By Jennifer Nagorka, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – New major league sports facilities promise more than they can deliver. But most politicians can't say "no" to these projects. So, when the owners of the Dallas Cowboys announced that they wanted a new stadium - and about $400 million in tax dollars to help build it - county commissioners and state lawmakers nodded yes. The Cowboys owners' plan is to build the most expensive stadium in history, and surround it with youth athletic fields and mixed-use development. The project's total cost could reach $1 billion.
The Cowboys have lobbied the Legislature to pass a bill that would permit Dallas County to establish a sports authority. The authority would impose countywide taxes on hotel occupancy and car rentals to help pay for the stadium's construction. Dallas County voters would have to approve creating the sports authority.
Let's hope voters reject it. In general, public funding of professional sports facilities doesn't make sense. First, there's the free-market problem: if a new stadium is such a great project, private financing should be available to build it. Second, the economic benefits of new facilities are always oversold. Neither the Ballpark in Arlington nor the American Airlines Center has dramatically transformed the acreage around it.
This particular proposal has special problems. First, it involves the Dallas Cowboys. Many fans are sentimental about this team, but in recent years, the Cowboys' forte has been producing sordid scandals, not producing wins. Why reward bad behavior with public money? Also, there's no guarantee that the Cowboys would build their new stadium in southern Dallas, where it might help revitalize languishing neighborhoods. That's just a smart pitch to make to local elected officials. Third, the convention and travel industry in Dallas is already hurting. Politicians may find it expedient to stick visitors, rather than residents, with a big tax hike, but that's also a good way to repel the very people - conventioneers - we need to attract.
While the current Cowboys' plan deserves a veto, it does contain two ideas worth remembering in the future. The first is regionalism. Facilities like major league sports venues are regional amenities - that is, people from many cities and counties use them. Therefore, they should be planned and developed regionally, the way public transit is. Dallas' Trinity River park and road system, and the new performing arts center, are two projects that could have benefited from a regional approach.
The second idea concerns how we use tourist taxes. State law requires local hotel and car rental taxes to fund projects that promote the tourism and convention industries. A sports arena may lure visitors. But the law also permits this revenue to fund historic preservation and to promote cultural projects that would attract tourists. Restored and rejuvenated, Fair Park, with its magnificent collection of Art Deco buildings, would be a major tourist attraction. It is unique in the country. That sort of project is far more worthy of hotel-motel tax dollars than a new stadium.
Jennifer Nagorka is a writer from Dallas.