DALLAS — Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Dallas Business Journal here.
Fair Park's Cotton Bowl Stadium could soon become home to a professional sports team.
Fair Park operators Fair Park First and Global Spectrum LP, known as the Oak View Group, seek to enter an agreement with an unnamed professional sports team to conduct its "season league game play" at Cotton Bowl Stadium, according to an item on the agenda for the May 8 Dallas City Council meeting.
It's unclear from city documents which professional sports team, or even which sport, this involves.
The city and Oak View Group have been negotiating with the team to start playing at the Cotton Bowl beginning this summer, according to city documents. Oak View Group would book the Cotton Bowl for the professional sports team whenever the venue is not otherwise reserved, such as for the fan festival of the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
Dallas City Council will consider authorizing the city's Department of Convention and Event Services to provide a year-to-year subsidy of up to $296,000 per year for two years, totaling $592,000. The subsidy would offset $18,500 of about $55,000 in expenses per event in the Cotton Bowl, the city documents say.
Another professional sports team, the WNBA's Dallas Wings, is also soon to call the city of Dallas home, with the city council approving a 15-year deal to move the franchise from the University of Texas at Arlington's College Park Center to the Dallas Memorial Auditorium, part of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center downtown.
Wings CEO Greg Bibb and city officials also said they see the Wings' move as a catalyst for drawing other businesses to the area as the city moves forward with a larger redevelopment project anchored by a new convention center to replace the aging Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The city plans to renovate the auditorium as part of the project.
Bringing pro sports inside the city limits has been a key focus of city officials. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson in 2022, who has long floated the idea of an NFL team in the city of Dallas, formed a new city council committee focused on professional sports recruitment and retention.
This comes as the Cotton Bowl is undergoing a major refresh. In December, the city of Dallas agreed to make $140 million in investments to the stadium as part of the deal to keep the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma's annual football game at the venue for another decade. Construction began in March.
FC Dallas also hosted a preseason match in the stadium earlier this year.
