Tag Archives: Jerry Jones

entertainment news, Sports news, State news

Is this a form of socialism?

Wrestlemania_jpg_800x1000_q100

Greg Abbott, the candidate for Texas governor in 2014, spoke differently about subsidizing sports and entertainment events than when he became the actual governor.

Back when he was running for the office — and on his way to trouncing Democratic opponent Wendy Davis — Abbott frowned on the state pouring public money into private ventures.

Hey, but what happened? He’s governor now and he’s just committed $2.7 million in public money to help support a World Wrestling Entertainment event next spring at AT&T Stadium in Arlington … aka Jerry World.

WWE, for those who’ve been living under a rock since the beginning of time, produces fake wrestling events. However, it’s huge, man!

Gov. Abbott signed off on a plan to bolster the Events Trust Fund, which the state set up to help defray the cost of these extravaganzas.

If you want to know the truth, I kind of like Candidate Abbott’s view better than Gov. Abbott’s idea.

According to the Texas Tribune: “The Events Trust Fund is designed to defray the costs of some large events by paying state taxes collected during the events, such as those levied on hotel reservations and car rentals, back to event organizers. Local governments or nonprofits they authorize must approve the events, and the cities that host them are required to chip in some of their local tax receipts, too. State officials only calculate the size of the payment from the fund after an event is held and the economic activity has been documented, according to the governor’s office. ”

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/12/11/texas-spending-27-million-wrestlemania/

OK, I get that WWE’s big shows produce a lot of economic activity to any community that hosts them.

Then again, this also seem to smack a bit of what some have called “sports socialism.” Public money gets kicked in to support a private enterprise event. Granted, the $2.7 million that Abbott authorized is veritable chump change when compared to the entire state budget, if not the entire amount of money set aside in the Events Trust Fund.

These events ought to be able to stand on their own. It’s not as if the venue that’s going to play host to WrestleMania is a dump. It’s a state-art-of-the-art stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play professional football under the ownership and management of Jerry Jones, who — last I heard — wasn’t worried about where he’d get his next meal.

What’s more, the money going to this event is public money. Meaning, it’s my money, and yours.

With the price of oil plummeting and the state perhaps looking for ways to recover from the revenue shortfall that’s coming, let’s hope we don’t come up short because we’ve contributed money to help pay for a fake wrestling show.

 

national news, political news, Sports news

Gov. Christie plays with fire by hugging Jerry

You’ve got to love the political back story developing with the newly revealed “bromance” between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Dallas Cowboys owner/general manager/media hound Jerry Jones.

Christie and Jones are longtime pals. Jones invited Christie to attend the Jerry World Taj Mahal-like stadium in Arlington, where the Cowboys play football. The two of them sat in Jones’s luxury suite and cheered for the Cowboys, who defeated the Detroit Lions in the first round of the NFL playoffs.

The nation saw Jones and Christie hugging in jubilation.

Big deal? Well, yeah, sort of.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/07/christie-faces-problems-in-new-jersey-while-considering-2016-presidential-run/

Jones paid for Christie’s plane ticket to Texas, which might violate New Jersey political ethics laws prohibiting elected officials from accepting such gifts.

Then there’s the booing Christie is getting from fans of the New York Jets and Giants, who play their home games in Rutherford, N.J. That’s not a big deal, given that neither the Jets or the Giants are in the playoffs.

But it gets a little trickier.

Christie might run for president in 2016. His friendship with Jones isn’t going to matter much in Texas, which already is a heavily Republican state. Christie’s GOP credentials aren’t going to be questioned here if he decides to run for his party’s nomination.

The Cowboys, though, do have fierce rivalries with the Giants and now, after the controversial game with Detroit, with the Lions — who got considerable help this past week from a couple of blown calls on the field by the officiating crew. New York and New Jersey lean Democratic in presidential elections; Michigan, meanwhile, could be considered a “swing” state in the next election.

Politics. It’s everywhere. A guy just can’t go to a football game on his pal’s dime? Not in this day and age if you’re considering a run for the presidency.

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Would the Cowboys’ owner fire himself … please?

1 Comment

I hate commenting on sports because I don’t know enough of the nitty-gritty to talk intelligently about it.

However, I do know bad management when I see it. It’s running rampant inside the head office of the Dallas/Irving/Arlington Cowboys professional football franchise.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1890803-cowboys-wont-find-success-before-massive-culture-change-in-dallas?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=cnn-sports-bin&hpt=hp_bn15

The team owner Jerry Jones also is the team’s general manager. He’s got his own TV show on which he blathers on about football strategy and other on-the-field things about which he knows next to nothing.

I haven’t been a Cowboys fan since Jones bought the team in 1989 and fired a living legend, Tom Landry, the team’s head coach since it entered the NFL in 1960. I used to like the upstarts from Big D, when they tried to knock the Green Bay Packers off in the late 1960s. They came close — and nearly froze to death in the Ice Bowl game played in Green Bay.

Then along came Jones. The former Arkansas Razorback hired his old Hog teammate Jimmy Johnson as head coach. After a spell, the two parted company because Johnson didn’t like the owner meddling in football strategy and tactics. Their friendship ended, too.

Now the Cowboys are languishing again. As the blog linked to this note observes, the Cowboys are known as one of the NFL’s best teams — on paper — but they are managing yet again to prove they cannot win consistently.

Yep, the Cowboys have won some Super Bowls since Jones took over the team. It’s looking, though, as if the next one is slipping farther and farther into the future.

Why? It has to be Jones. The owner is a smart businessman who made enough money to buy himself a professional football team that has moved from the Cotton Bowl at the State Fairgrounds in Dallas, to a new stadium in Irving and now the place nicknamed Jerry World way over in Arlington — which is a lot closer to Fort Worth than it is to Dallas. Take it from me, many of the folks in Fort Worth detest the reference to the Dallas Cowboys.

Jones may be an adequate owner. He needs desperately, however, to turn over the day-to-day management of the team to someone who knows what the bleep he’s doing.

That someone is not Jerry Jones.

Take a hike, big guy. Sign the paychecks, pay the bills and get the heck out of the way.