Cowboys World Headquarters

Here is an article from the Dallas Cowboys website that describes the new world headquarters on which they broke ground just a few weeks ago. I think this development is fascinating because it incorporates several trendy real estate features that we have mentioned in class.

The new Cowboys World Headquarters, called The Star, will be a 91 acre mixed-use, split-ownership endeavor between the Dallas Cowboys and the City of Frisco. The Star will feature a 12,000 seat indoor stadium, two outdoor fields, the Cowboys headquarters, an Omni hotel, office space, and 150,000 feet of retail space.

This kind of expansive, multi-use development is a popular trend across the country, and I this project is very very similar to The Village at Allen, which has retail, hotel, an indoor arena, and a convention center. Even stranger about the comparison to the Village is that it is only ten miles from where The Star will be. I wonder about how similar the retail offered at the two centers will be, as well as how well The Village will be able to compete with The Star once it opens, simply due to the name-recognition of the Dallas Cowboys, as well as the location of The Star being in a more heavily populated area of the Metroplex.

Additionally, the ownership structure of the development is of interest to me. The City of Frisco will own the stadium, outdoor fields, and the associated parking garage, while the Cowboys will own the headquarters building and will develop the rest of the project. The Cowboys will hold practices and part of their training camp at the facility, while Frisco ISD will be able to use it for high school football and other events. The Cowboys, however, will pay for the maintenance and other overhead of the entire facility, saving the city several hundred thousand dollars per year. Frisco voted to put up $150 million to build the facility, and the Cowboys will cover any building expenses over that value. I don't know how much it would cost to build this kind of large project, but I feel like the Cowboys are getting an incredible deal here, regardless of how much money they end up spending. The city is giving a lot of money to this project, so I have to assume that they expect to get a lot of tax revenue out of the development in order to recoup their expenses. These kinds of public-private ventures are often touted as a more efficient, cost-saving method of financing large developments that save money for all involved parties. I don't know if that will end up being the case here, but both sides of this deal are getting some nice benefits. The Cowboys are getting a world-class office and practice facility for a fraction of what it would cost on its own, while Frisco ISD is getting a world-class football stadium for free.

One last interesting aspect of this project is the use of brand recognition to drive this development. The Cowboys are one of the most valuable, well-known sports brands in the world, and I would expect that to make demand for the office and retail space very high, and thus the prices to be very high as well. Additionally, I would think the hotel going in will be able to charge higher-than-normal rates for rooms as well. The Cowboys are taking full advantage of their brand power, and I would expect this to be the beginning of a trend for many other sports teams to begin to do as well, especially starting with some of the huge European soccer clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester United. The only other project that uses brand recognition like this that I can immediately think of is the Ferrari theme park in Dubai.

All-in-all, I must say that this is a very interesting project, and one that I look forward to being able to explore come 2016.

-Tucker