6 May 23 - 29, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents She Shoots, Dallas Scores! Women’s pro sports are flying high, and the city looks to put one in the win column. BY EMMA RUBY D allas Mayor Eric Johnson wanted to bring a professional sports team to the city, and ev- eryone knew it. In 2022, he did what may- ors do best and started a committee, aptly named the Ad Hoc Committee on Profes- sional Sports Recruitment and Retention. In a memo announcing the committee’s cre- ation, Johnson lamented that the *Dallas* Cowboys, FC Dallas, the Texas Rangers, the *Dallas* Wings and the Professional Golfer’s Association had all pulled out of the city (as- terisks added by Johnson for emphasis). He called for the Cotton Bowl and the Fair Park Coliseum to be brought up to NFL and WNBA standards, respectively. Earlier this year, the Dallas Park and Rec- reation Department and Fair Park First or- ganization launched an historic, $140-million renovation of the 84-year-old Cotton Bowl. Instead of working on the Fair Park Coliseum, the convention center’s Me- morial Auditorium received the funding for a nearly $8 million makeover. But even with the money pouring in, Johnson’s dream had appeared to be fuel for little more than social media teasing. Until the past month, that is, when light- ning finally struck. Twice. On April 24, Dallas City Council certified a 15-year, $19 million agreement with the WNBA’s Dallas Wings that will move the team to Downtown Dallas’ Memorial Audi- torium in 2026. The deal was in the works for two years, Johnson said in the council meeting. Exactly two weeks later, the council au- thorized a two-year, $592,000 subsidy to the operators of Fair Park, paving the way for the creation of the Dallas Trinity FC wom- en’s soccer team that will kick off its tenure at the Cotton Bowl in August. The team will be one of eight in the newly created USL Su- per League, which will play matches from fall to spring in line with the global profes- sional soccer schedule. “Many say what they want about the mayor, but to have his kind of vision and to finally see it paying off now, I think just sends a further message of the opportunity that lies here in Dallas,” Zarin Gracey, chair of the ad hoc committee, told the Observer. Five years ago, some would have found it laughable that the teams Johnson managed to secure for the city are women’s teams. While those people are not exactly forward thinking, that attitude is indicative of the in- difference that women’s sports has histori- cally endured. But whether through luck or some divine, Nostra-Dallas power, the an- nouncements came at a time when women’s sports are finally in the spotlight and bring- ing in the big bucks. Deloitte, a financial consulting firm, pre- dicts that 2024 will be the first year women’s professional sports in the U.S. surpasses $1 billion in revenue, hitting $1.28 billion. Com- pared with 2021’s numbers, the domestic in- dustry has spiked 300%. Globally, soccer and basketball are the highest-revenue women’s sports, and soccer specifically is expected to skyrocket this year, the Deloitte report states. “When we started this journey years ago we thought we knew where women’s sports was going,” Amanda Vandervort, president of the USL Super League, said. “But the ex- plosion we’ve seen in the past several years has blown the doors off what we could’ve predicted.” Setting the Stage By the time the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that college athletes were allowed to legally profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) in July 2021, a wave of new interest was already trained on women’s basketball. | UNFAIR PARK | Christopher Durbin Christopher Durbin Dallas Trinity FC women’s soccer team will kick off at the Cotton Bowl in August. >> p8 Mayor Eric Johnson announces the Dallas arrival of a professional women’s soccer team.
