The mayor thinks a second MLB or MLS in the market would be great.
It appears that the mayor of Dallas, Texas has dropped the thought that his city should have a second National Football League franchise. In May, Mayor Eric Johnson floated an idea that Dallas should build an NFL state of the art stadium and get the Los Angeles Chargers ownership to move to the city. Johnson has backed away from the second NFL team notion, not that the Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wants another team within his market. Johnson is now looking for a Major League Baseball franchise owner or a Major League Soccer franchise owner to move into the city. After all, if things go Johnson’s way on Election Day, Dallas would have 30 acres of land available to build a stadium. Johnson wants area voters to say yes to a hike in hotel taxes with that money earmarked to build a downtown convention center to replace the city’s present convention center. Razing the convention center could open up 29 to 40 acres in the area and that land could be turned into a new mixed-use entertainment district.
“One of the things that I think would be very interesting, would be to bring some form of major professional sport to the downtown area in conjunction with the convention center project,” Johnson said. “The development that would be spurred by having minor league baseball, major league baseball, major league soccer. There’s a lot of things you can do down there that would be very, very interesting and would spur a lot of development and growth.” Dallas does have two major league teams, the National Basketball Association’s Mavericks and the National Hockey League’s Stars. Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers play home games in Arlington. Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas plays in Frisco. Neither MLB nor MLS owners will put a second team in Dallas.
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