10 May 23 - 29, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents In North Texas, on the high school level, women’s soccer is a dominant, albeit under- rated, force. The last five 6A state champion- ships in women’s soccer have all gone to Dallas-area high schools. In the 5A division, the trophy has left DFW only once since 2015. The success of the local women’s soc- cer community is evidence of an “unbeliev- able market” for the sport, Vandervort told the Observer. “The number of players that are from Dal- las that have gone on to have incredible profes- sional careers has been unbelievable,” Vandervort said. “The opportunity for some of those players, if they choose to, to return home is something that I am incredibly proud of.” There are over 100 men’s professional soccer teams within five leagues across the United States. Until now, there have been only 14 women’s teams, all in the National Women’s Soccer League. The USL Super League will introduce eight new women’s teams, with plans to expand to at least two more cities in the second year. It’s a player- run league, so players can shop around clubs to negotiate the contract they want, rather than be drafted into one. The USL Super League has been desig- nated a Division 1 league by the U.S. Soccer Federation, putting it on par with the NWSL. (Think the PGA’s companion league, LIV Golf, minus the salary controversy and the Saudis.) Among the requirements for Di- vision 1 standing are a minimum of eight teams across at least two time zones, a ma- jority of teams playing in markets of at least 750,000 residents and a minimum seating capacity of 5,000 seats per stadium. The Cotton Bowl, which has over 91,000 seats, surpasses the minimum capacity re- quirement by a large margin. “I think we have the makings for the female version of Ted Lasso,” council member Paula Blackmon joked before the contract vote. The two-year, half-million-dollar deal that the City Council made with Fair Park’s management firm, Oak View Group, has an option to be renewed for a third year, with a $296,000 subsidy. The contract was met with some minor concern, primarily from council member Gay Donnell Willis, be- cause of recent controversies stemming from an allegation made by Fair Park First CEO Brian Luallen that said OVG misused philanthropic funds. Assistant park and recreation director Ryan O’Connor said the deal would not be affected if the city decides to end its rela- tionship with OVG or Fair Park First, as the city would assume the contract. Ultimately the council voted 14-0, with one absence, in favor of the agreement. The subsidy works out to $18,500 per game, coming from funds similar to the Wings’ agreement. “There’s not a drain on the taxpayers,” Rosa Fleming, director of convention and event services, told the council. “Our funds are not taxpayer funds.” Jim Neil, CEO of the Dallas Trinity FC, told the council that the team plans to use the practice facilities at Dallas College Brookhaven Campus and has pledged to hire students out of the Dallas College sys- tem as front-office interns. Neil also pledged that more than half the team’s employees will be women, and hiring will prioritize those from “ethnically diverse” back- grounds. There are “some very significant Dallas women” lined up as minority stake- holders for the team, Neil said, although names have not yet been announced. Gracey, who worked in City Hall for 16 years in the economic development realm before joining the City Council, said the promise of new jobs coming from the Trin- ity FC acquisition marks a “sunny day for South Dallas.” “We talk about nursing, we talk about the tech industry, we talk about all those indus- tries, but I don’t know that we’ve had a real discussion about the jobs and the opportuni- ties around the [sports] industry,” Gracey said. “From the management, to the ac- counting offices, everything that surrounds the industry, it’s not just jobs, it’s careers.” Neil also told the council that Trinity FC leadership has been in talks with the State Fair of Texas about holding a game on the last weekend of the state fair between Trin- ity FC and a professional women’s team from Mexico. The current attendance re- cord for a women’s soccer game in the U.S. is just over 40,000 fans. The goal, he said, is to shatter that record. If Dallas Trinity is able to successfully join the community, Paul believes it will make future grabs for professional teams and events all that much easier. “If we can help position and uplift our Dallas USL women’s professional team, it’s also a part of the road map or strategy to help to position Dallas for a FIFA women’s world cup in the future,” Paul said. Women’s sports aren’t new to Dallas, but maybe it’s the first time we’re actually looking at them. The city annually makes around $65 million from the National Cheerleaders Asso- ciation national championship that has been held downtown for 30 years, but when was the last time anyone actually bothered to pay at- tention to the hoards of girls in glitter and bows that descend upon our city every spring? “[Dallas has] always been centered around the male athletes,” Gracey said. “The naming of the stadium after Sha’Carri, that was lowkey the beginning of it. It was a great thing to celebrate and when we started to realize what’s happening in sports for women.” Sha’Carri Richardson, a Carter High School alum who regularly shouts out her hometown, is an athlete who perfectly em- bodies the changing public attitude toward women’s sports and female athletes. In 2021, the track star was hit with a wave of back- lash after she tested positive for marijuana and was disqualified from the U.S. Olympic Trials. At the time, Richardson apologized for the drug use and said she had turned to weed as a coping mechanism after the death of her biological mother. Today, Richardson stars in nearly every commercial promoting the 2024 Paris Olympics. She is the fastest woman in the world. And in a unanimous vote last Octo- ber, the Dallas ISD board decided to em- brace Richardson’s legacy, messy past and all, by naming the track at South Dallas’ John Kincaide Stadium the Sha’Carri Rich- ardson Track. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” Bibb said when asked about the women’s sports movement. “The more women’s profes- sional sports offerings there are in a given city, the better it is overall for women’s sports.” For Mayor Johnson, the last month has probably been, at the very least, a dream re- alized twice. To some extent, it’s probably been a vindication, too. “The professional sports world is watch- ing what Dallas is doing and has been doing since we formed that committee,” Johnson told the City Council on May 8. “Rest as- sured we are not done here in the area of sports. The best is yet to come.” ▼ CITY HALL LEAVE WITH LESS MAYOR SAYS T.C. BROADNAX SHOULDN’T RECEIVE SEVERANCE PAY. BY JACOB VAUGHN D allas Mayor Eric Johnson doesn’t think former City Manager T.C. Broadnax should receive severance pay after leaving the job for the same posi- tion in the city of Austin, according to a May 14 memo to City Attorney Tammy Palomino. “I am writing to express my opposition to the city of Dallas paying any severance to Mr. Broadnax,” Johnson wrote in the memo. It states that on Feb. 21, Broadnax notified the City Council of his resignation, allegedly “following suggestions that [he] resign by a majority of the City Council.” While Broadnax’s employment agree- ment with the city stipulated that he would receive a lump sum payment equal to 12 months of his base salary, Palomino said in the memo, “the background and timeline of these events raise serious questions about the legitimacy of this alleged ‘involuntary separation.’” On the date of his resignation, WFAA published an online story — citing the ac- counts of four City Council members — that outlines a behind-the-scenes scheme that was first initiated not by the City Council but by Broadnax himself, the memo said. The WFAA article explains that Broad- nax first approached City Council member Jaime Resendez to discuss his potential de- parture. The story then says, “As part of their discussion, sources confirmed to WFAA, the two agreed to keep their conversation quiet, allowing Broadnax to leave the city on his own terms.” It continues, “But to do that, Broadnax is said to have asked Resendez to identify a collective of eight City Council members who would personally ask him to resign.” Johnson’s memo explains that Broandax has never denied this series of events, and WFAA has not retracted the story or issued any corrections. The mayor says that some, if not all, of the council members named in an April 8 memo about the resignation have supported Broadnax in the past. “Many of them, in fact, previously voted in favor of awarding him a raise as a result of his last performance review,” according to the memo. Johnson also finds it curious that Broad- nax was named a finalist for the Austin city manager role shortly after he announced his resignation. A few weeks later, the city of Austin offered Broadnax a job following a months-long search for a new city manager. He began working for Austin on May 6, less than two months after his resignation. “This timeline, as well as the friendly re- lationship between Mr. Broadnax and the City Council members who reportedly ‘sug- gested’ he resign, indicate that Mr. Broad- nax’s ‘involuntary separation’ occurred as reported by WFAA and was meant to ensure Mr. Broadnax could depart from the city of Dallas with severance pay shortly before pursuing and accepting a position with the city of Austin,” the memo said. It continued: “If this is indeed the case — as available evidence currently supports — it is wholly inaccurate to characterize Mr. Broadnax’s separation as ‘involuntary.’ Therefore, the severance clause of Mr. Broadnax’s agreement of employment should not apply, and the city of Dallas should have no obligation to pay Mr. Broad- nax nearly half a million dollars from Dallas’ taxpayers.” In the memo, Johnson asks the council to clarify: “Considering the highly questionable nature and background of Mr. Braodnax’s res- ignation, should Mr. Broadnax be paid sever- ance pay from the city of Dallas?” Unfair Park from p8 Christopher Durbin On the high school level, women’s soccer is dominant force in North Texas. >> p12
