ESPN Broadcasting Super Bowl From Downtown Fort Worth Parking Lot

The next Super Bowl will be played in Arlington in the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. It seems like only yesterday history's worst case of eminent domain abuse was being used in Arlington to kick people out of their homes, stealing their land, to build a stadium.

And now that stadium, built so shamefully, will shamelessly host a Super Bowl

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, a town that also has a tendency to abuse eminent domain, has its own Super Bowl stuff going on.

Yesterday Fort Worth's goofy mayor, Mike Moncrief was not pouring purple kool-aid into the Trinity River or shooting guns in downtown Fort Worth. Instead of those noble type activities, the dishonorable mayor was announcing that, uh, the parking lots, known as Sundance Square, will be used by ESPN as the location of their coverage of the Super Bowl taking place about 20 miles to the east.

Mayor Mike breathlessly opined, "It will transform our city from this day forward. It's one of those places along the road that help define our city. I believe ESPN was looking for a unique setting, a setting that made a Texas statement. And Fort Worth says Texas. This will give international exposure to millions of people and raise the curiosity not only for our city but for North Texas."

Oh. Where do I begin? A cable network broadcasting from a downtown Fort Worth parking lot will transform Fort Worth? Helping define the town? International exposure to millions? Raising curiosity about Fort Worth's parking lots?

And then Ed Bass, the man behind so much that is not quite right in downtown Fort Worth, who the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said helped bring about a renaissance of downtown, with the Sundance Square project, focused on what Bass seemed to think was an Old West theme, due to Fort Worth being a favorite haunt for the Sundance Kid and the Hole in the Wall Gang and other nefarious sorts 100 years ago.

Bass said, "Why did they come here? Because this is where the action is. And ESPN is coming to Fort Worth because this is where the action is."

Butch Cassidy and the Gang came to Fort Worth because it was a notorious lawless zone with its Hell's Acre area of bordellos, saloons and gambling joints. Not because it had a reputation as Action City. Now, modern day Fort Worth remains a bit of a lawless zone, as compared to other towns in America, but I doubt ESPN chose to come to Fort Worth because it has a mayor who does dirty deeds, that would land him in prision if he was not being mayor in a lawless zone, where criminal acts of conflict of interest are permitted without fear of punishment.

Then the Star-Telegram says, "With the Chisholm Trail parking lot's famous mural of longhorn cattle being herded by two drovers as a backdrop, viewers worldwide will see a slice of history in modern Fort Worth and learn why its motto is "Where the West Begins." Football fans across the world tuning in for ESPN's coverage of Super Bowl week in February will get a huge taste of downtown Fort Worth and its historic Sundance Square."

Famous mural of longhorn cattle? Famous with who? Historic Sundance Square? What is historic about a bunch of downtown Fort Worth parking lots being called a square? Now, when I've opined about the goofiness of the "Sundance Square" nomenclature before I've heard from the Sundance Square marketing director explaining to me what an amazing project of building restoration and preservation the Sundance Square project is. That its scope extends far beyond the network of parking lots.

But. Historic? The local propaganda describes Sundance Square as an Entertainment/Shopping District. I don't know of any other big city downtown in America that is not an Entertainment/Shopping zone.

But, Fort Worth is the only city in America, with a population over a half million, who's downtown does not have a single department store in its "Shopping District". No Neiman-Marcus, no Nordstroms, no Penneys, no Macy's, no Dillards, not even a Sears. There is a store where you can buy a cowboy hat downtown, however.

I wonder if the ESPN people checked out Heritage Park, where Fort Worth began, just a short distance north of the famous mural ESPN is going to be broadcasting in front of? I guess the Heritage Park eyesore must sit outside the 16 square block of renovated/restored structures that encompasses Sundance Square.

Isn't the Super Bowl broadcast on one of the networks? ABC, NBC, CBS or FOX? Would not the logical spot to broadcast your coverage of a sporting event be where the sporting event is taking place, not in some random downtown's parking lot? Is ESPN not allowed to infringe on the network's broadcast rights? Which likely include using the stadium as a backdrop?

I'm thinking this ESPN Super Bowl broadcast from Fort Worth deal is yet one more time where the good ol' boy network of goofballs who run Fort Worth are hoping magic is striking that will finally cause the rest of America to be able to recognize something in Fort Worth. A better plan would have been to use the Fort Worth Stockyards. At least it's a unique location, unlike downtown Fort Worth's parking lots and that famous mural looking down on that historic square.

One thing I am grateful for this morning. This ESPN news would seem to have been a perfect opportunity for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to break out its patented "Green With Envy" verbiage. As in, towns far and wide are green with envy because ESPN is coming to Fort Worth. Or Fort Worth is the envy of other towns because ESPN will be broadcasting from a downtown Fort Worth parking lot.

Instead, the verbiage was a bit more sophisticated, words like "famous" and "historic" used to describe objects that are neither famous or historic. But, this is much less cringe inducing than the Star-Telegram's green with envy verbiage. I consider this progress.