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03/01/07 Sold out to
that Arkansas Freak
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Don't you just hate what has happened to our city? We have been
raped and robbed, and the bad guys are saying we asked for it, that we
deserved it.
We didn't deserve to have a group of so-called civic leaders sell us
out, to rob us of one of our traditions, to betray the history of the
very facility their board is named after. |
Most of the people I know are blaming
the appropriate jerks for the Cotton Bowl Game being stolen from us. The
transplants, jock sniffers and ODB wannabes don't see things like native
Dallasites, regular Dallasites.
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3/1 James Northrup:
The "Cotton Bowl" game can go to Arlington, and Dallas
can keep the hotel bookings and parties.
Cowboys stadium did what exactly for Irving ? Leave it a
white elephant. What else ?
Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl need a make-over as something that
attracts people year 'round. Not
just when they are drunk at a football game.
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3/1 Dave Stokes:
In light of the Cotton Bowl Game
no longer being held in the Cotton Bowl, we should insist that
the sporting event be called ‘The College Football Game Formerly
Known as the Cotton Bowl’ or TCFGFKATCG. Hey, it worked for
Prince for a while. Then, maybe,
we can get Mr. Jones to name his team ‘Actually Closer to Fort
Worth than Dallas Cowboys’.
But don’t worry too
much. I am sure the TCFGFKATCG will sell naming rights,
and it will soon be festooned with some inappropriate corporate
sponsorship like the ‘Preparation H Bowl’ or the ‘Itching
Burning Feeling – why not try Tinactin bowl’. I guess the
‘Dallas where everything is for sale bowl’ would be too obvious.
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I haven't talked about Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) much lately. They
are always busy doing dirty work. Until the Cotton Bowl theft, they mostly
just ripped off Dallas taxpayers to benefit one of their own. They didn't
take one of our treasures and give it to another town, much less to a creep like
Jerry Jones.
Many morons are trying to blame Mayor Miller or the city council, but they are
so far off the mark. Robert Wilonsky has a great take on the whole mess:
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On KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket) this morning, “Dunham & Miller” co-host George Dunham was blaming Mayor Laura Miller for the Cotton Bowl’s leaving the Cotton Bowl. Sure, why not. Only problem is, George is wrong — at least, partially wrong. See, everyone’s to blame here, if blame is what you’re after at this late date. Hell, we can blame Ron Kirk, if you’re looking for a mayor to lay this on.
First off, why not blame the Dallas County Commissioners Court, which, to a member, though the Dallas Cowboys’ proposal in the spring of 2004 to build and operate a new stadium on the Cotton Bowl site was egregious at best and downright offensive at worst? I was there on April 30, 2004, when the Cowboys handed the commissioners their proposal in which Jerry Jones and his people insisted the team would “control all marketing and intellectual property and all economic benefits from all Stadium Project revenue streams”–meaning, everything held in the stadium, from Cowboys and college games to concerts and rodeos and whatever else the place may host. As I wrote at the time, the commissioners felt that the Cowboys had just told the county: Empty your wallet so we can fill ours. They were not happy.
And why not blame former Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher? After all, she had initially approached the team in February 2004 about considering Fair Park, only to come back and tell the team a few months later it was demanding too much and that the parties were too far apart. “She just wanted it to go away,” a source told me in June 2004.
And why not blame Jerry Jones? He initially told Dallas County he wanted $425 million of the taxpayers’ money for a $650 million stadium and demanded on April 30, 2004, a decision by June 30, 2004, to put the issue before the voters by November of that year. Seemed a little rushed, to say the least.
Then again, there were plenty of folks back then who said Jones didn’t even want the stadium in Fair Park anyway and that he was using Dallas to get what he wanted from another surrounding city. Me, I always half-believed that take: Jones and his son Stephen had commissioned a small fortune’s worth of plans and studies to see if they could fit a stadium in Fair Park, and I spent enough time with Stephen and planners to believe they were serious about moving the Cowboys back to Fair Park. But they placed on the county undue and unnecessary pressure to hurry a vote for political reasons, not pragmatic ones. So, yeah, they wanted Fair Park — but so barely.
And while we’re at it, let’s also blame Ron Kirk. How come? Well, in the spring of 1999, the former mayor went chasing after the Olympics — remember that? — and told Darrell Jordan, now a mayoral candidate, to backburner Jordan’s plans to dome the Cotton Bowl, which may or may not have factored into the Olypmics deal. Now, whether Jordan would have had success raising the dough to dome the Cotton Bowl is something about which we can speculate over a bong later, but in September 1998, Kirk said it wouldn’t be “fair” to “handicap” the Cotton Dome Foundation by asking Jordan to raise money to rebuild a facility that might not “be relevant in terms of our Olympic bid.” Kirk said he needed to take the Cotton Bowl away from Jordan and put it back in the city’s hands, at least until he figured out what to do with it. Kirk promised the delay would be no longer than 60 to 90 days, after which point the foundation could once again begin raising money. Never happened.
And, sure, let’s blame Laura Miller too. She never talked to Jones, even when, one night, they found themselves sitting at the same table during some awards banquet. At the time it was explained to me she couldn’t talk Cowboys or Cotton Bowl with Jones without the county judge or the city council present. So they didn’t talk, and by the time she looked up from her soup bowl, the team was in Arlington. Could she have done something? Maybe. Should she have done something? Well, folks who want Texas-OU and the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park — and folk who live in the Fair Park area — will say absolutely. Only keep in mind there’s plenty of blame to go around. –Robert Wilonsky
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This is very similar to what the
Dallas Diocese did to the St. Ann's community back in 1998. The people who had
actually paid for the property and the building, the Little Mexico community,
had entrusted their treasure to the Diocese for safekeeping. I mean they
paid for St. Ann's with bake sales. They loved their school. There
was so much pride in what they had done. They delivered a debt-free
treasure to the Dallas Diocese for safekeeping, much like Catholic parents
delivered their children to the church for safekeeping. The Diocese did
the same to the St. Ann's community that some Diocese priests did to some
Catholic children.
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The Cotton Bowl and the Cotton Bowl Game did not belong to those 74
Cotton Bowl Association board members. It belonged to Dallas
citizens. They had a fiduciary responsibility to us and to the
Cotton Bowl itself to keep it at Fair Park, to keep it in Dallas.
They betrayed us. They are so ate up with their little sense of
importance. At least they were. The board members must be
catching a lot of grief from their non-board member friends.
There's a whole lot of "we had no choice" stuff going around. |
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2/28
Don Abbott
Did you have an upset stomach
when you heard the news about the Cotton Bowl? You know, that
dagger to the belly button feeling that comes only when you've lost
something you held dear and the
accompanying fear of how in the world to replace it.
Since the vote by the 74 gutless wonders that comprise the
Cotton Bowl Association board was behind closed doors (such a Dallas
way of doing things) , we'll never know for sure if "grown men
cried". Even if they did, their tears were a proverbial drop in the
bucket compared to the depth of despair in the community when the
word got out. Not one of the so-called "people that love Dallas"
had the courage to stand up to their golfing buddies and say
"No". Even 73-1 would have made us feel
better.
Everybody knows Dallas is out
of control. Hell, even the kids feel it. But,
not since the arena hold-up (first tax benefit to the city just 11
years away), has it been so blatant. The history of the Cotton Bowl
was thrown away like a piece of garbage. This was a dagger to the
heart of the community, if it even has one any more.
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They had a choice. They made
the wrong one.
| Admittedly, I am no fan of that freak from Arkansas. He is an evil man.
It was a black day for Dallas when he came to town. From the beginning,
the way he dumped Coach Tom Landry was typical of how he operates. An
apologist says "Jerry
Jones played in the Cotton Bowl, and he has great affection for the old stadium."
Yeah?
He must have "great affection" for his wife at one time, but that hasn't kept
him from hooking up with one floozy after another. |
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2/28 Stan
Aten:
Losing a football game between 2nd tier football teams does
not have to be end of the Cotton Bowl. Why not use this change in
the use of Fair Park to create new activities to take advantage of
the coming of DART to Fair Park in the fall of 2009?
Instead of a football game
that lasts a few hours, why not a New Year's Eve/New Years Day
festival? There are e a number of
buildings that are not used during that holiday weekend. Why not
have a big celebration of music, dance, theater, film and food
centered on Fair Park and take advantage of rail access? Work with
the museums and cultural groups in our city. After
all, there is not much to do in Arlington except go to Six
Flags, watch the Rangers lose or watch the Cowboys fail to win yet
another championship.
We can make lemonade out of
the lemon handed you by the Cotton Bowl Assoc.
We could do the reverse of what Ft. Worth
did to Dallas during the Centennial. Make a bundle on the tourists
who are visiting Arlington and looking for something to do before
the game.
If anyone is to blame for
wrecking the Cotton Bowl, it is Ron Kirk who killed Darrel Jordan's
plan to dome the Cotton Bowl with private funds. Of course, there
is no one left at the Dallas Morning News who would remember that
story.
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Which one of the Jones boys knocked up the actress and doesn't acknowledge his
daughter? Doesn't matter. That's the way Grandpa Jones operates in
his dealings. These are sleazy people. It doesn't matter how much
money he has made.
I've never understood why good people think someone with money is a superior
being, based solely on their net worth or earning ability. Some wealthy
people are also good people, decent people. Some wealthy people are
scum of the earth.
It still comes back to the difference between Dallas and Ft. Worth. The
wealthy in Ft. Worth give back to their city, investing in their city. The
wealthy in Dallas take from our city and make us finance their investments.
Ft. Worth wealthy are Ft. Worth natives. We have so many transplants in
Dallas with no loyalty to our city. You can't buy your way into Ft. Worth
society, but that's not the case in Dallas.
sb
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