02/08/2001

By Michael Granberry / The Dallas Morning News

Darrell Jordan is a busy man these days. In addition to running for the presidency of the American Bar Association, the Dallas attorney and former mayoral candidate remains committed to a burning passion: He, more than anyone, wants a roof over the Cotton Bowl.

But hasn't he heard the buzz about the Cotton Bowl and how its chances for survival aren't much better than an Edsel's? Of course, and make no mistake, he says: As a member of Dallas' 2012 Olympic Committee, his overriding objective is to help the city capture the Olympic games, regardless of whether the Cotton Bowl endures.

Landing the Olympics would, of course, necessitate a new stadium, whether it rises elsewhere in Fair Park or takes shape over the "footprint" of the existing Cotton Bowl, which opened in 1930. Nowadays, the Cotton Bowl is used for the Texas-Oklahoma game and the Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year's Day ... and not much else. Only the Dallas Burn professional soccer team is a regular tenant.

Mr. Jordan, 62, who spent years watching the Dallas Cowboys and his alma mater, the University of Texas, play what he calls some of the more delicious games in football history, finds the bowl's ghostlike aura nothing less than sad.

"I've never heard of anybody going to the Cotton Bowl and saying it's not a great place," says Mr. Jordan, whose Cotton Dome idea won a letter of intent from the Dallas City Council and gained the approval of the governing board of Fair Park before the city's Olympic bid required a revised approach. "It has some of the best sight lines of any stadium anywhere."

Although he would love it if the new stadium incorporated the footprint and facade of the existing Cotton Bowl, his primary interest, he says, is an all-weather stadium with a retractable roof that would catapult Dallas into the forefront of cities capable of staging the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the NCAA Final Four.

And it would be even better, he says, if the city could lure the Dallas Cowboys to return to Fair Park, where the National Football League expansion team first began playing in 1960. (The Cowboys opened Texas Stadium in Irving in 1971.)

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has stated publicly in recent months that he and his team want and need a new stadium, whether it be in Irving, Arlington or Fair Park. (The Cowboys' Texas Stadium lease expires in 2006.)

"I think Dallas ought to compete fiercely to attract the Cowboys to Fair Park," says Mr. Jordan, who estimates the cost of a new stadium with at least 80,000 seats and a retractable roof at about $375 million.

Before the city knows the fate of the existing Cotton Bowl (which, along with Fair Park, is on the National Register of Historic Places), Dallas will find out by the fall of 2002 whether it even has a chance for the 2012 Olympics.

By the end of next year, the United States Olympic Committee will announce which American city will compete with others around the globe for the games of 2012. Dallas' competition includes Houston (which, with three all-weather stadiums, Mr. Jordan sees as a daunting foe); New York; Tampa, Fla.; Orlando, Fla.; Cincinnati; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Washington-Baltimore.

After that, Dallas' mission will be easier to define, says Mr. Jordan, who believes the fate of the Cotton Bowl (or a new stadium elsewhere in Fair Park) will be an issue in the city's 2003 elections.