It’s Basketball, Not Football, That Is King in Dallas

DALLAS —  This prairie town’s football image may never be the same.

Last month, the city hosted the NBA’s All-Star Game. Now, it’s college basketball’s Final Four.

A basketball revolution has been brewing for a while in Big D. It is here, and may not go away.

Dallas really doesn’t have the Cowboys anymore. Their NFL skirmishes are played at Texas Stadium in nearby Irving.

Even SMU plays in Texas Stadium, forsaking the city’s Cotton Bowl except on special occasions like winning the Southwest Conference title or the Texas Sesquicentennial.

Dallas entertained the NBA during All-Star Week with Brahman bull rides, Willie Nelson’s songs and plenty of barbecue.

Reunion Arena, where the Dallas Mavericks are the second best draw in the league, rocked with sellout crowds of 16,000 for two days.

“We’ll be back,” NBA Commissioner David Stern promised.

Plans for a successful Final Four have been on the frontburner since Dallas outmaneuvered 10 other cities for the right to play host to the NCAA tournament finale.

Officials and fans from Duke, Kansas, Louisville and Louisiana State will be plied with cowboy hats, and Texas-style vittles and parties.

Southfork, the set for the “Dallas” television series, will see some heavy traffic from 1,500 VIPS who will spend part of today sightseeing.

Rick Baker, the executive director of Dallas’ Final Four committee, estimates the city will spend some $750,000 trying to do it up right with gifts and parties.

“That’s not too much when you have such a great opportunity to showcase the city,” he said. “When you get an opportunity like this you promote it.”

Baker says the Final Four is as big an event as the Republican National Convention, which the city hosted in 1984, “in the exposure the city will receive. You can’t put a dollar figure on that.”

Indeed, city fathers hope to put on a show that will make the NCAA want to return.

“If we do a great job we may get it back,” Baker said. “I think you lose a bit when you go to the domed arenas. You don’t get the right atmosphere.”

Meanwhile, the Final Four has produced the toughest sports ticket in the city’s history. Not even the NBA All-Star Game, last season’s Chicago-Dallas meeting, or NFL playoff games in Texas Stadium have generated such a demand.

“It’s bigger than Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen,” said Jack Beckman, director of Reunion Arena. “We probably could sell 10 times the tickets.”

Though the NCAA charges $46 for tickets to Saturday’s semifinals and Monday night’s final, they were going for $650 to $1,500. Ticket-scalping--charging higher than regular prices--is legal in Texas.