5xchampions
05-22-2007, 02:07 PM
Mickey Spagnola - Email
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
May 21, 2007 7:29 PM
Jerry Jones met with reporters Tuesday after the North Texas committee made its final presentation.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The game faces are on, and if you didn't know better, you would think Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and accompanying members of the North Texas Super Bowl Bid Committee were about ready to smear on some eye black.
The bus ride Monday morning over to the Loew's Vanderbilt, where the NFL owners meetings are taking place, was unmistakably quiet. Jones and the committee members entered this swanky hotel on the edge of the Vanderbilt University campus through a back door, just as the Cowboys would for a road game.
There have been meetings, and then more meetings. There was even a 30-minute presentation walk-through planned for Monday evening in the very ballroom they would walk into on Tuesday. And there would be one last team meeting before the final game plan to secure Super Bowl XLV for North Texas and the Dallas Cowboys new stadium was to be submitted to the NFL Super Bowl committee.
Anxiety was running high.
"When you have as much at stake, and you don't know what the outcome is going to be, the adrenalin starts flowing, and that's exactly what's happening here," Jones said here early Monday evening.
You would half expect a coin flip Tuesday morning to start the proceedings.
But the hour of reckoning has arrived. The North Texas contingent will take the floor in front of the NFL owners at 11 a.m. (CDT) Tuesday for their 30-minute presentation, complete with a stirring video presentation centering on the football tradition in the state of Texas, followed by committee chairman Roger Staubach making his pitch before Jones has the final five-minute say.
By roughly 1 p.m., the NFL owners will have decided if the Super Bowl in 2011 will be played in North Texas, Indianapolis or Glendale, Ariz., the site of this season's Super Bowl.
"It's a tough process to go through," Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones said, "especially doing it for the first time."
At this point, the competition for Super Bowl XLV seems to be coming down to North Texas vs. Indianapolis, although at least one owner said he would be voting for Arizona, that being Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill, who responded wryly to the question of who he would be voting for, "Why Arizona, of course."
Indianapolis appears to be pulling out all the stops, including sending Colts head coach Tony Dungy, fresh off a Super Bowl victory, into the room to makes its presentation - evidently trying to counter the name power of Staubach, the Cowboys' Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback.
"We are thrilled he will be the face of Indianapolis," said Steve Campbell, president of Indy 2011 Inc.
There are some trying to pit this as a competition between the names of Staubach and Dungy, though the Colts head coach tried to diffuse any such notion, saying, "If it comes down to that, I think they'll have the edge. Hopefully we can stand on our city."
Indy, though, would seem in need of making up ground. The Colts new stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, to be finished in time for the start of the 2008 season, will seat 65,000 to 70,000 people. The Cowboys new stadium, currently under construction in Arlington, Texas, will seat 80,000, but become expandable to 100,000 for huge events such as the Super Bowl.
Simple economics would suggest NFL owners would like to create as much revenue from the Super Bowl as possible. Plus, while the Colts are pledging 120 of their 140 suites to the NFL, the Cowboys' $1 billion retractable-roof stadium will have more than 200 suites, and evidently Jones has recently decided to increase the number of suites to be made available to the NFL.
Colts owner Jim Irsay tried to downplay the stadium sizes, saying, "I think it's important, but at the same time, it's not the only thing that carries the day," and went on to point out if size were the only matter, the NFL would have gone to the LA Coliseum every year to take advantage of its 100,000 seats.
The North Texas presentation certainly will point out the stadium's size, and it's flexibility, which will include having an open-air game if temperatures permit, expandable seating and the state of the art construction. Emphasis will be placed on the near 200 golf courses in the area that are normally playable that first week in February, certainly more playable than anything Indianapolis can present.
But there is more to the presentation than just that, and as Jones said, North Texas will emphasize tradition, not only that of the Dallas Cowboys, who arrived on the NFL scene in 1960, but that of schoolboy football throughout the state of Texas.
The video presentation will point out how a recent high school football game at Texas Stadium drew 45,000 people; the number of Texas high school students playing the game of football; and what football has meant to the entire state.
Friday Night Lights is not just some movie.
Then there is the rich tradition of the Dallas Cowboys, that expansion team that came out of nowhere in 1960 and rose to become one of the most visible teams in the NFL over the past 47 seasons. At the forefront will be a franchise that has played in eight Super Bowls, winning five. A franchise that for so very long led the league in merchandize sales and has been a TV-rating giant, which has generated sizeable income for the NFL over the years.
And as Jones pointed out here Monday evening, it was in Dallas, Texas, where the NFL as we know it today was formed, former Cowboys owner Tex Schramm and former Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt shaking hands on the merger to combine the NFL and rival AFL into one strong league.
Some might suggest awarding North Texas this Super Bowl bid on its first try would be just payback.
To further understand the competitive nature of just what will take place here Tuesday morning, this will be a secret vote, unlike most matters decided upon by the NFL at these types of meetings. That's how sensitive the awarding of Super Bowls have become.
And that is why Jones had plans to put on his best lobbyist hat Monday night at the NFL's reception for owners, saying he would stay there talking to his fellow owners "as long as it takes."
The vote also is an extensive one. A 75-percent majority of the 32 owners (24) is required on the first ballot for one of the contenders to win. If not attained, then the low vote-getter is eliminated. The second ballot also requires a 75-percent majority to win. If neither candidate receives 75-percent approval, then another vote is held, with the top vote-getter winning.
Serious stuff. That is why the North Texas bid committee already had its game face on when the members hit the ground running Monday morning. Nothing seems to be getting left to chance.
"It's very important to my life right now to make sure we do it right, which we have," said Staubach, who was on business in Las Vegas and due in here Monday night. "And now we've got to win it."
Play ball.
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
May 21, 2007 7:29 PM
Jerry Jones met with reporters Tuesday after the North Texas committee made its final presentation.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The game faces are on, and if you didn't know better, you would think Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and accompanying members of the North Texas Super Bowl Bid Committee were about ready to smear on some eye black.
The bus ride Monday morning over to the Loew's Vanderbilt, where the NFL owners meetings are taking place, was unmistakably quiet. Jones and the committee members entered this swanky hotel on the edge of the Vanderbilt University campus through a back door, just as the Cowboys would for a road game.
There have been meetings, and then more meetings. There was even a 30-minute presentation walk-through planned for Monday evening in the very ballroom they would walk into on Tuesday. And there would be one last team meeting before the final game plan to secure Super Bowl XLV for North Texas and the Dallas Cowboys new stadium was to be submitted to the NFL Super Bowl committee.
Anxiety was running high.
"When you have as much at stake, and you don't know what the outcome is going to be, the adrenalin starts flowing, and that's exactly what's happening here," Jones said here early Monday evening.
You would half expect a coin flip Tuesday morning to start the proceedings.
But the hour of reckoning has arrived. The North Texas contingent will take the floor in front of the NFL owners at 11 a.m. (CDT) Tuesday for their 30-minute presentation, complete with a stirring video presentation centering on the football tradition in the state of Texas, followed by committee chairman Roger Staubach making his pitch before Jones has the final five-minute say.
By roughly 1 p.m., the NFL owners will have decided if the Super Bowl in 2011 will be played in North Texas, Indianapolis or Glendale, Ariz., the site of this season's Super Bowl.
"It's a tough process to go through," Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones said, "especially doing it for the first time."
At this point, the competition for Super Bowl XLV seems to be coming down to North Texas vs. Indianapolis, although at least one owner said he would be voting for Arizona, that being Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill, who responded wryly to the question of who he would be voting for, "Why Arizona, of course."
Indianapolis appears to be pulling out all the stops, including sending Colts head coach Tony Dungy, fresh off a Super Bowl victory, into the room to makes its presentation - evidently trying to counter the name power of Staubach, the Cowboys' Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback.
"We are thrilled he will be the face of Indianapolis," said Steve Campbell, president of Indy 2011 Inc.
There are some trying to pit this as a competition between the names of Staubach and Dungy, though the Colts head coach tried to diffuse any such notion, saying, "If it comes down to that, I think they'll have the edge. Hopefully we can stand on our city."
Indy, though, would seem in need of making up ground. The Colts new stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, to be finished in time for the start of the 2008 season, will seat 65,000 to 70,000 people. The Cowboys new stadium, currently under construction in Arlington, Texas, will seat 80,000, but become expandable to 100,000 for huge events such as the Super Bowl.
Simple economics would suggest NFL owners would like to create as much revenue from the Super Bowl as possible. Plus, while the Colts are pledging 120 of their 140 suites to the NFL, the Cowboys' $1 billion retractable-roof stadium will have more than 200 suites, and evidently Jones has recently decided to increase the number of suites to be made available to the NFL.
Colts owner Jim Irsay tried to downplay the stadium sizes, saying, "I think it's important, but at the same time, it's not the only thing that carries the day," and went on to point out if size were the only matter, the NFL would have gone to the LA Coliseum every year to take advantage of its 100,000 seats.
The North Texas presentation certainly will point out the stadium's size, and it's flexibility, which will include having an open-air game if temperatures permit, expandable seating and the state of the art construction. Emphasis will be placed on the near 200 golf courses in the area that are normally playable that first week in February, certainly more playable than anything Indianapolis can present.
But there is more to the presentation than just that, and as Jones said, North Texas will emphasize tradition, not only that of the Dallas Cowboys, who arrived on the NFL scene in 1960, but that of schoolboy football throughout the state of Texas.
The video presentation will point out how a recent high school football game at Texas Stadium drew 45,000 people; the number of Texas high school students playing the game of football; and what football has meant to the entire state.
Friday Night Lights is not just some movie.
Then there is the rich tradition of the Dallas Cowboys, that expansion team that came out of nowhere in 1960 and rose to become one of the most visible teams in the NFL over the past 47 seasons. At the forefront will be a franchise that has played in eight Super Bowls, winning five. A franchise that for so very long led the league in merchandize sales and has been a TV-rating giant, which has generated sizeable income for the NFL over the years.
And as Jones pointed out here Monday evening, it was in Dallas, Texas, where the NFL as we know it today was formed, former Cowboys owner Tex Schramm and former Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt shaking hands on the merger to combine the NFL and rival AFL into one strong league.
Some might suggest awarding North Texas this Super Bowl bid on its first try would be just payback.
To further understand the competitive nature of just what will take place here Tuesday morning, this will be a secret vote, unlike most matters decided upon by the NFL at these types of meetings. That's how sensitive the awarding of Super Bowls have become.
And that is why Jones had plans to put on his best lobbyist hat Monday night at the NFL's reception for owners, saying he would stay there talking to his fellow owners "as long as it takes."
The vote also is an extensive one. A 75-percent majority of the 32 owners (24) is required on the first ballot for one of the contenders to win. If not attained, then the low vote-getter is eliminated. The second ballot also requires a 75-percent majority to win. If neither candidate receives 75-percent approval, then another vote is held, with the top vote-getter winning.
Serious stuff. That is why the North Texas bid committee already had its game face on when the members hit the ground running Monday morning. Nothing seems to be getting left to chance.
"It's very important to my life right now to make sure we do it right, which we have," said Staubach, who was on business in Las Vegas and due in here Monday night. "And now we've got to win it."
Play ball.