The answer to a lot of problems

It's all well and good that AT&T decided to relocate to Dallas, but the relocation we really need here -- the one that will solve all our problems -- is the relocation of an NFL football team to Dallas. And I mean to Dallas, not Irving, Arlington, Grand Prairie, or Frisco. Right smack dab in the middle of Dallas. In fact, I've got the perfect spot for a new stadium: where the soon-to-be-demolished Reunion Arena stands today.

New York has two NFL teams, so why shouldn't Dallas? In fact, New York seems to have two of everything: two basketball teams, two baseball teams. New Yorkers even have two professional hockey teams, for crying out loud. I know. You're saying New York has a larger population than Dallas, but I'll counter that by saying New York is not nearly as football-obsessed as Dallas. If the Dallas Morning News is any indication, the only two major sports seasons around here are the Cowboys season and the Cowboys off-season.

Now the team we have to convince to relocate here would have to be an AFC team because then we could dream of an all-Dallas Super Bowl. Think about it. When the Arlington Cowboys are playing at home, the new Dallas team is playing on the road and vice versa. Dallas football nuts will rarely have to spend a weekend during an NFL season without the availability of a home game to experience. Perhaps we could convince the Kansas City Chiefs to return to the city of their birth. Al Davis has never been that excited about Oakland so maybe we could convince the Raiders to move here. Oh, how sweet that would be -- two ego-driven, media-controlling owners battling for the spotlight. Fun times.

Just think about it. No longer would we have to cry over the fact that Dallas lost the Cowboys to Arlington. No longer would we wonder if we could turn that Reunion property into a money-making venture. And, unlike Arlington which thinks mass transportation is something that happens when lanes of I-30 are closed for construction purposes, this stadium will be conveniently located at a currently-existing DART rail station. You talk about an economic booster shot to downtown Dallas, this is it!

In fact, the only persons I can see being against this deal are Jerry Jones, Angela Hunt, Mitchell Rasansky and the writers at the Dallas Observer.

The reasons for Jerry Jones' opposition are easy to see. He's not going to want this kind of competition right in his own backyard. And I can see his point. Having the market cornered is definitely preferable economically than any alternative. Jones will even send his son and another staff member to City Council meetings to pose as impartial experts to say why this is a bad deal. City council members Hunt and Rasansky will argue that Dallas has no reason to be in the football business. Rasansky will even offer to fly in economists from as far away as Seattle to prove the construction of a football stadium adds little if anything to a local economy and will try to appear on a panel with Jones to debate the issue with Mayor Tom Leppert, the head of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau and the entire board of whatever the Dallas Chamber of Commerce is calling itself these days. The Dallas Observer will be against it because Angela Hunt is and at least two of its writers will file open records request demanding to see all e-mail correspondence between City Manager Mary Suhm and NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell. The Observer staff will also uncover data proving the land for the new stadium is overpriced, a report that will be contradicted by the Dallas Central Appraisal District, assistant city manager A.C. Gonzales and Parker Brothers, the publishers of Monopoly.

But I'm telling you, this could work. What are we waiting for?