One of eight teams part of a new professional women’s soccer league will call Dallas’ Cotton Bowl home later this year. As of Wednesday’s council meeting, the team's name hadn't been revealed, but it will start using the South Dallas facility in August.
The Dallas City Council — except for one absent member — voted unanimously to approve a nearly $600,000 two-year subsidy contract between the team and Fair Park, where the Cotton Bowl is located.
The agreement will be overseen by Oak View Group (OVG), an asset management firm that manages Fair Park and the city’s convention center.
The approval comes a few weeks after the council also approved a contract to bring the Dallas Wings professional women’s basketball team to the Dallas Memorial Auditorium, part of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
The vote also comes amidst allegations of misappropriating funds contributed to Fair Park First — the nonprofit that runs the park — against OVG. A financial audit and investigation are currently underway into how those funds were used.
The new team will be part of the United Soccer League’s Super League. Eight inaugural teams from cities including Brooklyn, N.Y., Charlotte, N.C., and Spokane, Washington will launch in August. According to the group’s website the league could grow to 20 teams by 2026.
“I think we all know about the momentum behind women’s sports is really undeniable right now, Dallas is really at the forefront of this movement,” Executive Director of the Dallas Sports Commission Monica Paul said during Wednesday’s meeting.
“As more attention and investment flows into women’s athletics including a [United Soccer League] team to call Fair Park home, Dallas will remain at the epicenter of embracing and positively influencing women’s professional sports.”
The Dallas-Fort Worth team is led by the Neil Family, which “represents over 40 years” in various industries including real estate investment banking, professional sports and advertising in North Texas, according to the team’s website.
Jim Neil is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Churchill Capital Company, LLC — a real estate investment banking firm. Neil and his family will be the majority owners of the new soccer team.
“Women’s soccer is the number one women’s sport in the world and we are really excited to be bringing that to Dallas,” Neil said during the meeting. “You can’t have a successful sports league if Dallas doesn’t have a team, and so this is really important to us and I think to the City of Dallas.”
The deal was brokered by several city and elected officials including District 3 Council Member Zarin Gracey and District 7 Council Member Adam Bazaldua.
“The future is so bright in sunny South Dallas, and it’s because of momentum we have here,” Bazaldua said.
Bazaldua also revealed more on how the deal came together — and who was involved.
“I also cannot ignore the fact that this deal was something that was brokered by a bunch of strong women,” Bazaldua said. “To know that we’ve got incredible women that are making things happen for our city to also highlight the diversity of women athletics to me is extremely important.”
While most of the council praised the contract, some still had questions about the deal moving forward.
“Its sunny news for sunny South Dallas, there’s one little cloud,” District 13 Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said. “This agreement is with OVG, there have been some allegations and the city is undertaking an audit…so I think we need to look at this and ask the questions taxpayers would ask.”
In early April, D Magazine reported that Fair Park First “notified the city of financial concerns.” OVG legal counsel said at the time the group “vehemently" denies "any wrongdoing,” according the article.
Shortly after The Dallas Morning News reported the nonprofit's board decided to oust it's CEO — and then reversed that decision days later.
Rosa Fleming, the director of the city’s convention and event services department, said over the last five years a new contract compliance and review process has been implemented.
“Regardless of what we do at the center…we ensure that we are spending it correctly that we can we have a good accounting,” Fleming told the council. “We ask for all of the backup data and before we pay an invoice we make sure we have done comparisons, if we have questions the invoice processing stops…so I am comfortable that this will go well.”
The league will play a “split season” starting in August and ending in late December. Games would start up again in mid-February and run through May, according to city staff.
“The contract with this team will mark one of the many opportunities that we have to continue to foster economic growth and workforce development in South Dallas through our parks system,” Interim City Manager Kimberly Tolbert said.
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