At least a Super Bowl team would be in Dallas …
The Chiefs saw their stadium renovation plans go up in smoke this week after voters in Jackson County rejected a measure that would continue to support the team with public tax funds. It’s led to speculation about whether the team will relocate, with a move out into the Kansas City suburbs, or even across state lines into the Kansas side of the city being the most-likely outcomes considering the team has absolutely no leverage.
However, there’s now a weirder wild card than anyone could possibly have imagined: Moving to Dallas.
Dallas mayor Eric Johnson is courting the Chiefs to come to his city, and somehow this isn’t a joke. Johnson invoked the Dallas Texans, the Chiefs’ prior name before moving to Kansas City in 1963, and he’s not stopping there.
Speaking to the Dallas Morning News, Johnson is not joking about wanting the Chiefs to come to his city. He’s talked before about wanting to have a team inside city limits, as the Cowboys have routinely played in the Dallas suburbs — and he believes the city is ready for a second team.
“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.”
Johnson is referring to the Clark family, and specifically Lamar Hunt who moved the Dallas Texans from the city to the Chiefs after he felt the city was not large enough to support two teams at the time. The Hunts, who made their money off Texas oil have connections to the city.
Could this actually happen?
HELL NO!
This has to be the most hilarious suggestion on the face of the earth and a desperate ploy by a mayor to get attention. There is absolutely no motivation for the Chiefs to risk everything and come to Dallas in the hopes of establishing a new fanbase while losing their current fans.
Furthermore, relocation would need to be agreed to by current NFL owners — and do you really think Jerry Jones of all people is going to be okay with another team moving into his backyard and challenging his kingdom for attention and money?
There are current rules in the NFL about relocating into another team’s marketing radius. It requires intense approval and agreements like those the Chargers and Rams entered into when they both moved to Los Angeles.
The different is that Dallas is a city with 7.6M in its metro area, while Los Angeles has a population of 13.2M in its area. Dallas is not L.A. It’s not New York City. It’s not large enough to support a second team, even if we’d assume Jerry Jones would allow competition for no reason at all.
It might be nice to imagine Dallas finally getting a winning football team, but it’s not going to happen.
