ComTech News

I just got the news that North Texas won its' bid for the 2011 Super Bowl and I am pretty happy about it with a lot of help from.  A great bid package was presented by former Cowboy Roger Staubach. Now I know this is not a typical post for the Comtech Blog but there is a business lesson here.

Note the title "Make that Arlington"!  Now you may know the Cowboys as the Dallas Cowboys and that will be the name they keep, however, starting in 09 with the opening of the new stadium they really should be called the Arlington Cowboys.  Because just like the Texas Rangers they Cowboys are moving to Arlington and setting up shop in a new beautiful stadium right across from their baseball playing cousins.  Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has already gone on record saying that the new Stadium was "a key factor" in winning the bid for the 2011 Super Bowl and anyone with an honest bone in their body would have to admit that indeed is the case.

Now the City of Dallas was given every opportunity to bring the Cowboys to back to big D after loosing the team to the suburb of Irving in 1971, but decided not to engauge in "corporate welfare". 

The issue went before Arlington Voters about 18 months ago and passed by only a 2% margin.  To close the deal the City of Arlington kicked in 325 million dollars to bring the Cowboys and their new stadium to their city.  So for 325 million Arlington Texas landed the number one football franchise (from a marketing standpoint) in the world.  

The promise was that the team and the new stadium would return far more to the local economy then they cost.  Now the projections for the 2011 Superbowl is that it will alone bring in from 300-400 million dollars to the North Texas area, much of which of course will flow into the City of Arlington.

So with one Super Bowl the return of investment is just about secured!

This may shock you but even as a Arlington Texas resident I am not really a Cowboy's fan in fact I am the arch enemy of any true blue Dallas fan, the evil and dark fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers!  

Yet before everything else I am a business person and I look at a business deal not as a football fan but in simple terms of is the decision the right one financially long term for all of those involved.  Looking at this one it is clear that Dallas blew it and Arlington voters made the right decision.

Think about this concept when you evaluate business deals, think long term and upside potential.  The short term (good or bad) is seldom the way to think about important business decisions,

 ~ Jack Spirko

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