Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

DALLAS (AP) ― There was a time when the Cotton Bowl was a grand place, the host to some of college football's top games and the initial home of the Dallas Cowboys.

To anyone under 40, it's just an old, decaying stadium that hosts the OU-Texas game and not much else. The place is so far past its prime the Cotton Bowl game is leaving after the upcoming Jan. 2, switching to the $1.1 billion jewel the Cowboys are building in hopes a new environment will one day help them get into the BCS.

A few years ago, Dallas taxpayers were asked whether to give up on the Cotton Bowl or try saving it. The verdict: Go for it.

The $57 million face lift is done, with the mayor holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday.

Mayor Tom Leppert bragged about having more bathrooms, more concession stands and a lot more seats; the new capacity of 92,100 being ninth-biggest in the country. He also emphasized the uniqueness of the stadium being in the middle of the State Fair of Texas, fans checking out the midway and the rides, and snacking on all sorts of fried creations, before and after the game.

Yet when it comes to answering the question of who will be playing those games, well, that part is still under construction.

Texas and Oklahoma are locked in through 2015. Grambling and Prairie View also are continuing their long-running series. A newcomer is Texas A&M-Commerce and East Central (Okla.)

Talks are continuing for others, including Texas Tech against Oklahoma State, but Leppert admits, "it's a tough sell."

"You're trying to get people to change games, they've got to move it from their locations," he said. "So, yeah, there are some challenges along the way."

The biggest might be a 30-minute drive down Interstate 30.

The Cowboys' new place isn't even finished, but already has landed an annual game between Jones' alma mater Arkansas and Texas' top rival, Texas A&M. Jones also has persuaded Notre Dame to move a home game there in 2013. The Super Bowl is coming in 2011.

Leppert acknowledges the competition, but turns back to the city's main selling point -- the State Fair, with its signature features like Fletcher's corny dogs, the largest Ferris wheel in North America and Big Tex, the 52-foot tall guy in blue jeans who every few minutes bellows, "Howdy, folks."

"You're not just coming to a stadium, you're coming to a much wider event," Leppert said.

Saturdays are only the start of the big-picture goal. Leppert also would like to get games on Thursdays. The city also is looking to host a bowl game in December. Talks on all fronts are under way, but no one was sharing any specifics.

"We feel very strongly that we'll be able to bring this Cotton Bowl back to the status that it once was," said Pete Schenkel, chairman of football activities for the State Fair.

The Cotton Bowl opened in 1932 with 46,200 seats and the billing as the "largest and grandest stadium in the South." Texas and Oklahoma already had been playing at the fairgrounds since 1929 and have been the anchor tenant ever since.

The New Year's Day game began in 1937. It hosted national champions back in the day they were crowned before the bowl season and helped determine No. 1 in the pre-BCS era.

The stadium got a second deck in the late 1940s, but only patchwork repairs and minor improvements in the decades since. The stadium's age and lack of a roof kept the Cotton Bowl game from being part of the initial BCS. City leaders nixed an idea to put a dome on the place and blew their chance to bring back the Cowboys when Jones was searching for a new home.

The impetus for this change was Texas and Oklahoma threatening to switch to a home-and-home series so they could cash in on their own luxury suites and other accouterments. Tradition and history won out, but only after taxpayers ponied up.

Neither school was represented at Wednesday's gathering, but Schenkel said both are thrilled.

Visitors will notice changes right away, the shape changed by seats now filling both horseshoes, and wider concourses for them to walk through. There are also new seats -- nearly all benches.

Players will like having new locker rooms and coaches will like having their own places to dress. There's also a new room to hold news conferences and other functions, a huge upgrade from tents.

"It's just a much friendlier, much more-enjoyable environment," Leppert said.

The added and upgraded restrooms and concession stands should end the two biggest complaints from Texas and Oklahoma officials. The extra 16,000 seats will be appreciated, too, because it means more revenue -- perhaps as much as $750,000, Leppert said, triple what it was just a few years ago.

Leppert is sensitive to the perception this was all done to appease the two state schools, that it was a huge investment for one Saturday afternoon per year.

"If we're going to be successful, we're going to have to attract other football games here," Leppert said. "It would not have made sense if that was going to be the only game."

The clock is ticking on that game, too. Texas and Oklahoma will decide years before 2015 whether to keep coming to Dallas.

"As long as we take care of our stadium and put money back into it, we hope to count on Oklahoma and Texas being here for many, many years to come," Schenkel said. "There's no reason in the world for them to leave."

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)