Arlington’s City Council is set to vote next Tuesday on $273 million in investments, along with a 15-year extension on the Dallas Cowboys’ lease of AT&T Stadium.
The news broke on April 10 when Mayor Jim Ross told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial board that the city expected to soon finalize a deal to keep the Cowboys in Arlington until 2055.
If approved by council, the city would contribute the $273 million over the next 20 years into an account the Dallas Cowboys would draw upon for the ongoing maintenance, operation and improvement of the stadium.
In return, the Cowboys would commit at least $750 million to those same operations.
To bring forward the additional $273 million, the city would draw from voter-approved taxes created to fund the construction of AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field rather than the city’s general fund, according to a staff report.
In August, City Manager Trey Yelverton announced the city had paid off its $325 million debt — a decade before they originally expected — for the 2005 construction of the stadium.
To fund the construction of the $1.2 billion stadium to house the Cowboys, who played in Irving until 2008, the city brought forward the $325 million bond to voters in 2004.
That bond, which saw increases to certain tax rates across the city, passed with 55% of the vote.
In total, it cost the city roughly $490 million to pay the construction debt after interest and fees.
The city also commissioned an independent study of the Cowboys’ economic impact in Arlington, which found the team generates approximately $324 million in annual economic impact.
The growth of stadiums at the taxpayers’ expense has seen sharp opposition in the past.
That opposition most recently spoke out in 2016, when the city brought a bond to voters that saw Arlington commit tax dollars, capped at $500 million, to build the new Texas Rangers stadium. The bond passed with 59.9% of the vote.
Chris Moss is a reporter for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@arlingtonreport.org.
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