DALLAS DIASPORA
Incompetent leadership and greedy corporate overlords are combining to leave downtown Dallas a sports ghost town.
Went to lunch atop Reunion Tower recently. Barely recognized the city that once taught me to love sports.
There remain a few historic Dallas landmarks: The old red courthouse … the giant neon Pegasus … iconic City Hall … JFK’s white “X” on Elm Street. (Not quite as famous, across the Trinity River is Methodist Hospital where I entered this world in 1964.)
Out in the distance loomed AT&T Stadium, serving as a grim reminder of sports’ mass exodus from downtown Dallas. Once the bustling hub of professional teams and pertinent events, the city is on the verge of becoming a sports ghost town left with only fond memories and no future motives.
As a kid growing up in the southern suburb of Duncanville, Dad took me to:
*Memorial Auditorium to see the ABA Dallas Chaparrals (they left to become the San Antonio Spurs).
*The Sportatorium for professional wrestling (now a vacant lot).
*P.C. Cobb Stadium to watch Dallas Tornado soccer and high school football (it was torn down in favor of the Infomart).
*The Cotton Bowl to watch the Dallas Cowboys (they skeedaddled for Irving).
*Reunion Arena for the Dallas Mavericks (also now a vacant lot).
Looking down at Reunion’s grave site and then north over at American Airlines Center - where from the Mavs and Stars are both bolting - made me realize that, as a sports city, Dallas is a dead man walking.
Once an entrance, it’s now merely an exit.
Admittedly we’ve always played a little loosey-goosey with “Dallas.” Southfork Ranch from our internationally popular TV show is 25 miles north in Parker, remember. The World Cup’s “Dallas Stadium” isn’t any more Dallas than Six Flags or Highway 360.
But this is getting embarrassing.
The Stars are leaving for Plano. The Mavs will still technically be in the Dallas city limits but, let’s face it, they’ll be closer to Addison airport than Love Field. The Cowboys are gone, forever. The Texas Rangers never arrived. That’s Oh-for Four in the major sports, and we’re just getting started.
Soccer’s Dallas Burn debuted at the Cotton Bowl, only to migrate to Frisco. Same with tennis’ Dallas Open, born at SMU but now flourishing at The Star in Collin County. Just across the street lives minor league baseball in the form of the Frisco Rough Riders. Professional tennis’ year-end finals - once played at Reunion - now climaxes in Italy. PGA’s new headquarters and future site of a golf major? Frisco, not Dallas. The classic Cotton Bowl game even left its namesake stadium for Arlington. Pickleball’s world championships are held in Farmers Branch, adjacent to but not in Dallas.
So many departures. So few arrivals. Downtrodden Dallas has become a one-way street.
The city needs to urgently tweak its embarrassing official slogan: “Big Things Happen Here!” Because … do they? Really? (And we’re not even including the corporate headquarters farewells by AT&T and Samsung and the closing of the historic, flagship Nieman Marcus store in September.)
Flip-flopping, do-nothing mayor Eric Johnson should be ashamed. The man who once boasted Dallas was big enough to support two professional football teams now oversees a city that will (come 2027) lay claim to only one permanent pro sports franchise: the WNBA’s Dallas Wings. And, by the sound of it, that relationship may be flimsy as well.
What’s left of Dallas “sports”? Texas-OU in the Cotton Bowl. The White Rock Marathon. SMU. The Dallas Cup international youth soccer tournament. Slim pickings, right? Even the stuff we have, we’re screwing up. An elite rowing community at White Rock Lake is being threatened to be harpooned by shadowy city council member agendas and disgusting jealousy and greed of competing clubs. (Stay tuned.)
For a city facing furloughs in the face of a $30 million shortfall, seems tricky to justify the existence of a Dallas Sports Commission and its $2 million budget for … doing what exactly?
There was a time when we proudly called Dallas “Big D.” These days it sadly stands for “Departure.”