Dallas Mayor Wants Chiefs to Join Cowboys in City, Says It Can Support 2nd NFL Team
April 3, 2024
After voters rejected a ballot measure to approve public funding for renovations to Arrowhead Stadium, Dallas mayor Eric Johnson is making a push for the Kansas City Chiefs to move to his city.
In a statement to Everton Bailey Jr. of the Dallas Morning News, Johnson said he believes Dallas is "big enough, growing enough" to support a second NFL franchise in the market:
"Dallas was named the top sports city in the United States because we play to win. As I have said previously, our market is big enough, growing enough, and loves football more than enough to support a second NFL team—especially a franchise (and an owner) with deep roots here."
The Chiefs and Kansas City Royals have been seeking public funding. The Chiefs want to renovate Arrowhead Stadium, while the Royals wanted to build a new park to replace Kauffman Stadium.
Residents in Jackson County voted by a margin of 58-42 on Tuesday night to reject a measure for a 40-year extension of a 3/8th-cent sales tax to replace the existing tax on the Truman Sports Complex that hosts both stadiums.
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt unveiled a plan in February for an $800 million renovation project at Arrowhead Stadium that would begin after the 2026 FIFA World Cup and take four years to complete.
Hunt said his family would contribute $300 million toward the project, with the remaining funds coming from public taxpayers.
Johnson has been talking about wanting to add a second team in the Dallas market since 2022.
Mayor Eric L. Johnson @Johnson4DallasThe answer is Dallas. Why? We are about to pass the Chicago metro and become the #3 metro in the US, which would make us the largest US metro WITHOUT 2 teams. Football is king here. Dallas needs an expansion team and we would be able to sustain 2 <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFL</a> teams better than LA or NY. <a href="https://t.co/ikG0oeZq4T">https://t.co/ikG0oeZq4T</a>
In response to the Jackson County vote measure failing, Johnson posted an image on X of the Chiefs logo emblazoned on the Cotton Bowl and wrote, "Welcome home, Dallas Texans!"
It's not unusual for a major media market to have two sports franchises. The NFL has two clubs based in Los Angeles (Rams, Chargers) and in New York (Jets, Giants).
If the Chiefs were to consider relocating, they would have to pay a fee to the other NFL teams for moving. The Rams and Chargers are paying a total of $645 million over a period of nine years between December 2019 and December 2028 for their moves to Los Angeles.
The Dallas market has never had two NFL teams playing at the same time. The Texans only played one season in the league in 1952 before the franchise folded. The Cowboys played their first season in 1960.
Lamar Hunt, Clark's father, founded the Dallas Texans in 1959 as one of the original teams in the American Football League. They shared the Cotton Bowl with the Cowboys for three seasons.
The Texans relocated to Kansas City and rebranded as the Chiefs in 1963. They won three AFL titles and defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV in the final game before the AFL-NFL merged into one single league.