And to think some of you thought it was a bad idea.
That it would drain the city financially.
That we were putting entertainment above all else.
That we were being robbed blind.
That then-Mayor Robert Cluck would be run out of town.
Yet here we are.
AT&T Stadium has done exactly what Cluck and his supporters promised: boost the local economy, solidify Arlington as a sports-and-entertainment hub, attract tourists with fat wallets, and, oh yeah, generate millions of dollars. The kicker? The city dropped the mic with a final payment of $22.6 million, retiring the stadium debt a full decade early and saving over $150 million in the process.
Yep, Arlington paid off a billion-dollar stadium like it was chump change.
Of course, it wasn’t. Back in 2005, Arlington voters agreed to chip in $325 million for a shiny new home for the Dallas Cowboys, who were trying to find a safe landing after escaping Irving. The financing plan was ambitious: a half-cent sales tax, a 2 percent hotel occupancy tax, and a 5 percent rental car tax.
The plan was to pay it all off by 2035. But last month came with fireworks: the last $22.6 million was wired out, and AT&T Stadium was officially debt-free. In total, Arlington shelled out $490,325,273 in principal, interest, and fees. Paying early saved nearly $151 million in projected costs, said City Manager Trey Yelverton.
“Ten years early saves you a lot of interest and a lot of fees,” he said.
No kidding.
What a Cluck victory. Back in 2004, critics complained about selling the city’s soul to Jerry Jones. Instead, here we are, twenty years later, celebrating Cluck as Nostradamus in a suit. His “vision” was spot-on: the stadium brought jobs, boosted tourism, and cemented Arlington’s place as a premier destination.
At the time, folks laughed at the idea of Arlington as a sports hub. Yet between the Cowboys, Rangers, XFL cameos, WrestleManias, Final Fours, Taylor Swift, and soon, the FIFA World Cup, it’s clear Arlington is positioned quite nicely.
Before you start thinking this means we’re all getting tax refunds—not quite. The half-cent sales tax, hotel tax, and rental car tax that funded the stadium will stick around. But instead of paying Jerry’s mortgage, they’ll now go toward Globe Life Field, the Rangers’ retractable-roof man cave, which Arlington voters approved in 2017.
Arlington remains on the hook for $500 million (before interest and fees) for the ballpark. But if recent history is any clue, we might be celebrating another early payoff in about a decade, just in time for the Rangers’ next rebuild.
It turns out Arlington isn’t alone in this fast-payoff game. Minnesota’s U.S. Bank Stadium retired its debt 23 years early in 2023, saving taxpayers $226 million. Washington, D.C., is about to pay off Nationals Park 10 years early.
But few places have embraced the “build it and they will come” model quite like Arlington. After all, this is a city that put a Six Flags, a Major League ballpark, and an NFL palace all within a three-mile stretch.
Mayor Jim Ross put it best: “The iconic AT&T Stadium has hosted an impressive list of events in its first 16 years, and we look forward to even more record-setting concerts and games in our future.”
In other words, get ready for more Taylor Swift, (if that’s your thing), more monster trucks, and more (good) reasons to sit in I-30 traffic.
So, yes, Arlington survived the gamble. The doomsday predictions didn’t come true. The city isn’t broke, Robert Cluck isn’t in exile, and we’ve got bragging rights over skeptics who swore we were being “robbed blind.”
Instead, we’ve got a debt-free stadium, a stronger economy, and a pretty cool rep to go with it all.
Kenneth Perkins has been a contributing writer for Arlington Today for more than a decade. He is a freelance writer, editor and photographer.
