Initial Proposal

Topic:

The building of the New Dallas Cowboy Stadium.  The government used eminent domain to take the land from many residences in the Stadium location.  Eminent domain is supposed to enhance the “public good”. So how is using the land for private use good for the local economy?

Archive:

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/2014/08/06/13450048/

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/eminent_domain_ruling_affects_dallas_cowboys_stadium/

http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspace-law/bitstream/handle/1773.1/1342/9WJLTA331.pdf?sequence=5

For the archive I will be using various news articles about the eminent domain proceedings in Dallas and residents’ responses.  I will also use the Supreme Court ruling Kele v New London for a brief context on the legality of the situation.  I will also use some evidence from studies about the actual local benefit of new stadiums.

Conversation

The Politics of PAO’s new football stadium:  This is half case study but also has a half about ‘exchange value’ vs. ‘use value’ and determining what is meant by public good.  It is a case study based in Europe but it compares to the US system of stadium building.

National Football League Ticket Transfer Policies: Legal and Policy Issues:  This talks a little about how teams force themselves into local culture to their corporate benefit.

Question

Right now I am seeing so many leads with this that I have many questions that can work.

How much local good does a team do? And what is that local good worth? Losing your home? Why, even after seeing how awful stadium deals are, do residents still largely support them?

In Class Pitch (notes)

Jerry Jones wants a new and larger stadium

They begin working with different cities to pick a new location

Dallas City Council won’t allow the citizens to vote on a tax to fund a 425 million public subsidy

The Arlington council does allow this to go to vote and it passes, which places the stadium in Arlington

Now a day later Kelo V. New London gets a verdict in the supreme court which says that eminent domain can be used for private projects

Jerry Jones does this

My Question:

Why do the supporters pass the tax in the first place?

There exists a lot of good evidence that they don’t financially help an area.

I will look into the way that the cowboys portray themselves as a local good, even through they are a private entity.

How do they attack grassroots opposition and how does both the media and the court case help them to get the town to evoke eminient domain.

This is significant because it will demonstrate how private corporations use localism to secure political power, and because eminent domain is one of the scariest powers that the government holds over our freedom.