Dallas Mayor Says Chiefs Have ‘Serious Opportunity’ to Relocate After Failed KC Vote

Joseph Zucker@@JosephZuckerFeatured Columnist IVApril 6, 2024

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Dallas mayor Eric Johnson is lobbying the Kansas City Chiefs to consider a move to North Texas after the franchise was forced to reconsider its plans for renovating Arrowhead Stadium.

Earlier in the week, residents in Jackson County, Missouri, voted against a sales tax that was intended to help fund updating both Arrowhead Stadium and the construction of a new stadium for the Kansas City Royals.

Johnson reacted to the news on X by saying the Chiefs would be welcomed in Dallas, which is where the franchise originated:

Mayor Eric L. Johnson @Johnson4DallasWelcome home, Dallas Texans! 🤗 #CottonBowl https://t.co/VFvBqhBHbe

The mayor expanded on this idea in an interview with The Athletic’s Lukas Weese, calling it a “serious opportunity.”

“The connections are so deep, the history is so rich,” he said. “We actually could put together the deals that would make sense for them to get them here.”

Los Angeles and New York City both have two NFL franchises, but it’s hard to envision a scenario in which the Dallas Cowboys share the city with anyone else.

For one, L.A. and New York are the two biggest metro areas in the United States with populations significantly larger than that of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Based on the last census data, New York (20,140,470) was nearly three times the size with Los Angeles (13,200,998) almost doubling it.

Johnson is nonetheless confident the demographics are working in Dallas’ favor.

“When the NFL looks at the next round of expansion, they will not find an American city where there is not an NFL franchise currently that will be a more lucrative or faster-growing market to put a team,” he said to Weese.

A bigger hurdle is the fact the Cowboys are the single biggest brand in the NFL with the most influential owner in the league. Imagine the fight Jerry Jones would put up, assuming NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or other owners were even in favor of the idea.

This isn’t the first time Johnson signaled Dallas is open for business. He used rumored turmoil within the Los Angeles Chargers in 2022 as an opportunity to say they might benefit from yet another move:

Mayor Eric L. Johnson @Johnson4DallasSouthern Dallas is the fresh start the @Chargers need! Several sites, including @cottonbowlstad and Hensley Field, would be ideal locations for a state of the art practice facility and world headquarters or stadium. We’re ready for the @NFL in @CityOfDallas! @nflcommish https://t.co/9ed398cOqp

That prompted an unequivocal response from Jones to say there’s no chance of the region welcoming another NFL franchise.

“That is correct. And you just said it,” he told the Dallas Morning News’ Calvin Watkins. “You can be rest assured that you would not have the NFL supporting another team because of the kind of value that the game and the NFL receives of having [the] Dallas Cowboys as one of its marquee teams and again, logic tells you [the NFL] wouldn’t want to water that down.”

As much as Johnson would love to see Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes call Texas home once again, he can probably keep dreaming.