Cowboys, the Cotton Bowl, and one day maybe Texas/OU will all be in Arlington for one reason:

a penny

It's as simple as that. Anyone who makes it more complicated is trying to sell more newspapers, solicit more listeners, or they are out and out lying.

Arlington will finance the new Cowboys stadium the same way that they paid for The Ballpark in Arlington: with a 1¢ sales tax. Many local cities offer citizens public transit with their penny, Arlington builds stadiums for billionaires. This is America, that's their right.

Arlington, Texas (the country's 50th most populous city) is the largest city in the U.S. that does not offer its citizens public transportation. In May of 2002, Arlington residents voted against the creation of the Arlington Transit Authority, and effectively voted yes to the new Cowboys project.

DART operations are funded by a one-cent sales tax levied by member cities on all retail transactions. So cities like Irving, Richardson, Plano, and of course Dallas, were effectively out of the running on the new stadium from the start. The half-hearted proposal the Cowboys sent Dallas was a perfect way to paint the city as the bad guy, knowing all the while they would end up in Ag Town.

Does anyone really believe Irving would have let the Cowboys walk away if there was ANYTHING they could have done about it?

But local T.V., radio, and news folks will lament the passing of the grand Cotton Bowl tradition and talk about how Dallas, its mayor, and its city council couldn't stop fighting long enough to prevent it. Give me a break.

If the Cowboys wanted to be in Dallas, they would be. It's not as important for a football stadium to be in a downtown area as it is for a basketball or baseball arena. Everyone knows the Rangers should be in downtown Dallas. Blame the penny (and the President for that matter).

Give me DART rail over Cowboy Land any day of the week. It's easy to lob bombs at Dallas from Coppell, Lewisville, or Grapevine, but I support Madame Mayor on this one. We'll get our share of the dollars when the Super Bowl, Final Four, and Cotton Bowl roll into town. They can't do it without Dallas, and I'm guessing it will be worth a lot more than a penny.

(see DART Sales Tax Revenue prepared by UNT here.)