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Fair Park’s Cotton Bowl Stadium could soon be home to a professional sports team.
According to the agenda, FairPark operator FairPark First and Global Spectrum LP, also known as Oakview Group, are seeking to sign a deal with an unnamed professional sports team to play “seasonal league games” at Cotton Bowl Stadium. It is said that there is For the May 8 Dallas City Council meeting.
It’s unclear from city documents which professional sports teams are involved, or even which sports.
The city and Oakview Group are negotiating with the team to begin playing in the Cotton Bowl this summer, according to city documents. Oakview Group reserves the Cotton Bowl for professional sports teams whenever the venue is not booked, including for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Fan Festival.
The Dallas City Council will consider authorizing the city’s Convention and Event Services Department to provide grants of up to $296,000 per year over two years for a total of $592,000. The grant will offset $18,500 of the approximately $55,000 cost per Cotton Bowl event, according to city documents.
Another professional sports team, the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, will soon call 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 Dallas Memorial Auditorium. , part of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center downtown.
Wings CEO Greg Bibb and city officials also said the Wings move comes as the city moves forward with a major redevelopment project centered around a new convention center to replace the aging Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. He said he sees it as a catalyst to attract other businesses to the area. . The city plans to renovate the auditorium as part of the project.
Bringing professional sports within the city limits has been a key focus for city officials. 2022 Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has long floated the idea of bringing an NFL team to the city and created a new city council committee focused on recruiting and retaining professional sports.
This comes as Cotton Bowl is undergoing a major makeover. In December, the city of Dallas agreed to invest $140 million in the stadium as part of a deal that will keep the venue hosting the annual football game between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma for another 10 years. Construction began in March.
FC Dallas also held a preseason match at the stadium earlier this year.
