The $325 million of public money invested by Arlington in the $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys Stadium seems to be paying off.
The latest report from the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau said tourist spending in the city in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 totaled $14.3 million. Spending by tourists in the same period of 2009 was only $1.4 million, according to the report.
The city’s fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
The massive, state-of-the-art National Football League stadium complex, which opened in June 2009, is financed with $301 million of bonds supported by sales and hotel taxes approved by Arlington voters in 2004.
Sales tax revenue in the city fell slightly in the first three months of 2010, to $11.5 million from $11.6 million, but city officials said the drop would have been severe without the tourist spending.
The 2005 bond sale that financed the public portion of the stadium included $118 million of fixed-rate tax revenue bonds, $161.4 million of variable-rate bonds that were later refunded, and $21.9 million of taxable revenue bonds.
The tax-exempt bonds are supported by a half-cent sales tax, a 2% hotel occupancy tax, and a 5% tax on car rentals.
The taxable bonds are supported by $2 million a year the city will receive in rent from the Cowboys for the stadium over the 30-year term of the agreement, and the city’s 5% portion of the yet unsold naming rights, capped at $500,000 a year.
