{"id":150203,"date":"2025-08-16T10:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T10:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/150203\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T10:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T10:01:19","slug":"arlington-pays-off-debt-for-cowboys-stadium-early-saving-150-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/150203\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington pays off debt for Cowboys stadium early, saving $150 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2004, the city of Arlington voted to approve a Texas-sized $325 million payout to bring Dallas Cowboys Stadium<\/a> to town. <\/p>\n

Twenty years later \u2014 and 10 years ahead of schedule<\/a> \u2014 Arlington\u2019s share of AT&T Stadium\u2019s financing is finally settled, with the final $22.6 million payment made on Friday. <\/p>\n

Overall, Arlington paid a total of $490,325,273 in principal, interest and fees for the stadium. According to city estimates, it saved about $151 million in interest and fees by paying off the debt early. <\/p>\n

The 30-year project was originally budgeted for $650 million, with the city of Arlington and the Dallas Cowboys dividing construction costs. <\/p>\n

D-FW Real Estate News<\/p>\n

Get the latest real estate news you need to know.<\/p>\n

Yet when the stadium finally opened in 2009, total project costs topped $1.2 billion, with the team paying for additional expenses beyond the city\u2019s contribution. <\/p>\n

In a statement, Arlington Mayor Jim Ross applauded Robert Cluck, his predecessor at City Hall, and the voters for the initial decision to \u201cinvest in a world-class stadium [that] has created jobs, boosted our economy over the years and cemented Arlington\u2019s reputation as a premier destination for sports and entertainment.\u201d <\/p>\n

Over two decades ago, residents approved a half-cent sales tax increase<\/a>, a 2% hotel occupancy tax and a 5% rental car sales tax to pay for the city\u2019s share of stadium construction. <\/p>\n

Arlington generated about $55 million each year, through a combination of tax funding and revenue from the city\u2019s 16 million annual visitors. <\/p>\n

Refinancing and early redemptions allowed the city to save millions in interest and fees over the years; in the end, Arlington successfully paid off its initial 30-year debt investment in just 20 years. <\/p>\n

Coming together to pay off stadium debt and bring a world-renowned sports and entertainment arena to the city of Arlington is a history that residents don\u2019t mind repeating. <\/p>\n

Back in 2017, voters approved to keep the funding sources \u2014 the half-cent sales tax, the 2% hotel occupancy tax and the 5% rental car sales tax \u2014 in order to fund the construction of Globe Life Field<\/a>. Arlington\u2019s share of the $1 billion-plus venue will cost the city $500 million in subsidies.<\/p>\n

At least now, Arlington residents can cheer on the Cowboys and other attractions debt-free. <\/p>\n

The 100,000-person stadium was selected as the host venue for nine 2026 FIFA World Cup games, and has hosted numerous high-profile sports and entertainment events since opening in 2009 \u2014 including Super Bowl XLV, two WWE WrestleMania events and Taylor Swift\u2019s The Eras Tour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 2004, the city of Arlington voted to approve a Texas-sized $325 million payout to bring Dallas…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":150204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,7948,1596,8998,4329,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-150203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arlington","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-real-estate","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115037869772062575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}