Super Bowl in the 817, Holla!

OK, my boycott of Arlington is obviously not working.

So how much is a Super Bowl worth anyway? Depends on whom you ask. Some say $400 million and others say it's about a tenth of that.

But is it worth it for Arlington? Tom Kelly, Director of the Baylor Center for Business and Economic Research, contends that the town with a stadium like this suffers a winner's curse and "ends up paying for a facility that may be justified for the entire region but not for the particular jurisdiction." That seems true in this case. I'm betting that most of the partying will be going on in Uptown Dallas and not downtown Arlington. But we'll save a booth for Jerry Jones at the TGIFriday's on Collins and Ballpark -- just in case.

Of course, this delusion should be clear to Arlington, but it's not. Arlington is an established sports stadium whore that is willing to spread her legs for any sports owner with an itch to build a stadium. Case in point: The Ballpark in Arlington or what ever it's called this week. Reason magazine looked at this back in 2005 in the run-up to the special election in Arlington to finance JerryWorld. What they found was "the stadium clearly benefited the Rangers' owners more than anyone else: [George W.] Bush turned his initial $600,000 investment into $15 million when the team was sold in 1999. But it has produced little of the promised economic benefit to Arlington, and there has never been a real 'public use' factor aside from baseball fans' paying their money to see games."

So was it worth it Arlington? I'm completely biased and have an ax to grind, so I'm going to say no. Your town is still a dump. Former Mayor Richard Greene -- Mr. Really-Tight-Underwear himself -- used to say "we're nobody's damn suburb." But if Arlington is a big city, no one seems to have gotten the memo. It has plenty of big city problems (crime, education and infrastructure are all issues) without any of the big city amenities (fine hotels and dining, a downtown, any kind of civic life not revolving around a mall or an amusement park.) Hell, it doesn't even have mass transit -- but they are fixing that just for the Super Bowl. Woo. Hoo.

But putting aside issues like the dubious economic benefits, misuse of eminent domain and letting Jerry suckle at the government teat, maybe we shouldn't be asking Arlington if it was worth it. Maybe we should be asking Dallas. Of course, the D(a)MN is playing nice with Pollyanna editorials, but bitterness does seep through. And if you turn on sports radio and listen to Galloway or Hansen, that bitterness turns into a full-on anti-Laura Miller diatribe. Think there aren't some people who wish Big D has forked over some government moolah to bring the Cowboys back to town? There's lots of 'em.

So is it worth it? Well, to quote Tom Kelly again, that depends on Arlington's "ability to attract new income into the area and to maintain the circular flow of that income within the city limits." If you think Arlington can do this, then, yeah, you probabIy think it is worth it. You know what I think already. All this is just putting lipstick on a pig.

More on Molly

Mi amigo Mike Blackman (left) had a very nice rememberance of Molly Ivins in the Startlegram this morning. Mike's a talented writer, an even better editor and an even better human being. I remember when he hired Molly back in 1992, she said something to the effect of how could I say no to Mike when he came riding in to Austin on his Harley with his long hair and black leather jacket. How indeed, Molly.

Ken Bunting recalls that in Mike's piece this morning: "She was one of a kind, with a Texas-sized presence about her that was totally devoid of pretense. I'll never forget our trip to Austin to convince her she wanted to come to work for the Star-Telegram. We practiced our sales spiel over and over, trying our best to perfect it. But she told me many times she was sold the moment you walked into the Oasis restaurant wearing a leather jacket and no tie. She knew right away you were the kind of newspaper editor she wanted to work for." Mike was, and still is, a cool breeze.

Anyway, Mike made me laugh this morning when he described the challenge of editing Molly:

I finally got Molly on the phone, hemmed and hawed and cajoled and groveled and finally, after all the agonizing and sputtering, knowing how proud she was of her word choices and their impact, said something like: "Molly, I just want to be sure we want to say 'dildo' in the lead. I'm a little worried ..."

Mike also remembered how he introduced Molly to one of Tarrant County's most eminent Republicans, Richard Greene.

After picking her up at the airport, I swung by the auto dealership where then-Arlington Mayor Richard Greene worked. Mr. Republican himself -- think really tight underwear. As conservative as the political assembly line ever produced. But a straight shooter and good guy.

What the heck, I thought -- what poetry for Molly's first introduction to be to one of the Star-Telegram's most prominent detractors.

"I wouldn't say I was stunned," Greene recalled last night. "Let's just say I was surprised in the extreme."

The meeting lasted about 20 minutes. After each got over a mite of unease, they carried on like, if not long-long friends, cordial acquaintances. Both were gracious and good-humored and genuinely appreciated the incongruence of their encounter.

I remember thinking: Molly and Star-Telegram readers might just do all right together.

"Even conservative Republicans have to admit that with her use of words, her use of the language and her commentary and criticism, she gave Texas an identity," Greene said. "She helped the whole country understand Texans.

"I will always carry the memory of that meeting with me."

Nice words from Richard, who is a man as gracious as his comments. Nice work, Mike. Molly would have been proud.