2002 Offseason
With the offseason comes the time to propose a stadium deal to our prospective new home in Texas. Bill and I have three main criteria for that city:
1. A close proximity to Dallas
2. A decent likelihood of a successful stadium proposal (a rejected stadium deal would set back our plan 2 years!)
3. A strong desire for a new team
We came up with a list of three cities to be final candidates: Houston, Waco, and Dallas.
While Dallas would of course be our ideal city, the desire for a new team in Dallas is 0%. A very tough sell. Houston, on the other hand, has a high desire for a team, but is too far away for our liking. We want to be right in their face! Thus, our city of choice is Waco. A scant 89 miles away from Dallas, it should be possible to take fans out of their seats and put them into ours.
There are a lot of question marks though. The population is small (200,000), the growth rate is only 2.0% (far from ideal), and the average income is a low $26,500. Poverty is a harsh 21.3%. None of these factors seem very encouraging. If we propose a stadium, it will have to be small to have any chance of passing -- that much seems obvious.
Some good news is that Waco is in the 35th percentile for competition for entertainment. We could literally be the only game in town.
As a trend setting city, Waco is merely average, with a 56th percentile rating.
What gives us a glimmer in our eyes is their desire for a new team -- a healthy 70th percentile ranking! We can work with this!
Having selected our city, Bill and I hammered out the details of our proposal. In stark contrast to our over-the-top New York game plan, our modest proposal to Waco is this:
2002 Stadium Proposal to Waco
Stadium Type: Outdoor/Natural Grass (a grass field is a bit more expensive, but we hope it will limit our team's injuries in the future)
Capacity: 59,200
Club Seats: 0
Luxury Boxes: 0
Expected Cost $200,000,000
Team Contribution $100,000,000
Request From Public $100,000,000
Bill would gladly foot the entire bill, but league rules dictate that we can only pay for half of the stadium, with the taxpayers footing the rest of the bill. Bill and I figure that $100 million is the most we can ask this cash-strapped area to pony up, so our plan is limited to $200 million for the whole stadium. No luxury boxes, no club seats.
Nothing to do now but wait until after the draft for the vote. If this proposal passes, it won't be by much...
Cross your fingers, folks! It's gonna be a close one...
