Cowboys hit the trail, will train in California
By Clarence E. Hill Jr.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer


Training camp site


IRVING - The Cowboys are going back to Southern California for training
camp.

Unable to come to terms with officials in San Antonio to continue training
at the Alamodome, the Cowboys announced Friday that they have reached a
multiyear agreement to conduct training camp in Oxnard, Calif., beginning
next summer.

The Cowboys will train at the Marriott Residence Inn in Oxnard, where they
spent a portion of their 2001 training camp. Oxnard is 60 miles northwest of
Los Angeles.

The starting date for the 2004 camp has not been determined, although
National Football League camps typically open in late July and break around
mid-August. The deal is essentially for the 2004 and 2005 seasons, with an
option for 2006.

Friday's announcement comes less than a week after the City Council in San
Antonio, which hosted the past two training camps, rejected a proposal from
the Cowboys for 2005-08 and gave team officials a take-it-or-leave-it offer.

"Our camp experience for the past two years has been nothing short of
outstanding," Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "Our
organization has benefited from the support of the city of San Antonio, its
leaders and a tremendous following of enthusiastic Dallas Cowboys fans."

Jones said the Cowboys have the same feeling about Oxnard, considering that
the team trained down the road in Thousand Oaks for 27 years.

"Training camp in Southern California has played an important part of our
organization's history, and there is a strong concentration of Cowboys fans
in that part of the country," Jones said. "The Oxnard location provides a
quality working environment for an NFL team."

The team's relationship with San Antonio broke down over money.

The Cowboys wanted to practice rent-free, with the city making its profit on
parking and concessions. The team also asked the city to provide a
state-of-the-art synthetic field inside the Alamodome.

For the past two summers, the Cowboys have paid to have a special temporary
field installed during camp. The turf, which is similar to real grass, was
removed once the Cowboys returned to their Valley Ranch headquarters.

San Antonio's proposal would have charged the Cowboys an annual six-figure
rent.

"It's a take-it-or-leave-it offer," Councilman Julián Castro told the San
Antonio Express-News last week. "Hopefully, they will agree to it or we will
walk away."

In the end, it was the Cowboys who walked.

San Antonio paid the Cowboys $400,000 in 2002 to lure the team away from
Wichita Falls. The Cowboys enjoyed rent-free use of the Alamodome last year.

More than 19,000 fans attended the Cowboys' first day of practice in 2002,
and a welcome party this summer drew about 25,000.

Under the deal with Oxnard, the Cowboys will pay only for food and lodging,
a source close to the team said.

Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones said the team wanted to return to San
Antonio, where it could train inside a domed stadium. But the parts didn't
fit, he said.

"We enjoyed San Antonio, but this is a good deal for us in Oxnard," Stephen
Jones said. "The experience there a couple of years ago was super, and we
think it will be great this time."

The Cowboys have had four training camp sites since Jerry Jones bought the
team in 1989.

The Cowboys conducted summer training camp at California Lutheran University
in Thousand Oaks from 1963 to 1989. Jones moved camp to St. Edward's
University in Austin in 1990, and the team stayed there until 1997.

In 1998, the Cowboys shifted camp to Midwestern State University in Wichita
Falls. Midwestern State was their full-time camp home for three years. In
2001, the Cowboys split camp between Wichita Falls and Oxnard before moving
to San Antonio in 2002.

Weather has been an issue during the team's training days in Texas.
Temperatures in Wichita Falls frequently climbed into the 100s, and the heat
often drove the team indoors in San Antonio. But Oxnard is on the Pacific
Coast and boasts average highs in July and August in the mid-80s.

Cowboys training camp sites

Year Site City
1960 Pacific University Forest Grove, Ore.
1961 St. Olaf College Northfield, Minn.
1962 Northern Michigan College Marquette, Mich.
1963-89 California Lutheran University Thousand Oaks, Calif.
1990-97 St. Edward's University Austin
1998-01 Midwestern State University Wichita Falls
*2001 Marriott Residence Inn Oxnard, Calif.
2002-03 Alamodome San Antonio
**2004-05 Marriott Residence Inn Oxnard, Calif.

*Split training camp. Three weeks in Wichita Falls and two weeks in Oxnard.

**Contract includes option for 2006.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/7102184.htm

Archived from group: alt>sports>football>pro>dallas-cowboys