Blogs

The beast that ate Dallas.

Is it possible to up and move a river? Because if so, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will slap a “wide load” banner on the Trinity River project and steer it toward Tarrant County any day now. And the JFK museum, and Deep Ellum and the 2010 NBA All-Star Game.

In surprising news along the lines of facial hair on a President, Jerry has a basketball Jones and Mavs owner Mark Cuban is actually considering hosting an All-Star Game. Not in American Airlines Center, of course, but in the Cowboys’ new $1.1 billion stadium in Arlington we affectionately have dubbed "Jonestown."

More Kool-Aid, anyone?

More

Jerry Jones is an ego-maniac. A cold-blooded, bottom-line businessman. A ruthless competitor hell-bent on acquiring the biggest, baddest toys on the planet.

And, lest I forget, a friggin' genius.

Exhibit A is yesterday’s announcement of the pricing for about 50,000 reserved, season-ticket seats at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington. It’s timing, man. All timing.

Back around Thanksgiving Jerry releases the eye-popping prices and personal seat licenses for the joint’s elite seats, knowing full well he’ll absorb some public relations hits and initial fan backlash. Telling even your best, most affluent customers that they’ll be forced to pay upwards of $340 per ticket along with a nice down payment of $16,000 will have that effect.

But just look at him now. Relatively speaking, the prices for the majority of the stadium are affordable. Dare I say, cheap?

More

This joint is already jumpin'.

Okay, it’s not that cool. Unless you’re a fan of Arizona State or Notre Dame, that is. But it is a sporting event. And, no, it ain’t coming to Dallas.

In a deal announced just moments ago, the Sun Devils and Fighting Irish have agreed to a college football game at the Cowboys new stadium in Arlington on Oct. 5, 2013. I know, mark your calendars, right?

"We are excited to participate in this unique college football event in the new, state-of-the-art stadium the Dallas Cowboys are building in Arlington, Texas," said Arizona State Director of Athletics Lisa Love, who, I’ll be darn, was the women’s volleyball coach at UT-Arlington back in my college days. Good on her. "We believe this will be a magnificent game for our fans and alumni. Our coaching staff recruits the state of Texas, and this will only serve to assist in that area."

If you’re keeping score, the new stadium will now host the Cowboys starting in 2009, the Cotton Bowl starting in ’10, the Big 12 Championship Games in ’09 and ’10, an annual Arkansas-Texas A&M game starting in ’09 and, of course, Super Bowl XLV in ’11. There’s even talk of the digs attracting the NCAA Lacrosse Final Four.

Dallas, last I checked, was “hoping” to land Texas Tech-Oklahoma State, or perhaps another bowl game to put in the abandoned Cotton Bowl.

If I hadn’t told you in a while, thank you, Laura. Thank you so much. -- Richie Whitt