OU-Texas to stay at Cotton Bowl
02:17 PM CDT on Thursday, April 19, 2007
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA-TV and DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Mayor Laura Miller will announce Friday that the future of the OU-Texas game at the Cotton Bowl during the State Fair will be extended through 2015, several Dallas officials said Thursday.
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Those officials, who did not wish to be named, said the announcement will be made at a 9 a.m. Friday news conference on the 50-year line of the Cotton Bowl.
The Grambling-Prairie View game, which also is played at the Cotton Bowl during the State Fair, also will be extended through 2015 as well.
"We're going to have some good news to share with the world tomorrow." said a city official familiar with city negotiations with the two schools.
City Council member Mitchell Rasansky confirmed that Ms. Miller twice called him Thursday morning.
“What she basically said is that they reached an agreement through 2015,” Mr. Rasanksy said.
Businessman Pete Schenkel, who’s helped lead negotiations to reach a contract extension for the OU/Texas game, confirmed that there would be an announcement Friday about the OU/Texas game.
He declined to offer details, saying, “I will talk to you tomorrow about it, but just not today. It wouldn’t be the right thing.”
The new contracts – which must be approved by the City Council – include a boost in financial incentives for the two schools, some from funds currently going to the Cotton Bowl Association for the ATT Cotton Bowl Classic. That game is moving to the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington in 2010.
The officials said the contract extension was a direct result of renovations now underway at the aging stadium.
"It is a direct result of our willingness to spend the money to invest in the Cotton Bowl," another official said. "This contract wouldn't have happened without it."
The officials praised Mayor Miller and her negotiating committee in securing the game. The Mayor's office says she will have no comment until Friday's news conference.
In February, organizers of the 77-year-old stadium’s namesake game, the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, announced they’d move the annual contest to the Dallas Cowboys’ new retractable-roof stadium in Arlington. The move is scheduled to take effect in 2010.
The announcement sowed doubt in the minds of some city leaders about the stadium’s long-term viability. Several Dallas mayoral candidates, for example, have talked of considering withholding the $30 million in “Phase II” stadium improvements unless current or new football tenants signed extended contracts to play in at the Cotton Bowl.
In a Dallas Morning News poll conducted in March, 48 percent of respondent said Dallas shouldn’t used $30 million in public bond money to renovate and upgrade the Cotton Bowl. About 40 percent of respondents said the city should spent the money.
The $30 million in planned improvements would follow an initial, $20 million improvement phase already underway and funded jointly by Dallas City Hall and the State Fair of Texas. This first phase includes an already-installed video scoreboard and the replacement of nearly all of the stadium’s seats.
But several colleges who don’t currently play at the Cotton Bowl have for months been considering playing annual or periodic football there, wooed by State Fair of Texas, business and city officials. The schools include Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, the University of Notre Dame, Oklahoma State University, Baylor University and Louisiana State University, State Fair officials say.
City and State Fair officials have also expressed hope of attracting college football conference championship games and international-class soccer contests to a renovated Cotton Bowl.
City-owned Fair Park, inside which the Cotton Bowl stands, is itself undergoing a slate of renovations, funded by tens of millions of dollars in voter-approved bond funds, as well as State Fair funds.
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I had a hard time reading it so I fixed some mistakes.