DALLAS COWBOYS STADIUM 

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On March 28, 2000 a Tornado struck a damaging blow to Fort Worth, Texas, destroying homes, skyscrapers, churches and businesses. Five and 1/2 years later, on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita struck the Gulf Coast of Texas, homes were lost, much damage occurred, many Texans left homeless refugees.  In 2006, in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex city of Arlington, Hurricane/Tornado scale manmade damage erupted, disrupting hundreds, if not thousands, of lives, destroying 104 homes of an estimated 312 residents, forcing the evacuation of an estimated 871 residents from several destroyed apartment complexes, obliterating 32 businesses, everything from restaurants to tire stores to banks to motels. This was an easily preventable unnatural  disaster, yet it was allowed to occur, even sanctioned and paid for by the citizens of Arlington, some of whom may have even voted to pay for their own destruction. 

And for what has all this destruction occurred? A school? A new highway? A hospital? An airport? A military base? No, an untold number of lives have been direly disrupted for a new football stadium for what the locals call America's Team, that being the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. Yes, a sports palace, a private for profit business is being built on a graveyard of personal destruction the likes of which, had Mother Nature wreaked such havoc, the President would have declared it a Federal Disaster Area with FEMA incompetently administering aid to all the victims. But, since this is a manmade disaster, the aid to the victims has been meager, $5000 for apartment dwellers, fair market value plus a bit extra to cover moving expenses for home owners. Businesses were left to flounder, all the destruction scaring customers away while the businesses struggled to stay open, trying to find out when the bulldozers would be coming for them, with much frustration directed at those in charge for their inept execution of the ill-conceived project. Many will never be able to recover. Unless some clever lawyer decides to make this outrageous violation of basic rights and decency and eminent domain abuse into some sort of cause celebre.*

Below is Photo Documentation of 
what is now considered to be
the most Outrageous Abuse of the 
Principle of Eminent Domain
to ever have occurred in America.

March 14, 2008 we got FEEDBACK from one of Jerry Jones' victims, a victim who is among those still seeking justice from the very legal system that was abused to commit the crime that you will see evidence of below. 

The victim, Charlie S., begins his message saying, "Due to ongoing litigation I am not able to 'spill all of the beans' that I would like to. But the citizens of Arlington have been duped by the greediest, richest people in the land grab business."...click to read the rest of what Charlie had so say.

Scroll down to see the latest (April 11, 2008) State of the Stadium Construction Photos.
Be Warned: There are a lot of Photos and comments to scroll by on your way to the new Photos.

april2.jpg (68383 bytes) When we saw the under construction Dallas Cowboy Stadium today, April 11, 2008, we saw 4 Flags waving on top of the new under construction roof. You'll have to scroll down to find the enlargeable, clickable version of the flag photos, plus the other photos from today. And our speculation as to who or what the 4 flags represented.
We may have mentioned before that we've been Blogging since the first day of 2008. But it never occurred to us, til now, to make links to the postings that may have mentioned Super Bowl XLV, Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones or some aspect of the Cowboy Stadium Construction Scandal.

Below is list of some our Scandal related Bloggings,
 listed, Blogging style with the latest first....

NFL To Refund Thousands More Super Bowl Seat Victims Along With More Bad Super Bowl Blunder News
WFAA Channel 8's Dale Hansen Reports Super Bowl 
Was A Disorganized Mess
I Predict Super Bowl Week In The 817 Will End With A Massive Traffic Jam
Visit To The Dallas Cowboys Stadium The Day Before The Super Bowl Along With Thousands Of Others Finds People On The Stadium Roof
Ice Weather Raises Questions About Dallas Super Bowl Travel
A Visit To The Dallas Cowboy Stadium A Week  Before The Super Bowl
Close Look At The New Dallas Cowboy Stadium
Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opens With A Few Glitches
Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opens With George Strait & Reba Mcentire
The Mystique Of The Dallas Cowboys & Their New Stadium

The 22 Pending Lawsuits in the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal

Dallas Cowboys Attacking Homes Again
New Dallas Cowboy Stadium Survived April 10 Tornado

Jerry Jones and the Ongoing Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal

Jerry Jones & the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal

Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys and Human Rights Violations
Attacked, Hacked, Ebayed and Cowboyed
Dallas Cowboy Scandal
America's Team Post Mortem
America's Team Toasted
America's Team
January 15, 2008 we were driving in Fort Worth when we looked up to see the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Is it visible from Dallas? Click here to go to our Durango Texas Blog to see a photo of the new stadium, as seen from Fort Worth.

Click for a map showing the New Stadium's Location and other Arlington Attractions

It seems Arlington Mayor Cluck has come to realize that Arlington's outrageous misuse of eminent domain to acquire land for a football stadium may do harm to Arlington's reputation in other parts of the nation. At a Mayor's breakfast the issue of what to do with the closed Six Flags Mall was discussed. An Arlington native suggested to Mayor Cluck that eminent domain be used to condemn the mall. Mayor Cluck looked a bit stricken by the suggestion and declared something along the line of "No, we will not be using eminent domain anymore".

Currently approximately 500 visitors a day from all over the world are looking at our information about what was done in Arlington to build a football stadium. This webpage is currently our 4th most visited.

Did you know Texas has an Official State Dinosaur? 
No. It is not Jerry Jones. Click to find out who it is.
  click a thumbnail to view a photo 
A view from the air of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington's zone of destruction. We chartered a plane for a bird's eye view of the Dallas Cowboy Destruction. The Ballpark in Arlington is the circular structure on the middle right. The tan area marks the area of destruction that had been razed to ground level as of April 11, 2006. Businesses on the upper and middle left had yet to be obliterated. 

Note the large expanse of usable, uninhabited land surrounding the Ballpark in Arlington.

Let's get down on to ground level for a closer look.

A look at the wide open spaces surrounding the Ballpark in Arlington. The Ballpark in Arlington, formerly, Ameriquest Field, surrounded by a wide expanse of open land. One might think a football stadium could be built on that land, similar to how Seattle built the new Seahawk stadium and the new Mariner ballpark next to each other, with a huge exhibition hall between the two, all built without destroying a single home or forcing the evacuation of a single resident, in an area with far less open space than the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area.

Click for a map showing the New Stadium's Location and other Arlington Attractions

Let's take a ground tour of the destruction and see how eminent domain works in Texas.
A photo of a now empty lot, the house that sat upon it gone, the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium being built upon the grave.

One by one homes were flattened, rubble removed, the area sealed off behind cyclone fencing, police regularly patrolling in a partially successful attempt to stop looting of abandoned homes awaiting destruction.

 

The following is an excerpt from a very Insightful Blog.....

"The City of Arlington took the homes from their owners. No one had a choice. The homes and apartments were bulldozed, and a new stadium is being built for the Dallas Cowboys. Arlington technically took possession of the land, but the land is now underneath concrete that belongs to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Click here for a great analysis of the stadium problem, as blogged by a Houston lawyer. Click here for a full blown beautifully illustrated rant, a diatribe that should make our blood boil. It's a harangue that would cause us all to drive over to Arlington with torches and pitchforks if we weren't a nation of sheep."

The wise, insightful, brilliant Fort Worth, Texas Blogger who described this page you are reading right now as a full blown beautifully illustrated rant sent us a very appropo illustration....if you don't feel like clicking the image to see the bigger version, yet wonder what the small print says, it says, under Eminent Domain, "It's The Government's Term for Giving Me Your House."

Jerry Jones: Eminent Domain Abuser

Houses awaiting their destruction at the heart of where the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium rises from the ashes of shattered lives. The forced evacuation of these houses has taken place. These Texas homes now await the incoming storm of bulldozers. 

No one employed by the Dallas Cowboys, neither administrative staff or players, lived in the condemned destruction zone. 

From the Official Dallas Cowboys website 
(without a hint of irony)...
For the past 18 years, Jerry Jones and his family have owned and operated the Dallas Cowboys with a management style that places just as much of an emphasis on community leadership as it does on the goal of winning the Super Bowl. The dominant theme which underscores the Cowboys role in the community is to maximize the visibility, energy and celebrity of the world's most recognizable sports franchise and use those dynamic forces as a powerful means to help others. The results on the field have brought championships to Dallas. The results away from the field have touched the lives of thousands.

Click for a map showing the New Stadium's Location and other Arlington Attractions

An open field looking like a park where once houses stood and soon the new Dallas Cowboy stadium will sit. For a short while after the houses were removed the area looked like a park. That look did not last long. 
The start of destruction of an apartment building courtesy Jerry Jones and the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. The start of destruction of an apartment complex.

 

 

This was a man made unnatural disaster with the man being Jerry Jones builder of the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington. These photos were taken on a Sunday when no active destruction was taking place. We were not allowed to take photos or video when the destruction was actively under way. Does this not look like the aftermath of a hurricane, tornado or earthquake? But this is a man made unnatural disaster, so that's okay. Even though it could have been prevented, an option not available when it's Mother Nature making life hard.
America's Team? When the Cowboy's owner demanded a new stadium to replace the existing one, that being a stadium that also is not in Dallas, but in Irving, Dallas could not come up with a plan to build a new stadium, even with a badly run-down Cotton Bowl blighting an other wise beautiful Fair Park, providing the perfect location and a potential huge boost to downtown Dallas. So with Dallas not wanting the Cowboys, the small town of Arlington voted to build the new stadium. So, when it comes to paying for and building a house for the Cowboys they are not only not America's Team, they are not North Texas's team, they are not the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplexes' team, they are not Dallas's team, they are Arlington's team. 

D. S.
Fort Worth, Texas

click to read more feedback

AMERICA'S TEAM

"An untold number of lives have been direly disrupted for a new football stadium for what the locals call America's Team, that being the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League." (source: the webpage you are reading right now)

The previous statement cut and pasted from a paragraph in the link Henry provided, the phrase "what the locals call" is so true. Spent 3 years in Los Angeles and I had to constantly tell people I was introduced to that I am from Houston, not Dallas because they would incessantly remind me that the Cowboys damn sure weren't their team. Spent 2 years in Norfolk, Va. with the exact same thing. Spent time in Waco and nobody I met there watched the Cowboys, they either followed Baylor or one of the "popular" teams of that time, if I remember right it was the 49er's or the Raiders, one of the Cal. teams. In fact in all my 52 years on this earth I have never actually met anyone who called them that personally, the media perpetuates that fantasy and Cowboy here does as well but no person I know does. Where did that come from anyway? 

Rick (writing in a NFL Blog)

Read what we found out about America's Team after reading ridiculous articles about that subject in the Saturday, January 12, 2008 Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

No, this is not a post Katrina photo, it is rubble brought to you by the philanthropist known as Jerry Jones and his new Dallas Cowboy stadium. Yet one more view of rubble. And a couple dead trees.

City has right to seize land, Judge Rules

The City of Arlington legally has the right to take residents' land for the Cowboy's Stadium, a county court judge ruled Friday (August 4, 2006). The summary judgment, which affects 17 cases represented by attorney Bob Cohen, was the first step in several lawsuits filed against the city regarding the condemnation of land for the project. Cohen said the cases will now go to trial to determine whether the city should have paid the landowners more.

from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (August 7, 2006)

Yet one more apartment complex being torn apart for the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. Another apartment building, gutted, awaiting destruction. It is not known how much attention was paid to asbestos contamination during the rush of destruction.
The most expensiive of the apartments was the last to go as the land is scraped clear for the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. Across from what may be the world's nicest Super Wal-Mart, formerly sat the Waterford. The most expensive of the resident complexes destroyed in the Dallas Cowboy onslaught. Wouldn't you love to be forced to move under these type circumstances?

Click for a map showing the New Stadium's Location and other Arlington Attractions

Dallas Cowboy Stadium construction rubble with the Ballpark in Arlington in the background. The building formerly known as Ameriquest Field, now, again, the Ballpark in Arlington, viewed in the background through a pile of rubble.
The piles of Dallas Cowboy stadium rubble seems endless. The multiple square miles of destruction seem endless while driving through the desolation zone. Where did all this rubble go?

Regarding the person from Texas who made the point that when paying for a new stadium the Cowboys are pretty much a team without a town and seeing you've pointed out how Seattle built two stadiums, adjacent, without displacing any Seattleites from their homes, I thought you might be interested in how the new Seattle stadium was funded, as compared to the Cowboy stadium.  First off, in a referendum the entire state voted on the stadium proposal. The principle behind the funding method was that the cost should be primarily born by those who benefited, i.e. football fans and the team owner. With owner Paul Allen responsible for 1/3 (plus any overruns) and the public covered 2/3's of the estimated cost. The public portion was funded via a special sports lottery game, parking and admissions taxes at the facility, a portion of the state sales tax collected in King County (where Seattle is) and a hotel/motel tax in King County.

It is baffling to me that the funding for the Cowboy Stadium fell on one municipality. I've been to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The population of that urban area is about the same as the entire state of Washington. You'd think that since a new stadium benefited the entire region that the entire region would have been involved in the process. How in the world were those people convinced to vote for such a proposal?

William G.
Seattle, Washington
click to read more feedback

More rubble. It looks like a landfill. The new Dallas Cowboy stadium will rise from this rubble. Rubble in front of us, rubble to the right, rubble to the left, rubble behind, rubble everywhere. 
Rubble across the street from the Super Wal-Mart on the north side of the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. And some more rubble. This view is from the parking lot of a new Super Wal-Mart. The land for the Super Wal-Mart was acquired the old-fashioned way, paying fair market value.
At the site of the new Dallas Cowboy stadium this stack of rubble looks like it may spill out on the street. The pile of rubble looks like it could explode onto the road.
Was asbestos testing done before all this bulldozing and destruction for the new Dallas Cowboy stadium? How many lives were once part of what is now this huge pile of rubble? Was this caused by a tsunami? A tornado? A hurricane? A Cowboy? Is there asbestos in this mess? 
Looking like bombed Beirut, the site of the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. Yes, this does look like Beirut. But it is in the United States. In Arlington. Texas.
I have attended more than a dozen Super Bowls. I will never attend a football game in this stadium in Arlington. What a shameful way to go about building a new stadium.

Peter B.
Schenectady, New York

click to read more feedback

The last house standing. Fighting the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones and the new stadium proved fruitless in the end. As of April, 2006, the owners of this house continued to successfully stall the bulldozers, while all around them everything had already been destroyed. Eventually they agreed to leave. For a few million dollars.

August 27. 2007, a year and 4 months after the above photo was taken of the last house standing, the structure on the left has risen. The house was due south of the east end of the Stadium Super Wal-Mart, the same view we are looking at here, well not exactly the same view. The house is gone and something very big has grown in its place.

Banners hung on the stadium framework naming various concourses in the new Dallas Cowboy stadium.
A story in the Fort Worth Star Telegram about one of the Dallas Cowboy stadium victims. Read the sad story of one of those who fell victim to the Dallas Cowboy Hurricane. One of the few victims who have fought their destruction in court. This article came from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
VICTIMS START TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE
Billy Mitchell Ford was so angered by what he believed to be eminent domain abuse, with the abuse being private businesses evoking eminent domain for their private gain, that during the month of August, 2007, he placed a billboard along I-30 in west Fort Worth. The billboard said "Eminent Domain---Stealing what others work for." It was reported in local media that Mr. Ford objected to the Dallas Cowboy Stadium land grab, the Fort Worth Trinity A billboard protesting the Dallas Cowboy abuse of eminent domain used to build their new stadium.Uptown land grab and most personally, and what set him off, the abuse of the principal of eminent domain by natural gas drilling companies tapping Barnett Shale Gas in north Texas and running roughshod over people's perceptions of their property rights, especially his own. Mr. Ford leased his property to drillers and currently has 2 revenue generating wells. But the first drillers then leased the mineral rights to another driller, Empire. Empire decided it needed to lay a pipeline down the middle of Ford's property. They offered him only $17,000. He decided to fight them in court, but that soon grew too expensive. Ford settled his suit with Empire. Empire built the pipeline. And then refused to let Ford build a road across the pipeline, effectively cutting him off from half his property. It is not known if Mr. Ford plans on any more billboards or if he has any other plans to fight eminent domain abuse.
Another view of destruction for the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. We are fairly certain this 'Future Resident Parking' sign does not refer to future football fans.

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