Dallas Mayor Creates Committee Surrounding Professional Sports Teams

DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF) – Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, on Tuesday, announced the creation of a new City Council committee focused on attracting and retaining professional sports franchises in the city limits.

Mayor Johnson created the Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Sports Recruitment and Retention via a memorandum to his colleagues on the City Council. Read the memorandum here.

”Dallas is the best sports city in the country right now,” said Mayor Johnson, who will serve as the committees chairman. ”But for too long, Dallas has been too passive when it comes to attracting and retaining professional sports franchises. Dallas is a big-league city, and this new committee will help us compete at the highest level.”

Mayor Johnson recently ‘sparked a national discussion about North Texas’ ability to host a second National Football League franchise. The mayor, who pushed the idea of a second NFL team based in southern Dallas, noted that the region is on pace to overtake the Chicago metropolitan area as the third-largest in the nation. That would make the Dallas-Fort Worth region — Mayor Johnson calls it the mecca of football — the largest market in the country without two professional National Football League franchises. The committee will explore the viability of such an idea.

In addition to football, Mayor Johnson wants the committee to discuss strategies for using the citys existing assets and opportunities for keeping the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars franchises in the City of Dallas, attracting expansion teams, and winning relocations of existing professional sports franchises and major events.

”The City of Dallas has already lost out on too many professional sports-related economic development opportunities over the years,” Mayor Johnson wrote in the memo. ”The Dallas Cowboys are based in the City of Frisco and play in the City of Arlington. FC Dallas plays in the City of Frisco. The Texas Rangers play in the City of Arlington in a brand-new stadium that should have been built in Downtown Dallas. The Dallas Wings also play in the City of Arlington. The Professional Golfers Association of America no longer hosts any tournaments in the City of Dallas, as the AT&T Byron Nelson is now played in the City of McKinney.”

The committees charges include assessing the economic, fiscal, and social impacts of existing professional sports franchises on the City of Dallas, including the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars. It will also assess the economic, fiscal, and social impacts of professional sports franchises — including the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, FC Dallas, and the Dallas Wings — on other North Texas cities, such as the City of Arlington, the City of Frisco, and the City of McKinney.

The committee will develop a strategy to retain existing professional sports franchises in the City of Dallas. It will also discuss the renovation of historic Cotton Bowl Stadium to National Football League standards and the Fair Park Coliseum to Womens National Basketball Association standards, including through the use of funds available following an affirmative vote in the November 2022 Brimer Bill election;

Mayor Johnson selected a lineup of committee members who are all chairs of other relevant City Council committees: Tennell Atkins, who chairs the Economic Development Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Affairs; Adam Bazaldua, who chairs Quality of Life, Arts, & Culture Committee and whose district includes Fair Park; Paula Blackmon, who chairs the Environment & Sustainability Committee, which is overseeing efforts to remediate Hensley Field; and Casey Thomas, who chairs the Housing & Homelessness Solutions Committee and whose district includes Hensley Field.