Darryl Baker
                             

11/26/07  Arkansas Freak controls all factors of North Central Texas

For the past week, the radio talk jocks have touched on the news that the seats at Grandpa Jones' new stadium will be unaffordable to the majority of DFW area sports fans.  One of the most insightful comments came from one of the guys on KRLD's Ernie & Jay.  He said none of the Arlington people who lost their homes to Jerry Jones will be able to afford a ticket.  (If you haven't checked them out on KRLD, you are missing some good LOCAL ISSUE discussions.)

Even WFAA's Dale Hansen, who thinks the sky's the limit for spending tax dollars on sports facilities, questioned whether pricing regular people out of game attendance is a good thing.

Isn't it amazing how stratified our society has become?  Sports should be the great equalizer, bringing people together, creating a community goal, etc., etc., etc.  Instead, professional sports team owners have done more to create class divisions than any tin horn dictator could imagine.

When they started doing luxury boxes at sports facilities to protect hoity-toity from the hoity-poory, it was inevitable that some owner would try to exclude the working class from attending the games at all.  Apparently, that's Grandpa Jones' plan for his stadium with the seat prices he has announced.  Assuming you can buy one of the $16,000-$50,000 seat licenses, you can buy a $350 game ticket.  It will be interesting to see who buys those seat licenses.

No one is mentioning Grandpa Jones' plans originally called for "affordable" tickets in the SRO section at both ends of the stadium.  Is that still part of his plans?  SRO, as in standing room only? I can't wait until those real football fans standing around and packed in like sardines realize the moneyed crowd in the seats above are looking down at them, in every way.  Then, there's the issue of how the height impaired (as in short of stature) are going to be able to see the game over the heads of taller sardines.

It's not an issue for me.  When I was younger, I often went to Texas Stadium for Cowboy games.  I worked for a law firm that represented the team owners, back when the Murchison's were really rich.  It was fun, but a hassle.  Now, my husband and I sit in comfy chairs in front of our 50" plasma.  We don't need binoculars or have to stand in line at the bathrooms.  Even from the comfort of our home, Grandpa Jones has reached out to tap us for more money to him.  We had to switch from cable to dish to get the Cowboys/Packers game this week.  Eventually, we all will have to pay extra to watch Cowboy games.

What's money?  To the likes of Grandpa Jones, what we have isn't really ours anyway.  By their standards, we are only holding THEIR  money that they will reclaim when they are ready.

When you drive around town and see all the new monster houses -- the ones that make McMansions look like starter houses, you have to wonder just how many rich people there are in this town.  I just don't see those monster homeowners trekking out to Arlington in all that traffic to watch a football game on a regular basis.  They might shell out the $$ for a seat license and actually buy season tickets, but actually driving to Arlington? 

It's the driving to Arlington that's the deal breaker.  There's no easy way to get there.  But hold on, the entire region is going to get to pay to secure a better route to Grandpa Jones' stadium.  Fresh off completely prostituting itself as a political arm of the Pave the Trinity campaign, the Dallas Managed News is now beating the drums for yet another toll road in this region.  This one is for SH-161.  The DMN wants to turn another state highway into a toll road to benefit Grampa Jones.  Infighting on 161: Toll road too cruicial to be delayed (DallasNews.com, Editorials, 11/23/7).

Will someone tell me where my highway taxes go?

The fun part of all this is the intramural squabbling among local plutocrats.  Their greed may be to our benefit.  There is a bottom to the public well, and the plutocrats are battling to control where the public dollars are spent. 

Arlington voters are beyond stupid.  In several elections, Arlington turned down mass transit.  They voted FOR a baseball stadium that never delivered the development and revenue promised.  They could see with their own eyes that Texas Stadium never delivered the development and revenue promised to Irving, but they again voted FOR another tax on themselves to fund a billionaire's place of business, where they will never be able to afford to go.  With their current crime wave and police manpower shortage, you might expect those tax happy Arlington voters to support an additional sales tax devoted to public safety.  No, Arlington voters never vote to improve their own quality of life.  They voted YES to benefit an Arkansas billionaire and voted NO to protect themselves.  Go figure!

It is sad when regular people in Arlington are so victimized by their stupid neighbors and the plutocrats, but it's the risk you take when you live in Arlington.  

Dallas lost nothing when Grandpa Jones chose Arlington for his stadium.  The kind of people who can afford $16,000-$50,000 for a seat license are not going to hang out in Arlington.  Since Cowboy season tickets are not really going to be available to the unwashed masses, the elite attending Cowboy games will  head out right after the games - if they even go. 

Of course, Grandpa Jones intends to destroy the Cotton Bowl.  For some reason, the ODB is helping him do just that.  There is no municipal loyalty among the ODB, because so many of those who run this town are not from this town. 

Grandpa Jones seems to have the key to pitting the various ODB factions against each other to his benefit, but it may work to our benefit.  His greed and manipulations may inadvertently save the region from a disastrous building project in the Trinity River floodway.  There is just so much road money (toll road or public) available, and Grandpa  Jones has bought the politicians and bureaucrats he needs to get those dollars spent where he wants them and where it will most benefit him.

This is only surmising on my part, but the ODB went all out to help Grandpa  Jones snare the Super Bowl in 2011.  What happens if the SH-161 toll road isn't finished by then?  Oops!  We know the Trinity floodway toll road will not be done by 2011.  Oops!

The Lord moves in mysterious ways.

sb