Cowboys And Arlington Draw Up Final Agreement For Stadium

Cowboys Reach Agreement With City Of Arlington

The city of Arlington and the Cowboys have completed an agreement that “would keep the team in a planned $650[M] stadium for at least three decades,” according to Jeff Mosier of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. The agreement includes a 30-year lease that “gives the team an opportunity to buy the stadium after that,” but both sides could extend the agreement “for an additional 40 years”; a $2M annual lease payment; payment of 5% of naming-rights fees to Arlington, up to $500,000 a year; and a cap on construction costs for the city at $325M, or 50%, whichever is less. The Cowboys would also reimburse Arlington police for “staffing necessary for traffic and crowd control at football games and other events at the stadium.” In exchange, the Cowboys receive all income from ticket sales, parking and concessions at all football and non-football events. The Cowboys can also add a user tax on parking and tickets, which “will pay for some of the Cowboys’ debt” and would not be subject to NFL revenue sharing. The Arlington City Council is scheduled to vote on the final agreement next Tuesday. The city and team can still withdraw from the agreement before July 1 if the planned cost of the stadium exceeds $675M (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 2/1). In Ft. Worth, Wethe & Claunch note the agreement lacks building cost estimates and does not say “where the stadium will be built, how it will look or how much land will be needed.” However, it does allow the city to “audit the costs any time” during the stadium’s construction (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 2/1).