"YOU’RE THE FIRST”

North Texas mayors come together to form the first Council of Mayors in Super Bowl history

By STEVE PATE

Thursday, July 29, 2010 - 11:25am

Bill Lively

ARLINGTON — For the first time in the entire history of Super Bowls, some 40 mayors huddled here Monday to discuss what they can do to help North Texas shine all over the world come February 2011.

The theme of the meeting was teamwork. And the team is North Texas. All of North Texas.

This first of a planned series of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee’s Council of Mayors Meeting was staged in a theater at the Ballpark in Arlington. It included two video presentations and “pep talks” by Host Committee Chair Roger Staubach; Host Committee President & CEO Bill Lively; the Honorable Mike Moncrief, Mayor of Fort Worth; the Honorable Tom Leppert, Mayor of Dallas; and, the Honorable Robert Cluck, M.D., Mayor of Arlington.

Mayors of major cities, suburbs and small towns helped achieve this remarkable occasion.

“No other Super Bowl in the 44-year history of the game so far has had a Council of Mayors,” Lively informed the group. “You’re a first.”

He added, “Together, we’re about to make history. History in what we do as a region. How we collaborate. What we do, we’ve never done before. And as mayors of cities and towns throughout this region, you’re very important to this enterprise.”

Lively pointed out that individual cities have benefitted from previous Super Bowls, but Super Bowl XLV is a game, and a time, for all of North Texas. It’s also more than a game and will include events and concerts for an entire year leading up to Super Sunday.

Mayor Moncrief stressed, “It’s not an issue of big city versus little city. It’s not an issue of who has what venue. We’re proud of our cities and towns. We are proud of what we have to offer.”

Mayor Moncrief also centered on another of the Host Committee’s primary goals – the broader intention of wedging North Texas into the cycle of NFL cities that continue to host Super Bowls again and again.

“The gate is wide open,” he said. “Not just to this game. We’re looking for getting into that rotation, not just every 10 years, but every five years. Or less.”

Mayor Leppert stressed a similar theme, pointing out, “What we really want to do in the end is be able to re-define Super Bowls. While we want 2011 to be a terrific event, the reality is we want it to be such a compelling argument to the NFL that they HAVE to come back to North Texas year after year after year. That’s really our focus.” 

Mayor Cluck told the gathering, “Everybody in this room is going to have a piece of this Super Bowl … Without you, this Super Bowl would not be near as big or as exciting.”

And who better to end the meeting with a final call for teamwork than Staubach, the former Cowboys Super Bowl winning quarterback?

“Personal agendas are really important,” Staubach said. “Everybody has personal agendas. But at the end of the day, to really truly make lifework is to be able to put sometimes your personal agenda secondly to a bigger agenda. I think that’s what has been expressed here.”

Artis Johnson, Mayor the last nine years in nearby Hutchins, said afterward, “It’s the first time I’ve seen a lot of these people from North Texas, and some of them are probably less than 100 miles apart. I think this is a good idea that the Host Committee came up with so that we can get to know one another, we can work with one another, and work more on a regional basis.”

Noted Mayor Jerry Burns of White Settlement, “If they can make the Super Bowl what they hope to make it, everybody will flock to Texas even more than they are now.”

Mayor Burns added, “For everything that’s happened to Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas the last few years, to happen so fast – the Speedway, the Cowboys coming to Arlington, the new Rangers stadium, I mean, it seems like we’re the Mecca of the whole country now. And I hope we keep going.”

The Council of Mayors will convene again this fall at the new Cowboys Stadium. All mayors will be invited.

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