Dallas area: Should Arlington build the 'Boys a stadium?

I don't live in Dallas, but I think it would be great if the Arlington could build a facility that would benefit the community as a whole, rather than just JJ. I'm not sure of the specifics of the vote, but I would guess that the facility would multi-purpose and would potentially host the "Red River Rivalry".

 

No, ship them off to NFL Europe or the CFL.


GO EAGLES!

 

When you say, "good for the city" do you mean Arlington or Dallas??

i'm assuming you mean arlington.

the economic impact for the surrounding area for a football stadium is not great, unless it brings in Final Four events or Super Bowls. for the most part, it sits vacant, save 10 sundays out of the year for preseason and regular season pro football. very different from nba and mlb venues, which host anywhere from 41-81 events each year, plus playoffs, concerts and other events.

is it good for Dallas? i say no. i mean, it's certainly better than having the team leave the area, entirely. but dallas missed a great opportunity to have the dallas cowboys actually play in dallas. they missed the opportunity of using it as a focal point of redevelopment. of a return to the city center from the outlying areas. dallas is quickly becoming a sea of outlying areas, with little momentum pulling the other way. that's a huge problem for the tax base of the city, as it has been in cities like detroit and miami.

 

Arlington should build the stadium........Dallas should build the prison.

 

Having a state of the art stadium in town would be nothing but good for Arlington. I remember hearing a couple of months ago that studies showed that the stadium would be paid off in like three or four years, leaving the remaining years of the stadium's life to bring in tens of millions of dollars annually to Arlington...

I'll miss Texas Stadium, though, even if it is in pretty bad shape...

 

man, i always question those "reports." i'm so glad that MMP is where it is...but we've had nowhere near the development around the ballpark that was expected. i know some of that is attributed to 9/11 and ridiculous speculation on land value in anticipation of the ballpark...but it's the truth, nonetheless.

 

Hey, a way to use all this useless knowledge I've accumulated!!!

I think the impact of a stadium depends heavily upon a range of factors including:

1. Overall cost to taxpayers
2. Location
3. Area development plan
4. Timing
5. Type of stadium
6. Additional facilities in area

Those are just the biggies. There are other financial and developmental issues as well.

In the case of Houston, if we didn't build our facilities, we'd have no teams. No one thinks the Cowboys are leaving Dalls (or the Dallas region), so there is no serious threat there. As a result, there needs to be a good financial and developmental plan in place for a stadium to be successful.

This is especially true in the case of a large football-style stadium because it will hold the fewest events of any of the standard facilities. Baseball holds the narrowest range of events because it has to have a unique design and because there are a lot of games in it and it isn't as available. Arenas carry the most weight, sometimes with as many as 250-270 nights of a year booked.

With a football stadium, you have to look to VERY large events and things that just can't be held in another building. Those aren't as frequent. To maximize its impact, you really have to do like Reliant did and make sure it has adequate convention and hotel facilities nearby - or at least excellent public transportation to the hotels.

Not knowing that much about Arlington, it is hard to say how beneficial a stadium would be outside of keeping the Cowboys in that small municipality. But, the Cowboys will get some stadium somewhere. You can count on that.

 

It hasn't had nearly as much to do with 9/11 as it had to do with land/developer squabbles. There were quite a few properties in and around that area where people who had paid very little for the land way back when were demanding huge money from developers to sell out. Some even thought they could open up their own businesses on them or take a cut of whatever business was there. No one expected that so many of these guys would just turn their vacant lots into parking lots.

That really slowed down the development of a lot of lots that sat bare, became parking lots or had abandonded buildings. A couple of retail land developers also lost their loans due to their own shaky financing schemes and had to back out leaving some developments in limbo.

One other issue has been the gap of several blocks between the main business district and the ballpark/arena/convention center. The only way to get there is to walk on street level. There is no tunnel access and no light rail. It has slowed foot traffic and caused retail developers to wait for others to build before they make a move.

The land values on the east end have been steadily rising, but the properties have been slow to change. Unlike the theater district where you had planned retail developments, outdoor parks, etc, on the east side, there just wasn't much there to begin with and it isn't in the center of the main business district where everyone is already (i.e. Main Street).

Still, that part of town, which had, BY FAR, the most difficult road to hoe when it came to re-building itself, has been steadily improving particularly since Toyota Center opened. It is just slower because it still isn't a regular destination like Main St. or the theater district. But, that will happen eventually.

 

totally agreed. it's on the way. it will happen. but it hasn't yet.

occupancy rate at the inn at the ballpark have hovered under 5% on weekends. that's ridiculous. there is currently only one real bar/grill right near the ballpark.

i'm totally with you on the "gap"...it's about 7 blocks away from the other entertainment zones downtown. seems so far out of the way when you're down there.

9/11 only came to mind with tillman fertita. the ballpark lofts, in particular, didn't happen as a direct result of the downturn in the economy that fertita ascribed to 9/11.

i was aware of some the squabbling you mentioned...and also the insane overvaluation of land in anticipation of it coming up and even in the year immediately following its opening.

i'm sure it takes awhile. while visiting chicago this summer, i caught a game at wrigley with a friend. he's from colorado, but said, "hey...give the area around MMP 100 years, and it will be this good, too!"

 

I live about a block away from Texas Stadium and it is the ugliest concrete pimple to ever grace the face of the Earth. That said, I think the move to Arlington would be bad, but probably make sense since there are more convention centers there and such. If they could put it downtown that would be cool as well. The Cotton Bowl is one of the most uncomfortable stadiums I've ever been in.

 

I don't like paying higher sales tax.. but as long as I live outside of the area that has to pay higher sales tax.. I'd be okay with it

 

No doubt, those tiny seats are difficult to squeeze my 6'2" 215 lb frame into...