Dallas punts on giving ESPN $300,000 to keep Heart of Dallas Bowl at Fair Park
It looked like game over Wednesday morning for the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Instead, a protracted fight over whether the city will give ESPN $300,000 to keep it at the Cotton Bowl for two more years has gone into overtime.
Mayor Mike Rawlings said that under normal circumstances, he believes the council would have overwhelmingly approved the incentives — a marked reduction from the $800,000 the council rejected back in March. But because of city guidelines concerning private-public economic development dollars, Wednesday's vote required approval from three-quarters of the 15-member council.
Before council kicked the vote to Sept. 12, four members of the council said they were going to vote against giving the network any money. Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway was absent.
Kevin Felder, Scott Griggs, Philip Kingston and Omar Narvaez made it clear they were decidedly against giving taxpayer dollars to ESPN. North Oak Cliff's Griggs called it "corporate welfare." Downtown's Kingston said the game — which pits low-ranked teams from the Conference USA, Big Ten and Big 12 — is a "crime against the bowl system."
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-city-council/2018/08/08/dallas-punts-vote-giving-espn-300000-keep-heart-dallas-bowl-beating-cotton-bowl
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