Almost The Middle Of May Thinking About The Super Bowl XLV Debacle In North Texas

We are already almost at mid May. I am really getting tired of how fast time flies. Really tired of it. I feel like I'm on the fast track to being elderly.

The second Saturday of May has dawned pleasantly cool at 50 degrees, with no clouds in the sky, as near as I can tell from my limited view through the bars of my patio prison cell.

Google's Blogger has still not totally recovered from its recent debacle. My missing posts have been restored. But the missing comments are still missing.

Speaking of debacles.

Remember the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Debacle? Snow and ice wreaked havoc. Then Jerry Jones' greed wreaked more havoc, irrationally trying for an attendance record, cramming extra seats into the Cowboy stadium that weren't ready by game time.

Remember how the Super Bowl was going to be a HUGE economic boom for North Texas?

Well, now, just a few months after the Super Bowl Debacle, towns in the D/FW Metroplex are seeking money from the State of Texas to cover costs caused by the Super Bowl Debacle.

Arlington is asking for $2.7 million from a special state fund, to cover costs related to the Super Bowl Debacle.

Fort Worth is asking for $2.3 million. Fort Worth's propaganda meisters, pre Super Bowl Debacle, were in heavy duty super puffery mode due to a cable network, ESPN, hosting its Super Bowl broadcasts from a downtown Fort Worth parking lot.

Unfortunately, the broadcasts from the downtown Fort Worth parking lots turned a bit icy and did not end up making downtown Fort Worth the envy of the nation.

And now Fort Worth wants money from the State of Texas to compensate for its foolhardiness.

Changing the subject to other important matters. I must remember to vote today.

I must also remember to go swimming, which I think I will do right now.

Jerry Jones' Bad Karma Raising An Arlington Super Bowl Stench

7th Haven is a bar on 7th Avenue in Fort Worth, located near Montgomery Plaza. 7th Haven is known for putting clever messages on its sign.

The clever message currently is..

"HOW DID YOU NOT INSTALL

PRE SOLD SEATS ON TIME

BAD WEATHER     LAWSUITS

SMELL THE BAD KARMA JERRY"

I believe the BAD KARMA being referred to, regarding Jerry Jones, is the bad karma generated by the way Jerry Jones came to have his new stadium in Arlington where the Super Bowl was recently played.

To very bad reviews for a lot of reasons.

The Bad Karma arose when Jerry Jones, in collusion with the City of Arlington, colluded to bring about what many believe to be the Worst Case of Eminent Domain Abuse in American history. Dozens of homes and apartment complexes and businesses were taken, for a private business. Thousands of Americans were displaced, forced to move.

Back in 2007, when it was announced that the Dallas Cowboy Stadium had won Super Bowl XLV I opined that despite all the breathless local puffery about this supposed coup, that it was likely not going to turn out the way some of the locals dreamed it would. I said it would not be pretty when the national media gets a look at that giant futuristic spaceship of a stadium, plopped down in a rundown American neighborhood with industrial/urban blight on 2 sides.

As it turned out, the national media was even less pretty than I thought it would be.

Way back when I saw the level of destruction going on in Arlington, with giant piles of rubble, I started webpaging the ongoing Dallas Cowboy Stadium project. I think I started doing this in 2004. I recollect flying to Seattle in 2004 and the flight path taking me directly above the destruction zone, affording me a good picture of the moonscape where previously homes had been.

Over the years the webpage that I came to call The Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal, has generated a lot of comments.

Reading those comments is a good example of the Bad Karma Jerry Jones generated, with some who believe in such things, thinking that Bad Karma is what caused Super Bowl XLV to be so Blunderful, with Arlington about as likely to get another Super Bowl as Atlanta is likely to get another Olympics.

Below is a small sampling of the comments I've gotten about the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal that give you an idea of the Smell of Jerry Jones' Bad Karma.

I am one of the victims of the Cowboy greed and insensitivity. Thank you so much for putting such a clear voice to the pain so many of us have suffered. Many of us felt so abandoned by the community, there seemed to be no one speaking up for us and what was being done to us. I am still not back to feeling settled and secure. I feel like I'm the victim of a crime, like I have been burglarized, vandalized and raped, with everyone ignoring the crime with the criminals using the corrupt Texas legal system to declare WAR on people's lives and homes. What if it were the homes of the football players and owners that were destroyed? How would they feel about that? The law is supposed to protect the weakest among us, that is what it is supposed to do, not allow the strongest and richest among us to bring destruction to those with no resources to fight back.

Anonymous out of Fear, Mansfield, Texas

So. I read in the NY Times this morning that Dallas is going to make a bid for the 2011 Super Bowl. To atone for this most despicable abuse of eminent domain I've ever read about will the Cowboys be giving free game tickets to the victims of this atrocity? Will former homeowners be able to park for free on the site of their former driveways? Will there be a historical marker on the spot where the home was located of the elderly lady who died of a broken heart in her condemned home?

Seth M., Jersey City, New Jersey

This destruction in Texas is the worst abuse of eminent domain I have ever read about. Such a thing could never happen in my state.

Del S., Portland, Oregon

It shocks me that this can happen in America. It reminds me of the type of disregard for human rights that my former nation of East Germany practiced.

Gunther H., Berlin, Germany

There you have it. The Smell of Jerry Jones' Bad Karma.

NFL To Refund Thousands More Super Bowl Seat Victims Along With More Bad Super Bowl Blunder News

I don't think the Super Bowl ended up being quite the wonderful boost to North Texas that North Texas boosters hoped it would be.

This morning brought the news that approximately 2,000 more fans will be getting a ticket refund or a ticket to a future Super Bowl. These additional disgruntled fans were disgruntled due to being delayed in getting access to the seats they had paid for.

A research firm, San Diego based Competitive Edge Research & Communication is employed to survey opinions, nationwide, of Super Bowl host cities.

Polling data found that positive opinions of Arlington went from 17.4 percent before the game to 14.9 after the game.

Even worse for Arlington, 73.7 of those polled had no impression of the town before the game, with that number managing to increase to 74.4 percent after the game.

I'm thinking making no impression is better than making a bad impression.

An Oklahoman newspaper columnist, Jenni Carlson opined, "Our good friends in North Texas want the Super Bowl back in five years, want to host the biggest spectacle in sports again, want to be the site of the game's momentous 50th anniversary. Good luck with that. Super Bowl XLV? More like Blunder Bowl. Everything that could go wrong did. Some of it was out of anyone's control -- who could've foreseen not one but two snowstorms rolling through the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Super Bowl week? -- but plenty of other things were man-made disasters."

There were a couple good letters to the editor this morning in the Dallas Morning News regarding the man-made Super Bowl disasters....

Waiting for Super Bowl seats

Much has been made about the displaced fans in the temporary seats who were grossly inconvenienced, and my sympathies go out to them. 

However, little has been mentioned about the thousands of us who waited outside the Blue Entrance for over two hours without moving and with no one telling us what was going on.

Jerry Jones and the NFL cannot get a pass on this, as they had years to plan for all contingencies and severely dropped the ball. Spending thousands of dollars only to be frustrated with an organizational debacle of epic proportions is simply unacceptable.

Gary S. Black, Dallas

Jones disgraced many

Jerry Jones' enormous greed and ego has brought shame to Dallas and disgraced not only himself, but the city of Dallas, Dallas Cowboys, Cowboys Stadium and the NFL. His ego-driven attempt to set a new Super Bowl attendance record created not only safety issues for visiting Packer and Steeler fans, but destroyed what would have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

I can only imagine the grief, humiliation and discomfort these fans suffered, and that doesn't include enormous amounts of money that was spent for seats that weren't even available when they were purchased. 

To those fans, I apologize for the horrible experience, and I hope you don't associate most Cowboy fans and North Texans with Jones. We sincerely hope to see you again under better circumstances. We can and will do better.

Ronnie Smith, Garland