Moving OSU-Texas Tech Game To Dallas Still On Table

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Thursday he remains "very much interested" in hosting the annual football game between Oklahoma State and Texas Tech after the NFL team's

Thursday, November 1st 2007, 6:02 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Thursday he remains "very much interested" in hosting the annual football game between Oklahoma State and Texas Tech after the NFL team's new $1 billion stadium opens in 2009.

Jones, who was in Oklahoma to promote an announcement involving Cox Communications and the NFL Network, said he has visited with officials from both Big 12 Conference schools in recent months to encourage them to move their game to the Dallas area. Jones serves as the chairman of the network's ownership committee.

Jones also said he continues to be interested in luring the annual Oklahoma-Texas game away from the Cotton Bowl. The Sooners and Longhorns have met each year in Dallas since 1929, with the game played at the Cotton Bowl since the stadium opened in 1932. The teams have agreed to continue playing the game at the aging stadium through 2015.

"North Texas is a tremendous hotbed of potential college football talent," Jones said. "There's no question Oklahoma has benefited over the years in getting great players out of north Texas, because their mothers and their grandmothers are going to get to watch their sons play a game there in Dallas, in the case of Oklahoma. Other schools want to do that."

Scheduled to open in 2009 with a capacity of 100,000 seats, the Cowboys' new stadium in Arlington -- nestled between Dallas and Fort Worth -- already is scheduled to host the Super Bowl in 2011. Jones touts the facility as "the largest stadium ever built on the planet."

Jones said he went to Texas Tech about five months ago and spent time at Oklahoma State before the season started. He and Oklahoma State megabooster Boone Pickens are close friends.

"We're in the process of trying to see if we can make something happen," he said.

Texas Tech athletic department spokesman Chris Cook said that while the Red Raiders have talked about the possibility of moving the Oklahoma State game to the Dallas area, nothing official has been determined.

"You're always interested in talking," he said. "There's no harm there. But beyond that, it's not past that stage."

Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder said the Cowboys are interested in playing a game in the Dallas area but that he "wouldn't classify the discussions as 'negotiations' and there is not a definite timetable for a decision."

He said he personally likes the idea of playing in the Dallas area and "the key factor has to be which venue hosts the game."

Holder said playing a game in the Dallas area "has the potential to double or triple our normal gate for hosting Texas Tech in Stillwater." He said a large portion of the increased revenue would be because gate receipts would be generated every year in the Dallas area, as opposed to every other year in Stillwater.