DALLAS -- The Dallas city council yesterday escalated its battle with the suburbs to retain its professional basketball and hockey teams, to fight emerging competition for the Cotton Bowl Classic, and to grab back the Cowboys football team.
After declaring that sports was big business in Dallas, council members voted 11 to 1 to spend $550,000 on a feasibility study to build a sports and entertainment arena that would have more than 20,000 seats and cost an estimated $184 million.
If built, the project would replace Reunion Arena as a home for the Dallas Stars hockey team and Dallas Mavericks basketball team, both of which are being wooed by suburbs from Lewisville to Irving with offers to build sport complexes.
"We are at war with our suburban communities. They are our economic adversaries," Mayor pro tem Domingo Garcia said.
Garcia and others also called for evaluating whether to build a domed football stadium to lure back the Dallas Cowboys, who moved to Texas Stadium in Irving more than two decades ago, and to beat back a bid to move the Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic there as well.
"We have got to put on a full court press," council member Larry Duncan said.
At the request of Duncan and other council members, Dallas city manager John Ware will put together a strategic plan for constructing a domed stadium in conjunction with the sports and entertainment arena. The plan, which could be done by city staff, is expected to be presented at an August city council briefing, Ware said.
Meanwhile, Ware said the city has prepared a financial incentive package to keep the Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year's Day at Fair Park after the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association's bid to move the football event to Irving.
Although Ware would not disclose the details of the package sent to the National Collegiate Athletic Association on Tuesday, he said the incentives included capital improvements to the bowl, which has been located at Fair Park for 58 years. The city will continue to negotiate with Cotton Bowl officials.
Dallas' competition with the suburbs heated up several months ago when Lewisville, Irving, and other cities indicated they would build sports arenas to attract the Stars and the Mavericks.
The teams were dissatisfied with the Reunion Arena, partly because it was too small -- about 17,000 seats -- and did not have luxury suites or club seating.
On Monday, the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association said the Fair Park football stadium was not competitive with other bowls competing for games, partially because it did not provide protection for fans during bad weather and lacked other amenities. The association said it wanted the Cotton Bowl Classic moved to Irving.
The move chagrined council members, particularly because the president of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, John Crawford, also was the head of the private group that recommended a new sports arena for Dallas. Dallas Mayor Steve Bartlett removed him from the city committee several days ago.
The latest controversy has underscored the need for Dallas to take action quickly, several council members said.
"It's not a game anymore. It's big business," said council member Paul Fielding.
To cope, several council members said the proposed sites for the arena should again be expanded beyond downtown to Fair Park and Pinnacle Park in Dallas, so that a football stadium could more easily be added. Garcia suggested the resolution, which was approved along with the feasibility study.
Plans now call for preparing a financial plan for the sports and entertainment complex. City manager Ware, who will head the effort, said Dallas is leaning toward public-private venture that could involved lease purchase or sales tax financing instead of general obligation bond sales.
"Our preference is for a public-private partnership, but we aren't limiting options," he said.
Ware said the financing plan should be done in October. If approved, the arena project would be completed by July 1997. In addition to more than 20,000 seats, it would have 144 luxury suites and 3,000 club seats.
In other business, the Dallas city council approved the competitive sale of $99.92 million of general obligation bonds using the remaining authorization from a 1985 referendum. Merrill Lynch & Co. won with a bid of 5.6058% net interest cost. Other bidders were Bear, Steams & Co., Smith Barney Inc., and Lehman Brothers.
Bond proceeds will be used for street and sewer improvements as well as other city services from parks and recreation to police.
