Cowboys Move To Frisco Shuts Out Irving, Arlington
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 NEWS) - The cities of Arlington and Irving may feel a bit rejected as the Dallas Cowboys announced the team's headquarters will relocate to Frisco.
After nearly three decades of calling the Valley Ranch home, the team is leaving, and Irving's mayor admits she's disappointed. She says she wanted the Cowboys to build their new practice facility in Irving's entertainment center property in the Las Colinas urban center.
"I think we missed a huge opportunity to have the Cowboys come to an area that was already built with infrastructure, had DART line there and ready for something with monumental impact like the Dallas Cowboys organization," mayor Beth Van Duyne told CBS 11 News. "And I think we were shortsighted. And that's a shame."
Van Duyne says she made it clear to the Cowboys that she wanted them to stay. However, the city council had already chosen a developer for the entertainment property in the urban center, so she didn't have a chance to suggest that spot to the Cowboys.
It's like déjà vu for Irving, once home to Texas Stadium, where the Cowboys played games for 27 years until moving to Arlington and AT&T Stadium in 2009.
"It would've been nice to have both together. But we couldn't compete with what they were offering," said Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said of Frisco's offer.
Frisco is investing $115 million from sales tax revenue to build the development. The school district is kicking in $30 million of that, under the condition that the district will have use of the development's 12,000 seat indoor stadium for high school football games and other school-related events.
"Frisco had a very rich offer. Good for them and congratulations to them. We've got what we want -- that huge stadium here and all of the festivities we have there," said Cluck.
There have been no long term plans announced for the massive vacancies the Cowboys have left in Irving. TX-DOT is leasing the former Texas Stadium site for the next two years during the expansion of Highway 183. The Cowboys own Valley Ranch and have made no announcement on what will be done with the land or the facility.
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