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Football: Cowboys will have brief stay at dome [/SIZE]
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Web Posted: 04/06/2007 10:58 PM CDT[/SIZE]
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Tom Orsborn[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Express-News[/SIZE]
Fans planning to check out the Dallas Cowboys this summer during training camp at the Alamodome had better not delay their visit. The Cowboys will be in town for roughly only two weeks, with their arrival set for July 24 and their departure for either Aug. 8 or 9, team spokesman Rich Dalrymple confirmed Friday.
The team is returning to the Alamodome after a three-year absence. When the Cowboys trained in San Antonio in 2002 and 2003, camp lasted slightly more than three weeks.
The 2006 camp in Oxnard, Calif., lasted 23 days, beginning July 29 and ending Aug. 20.
But a scheduling conflict at the Alamodome will force the team to cut its time in San Antonio short this summer and hold the remainder of camp at team headquarters in Irving, Dalrymple said.
"We were aware of (the conflict) a long time ago," Dalrymple said. "We are going to get two good weeks of work down there and that's primarily what we're looking for. We are excited about it."
Alamodome facilities manager Jim Mery said he learned of the dates Thursday during a phone conversation with Cowboys director of football operations Bruce Mays, who said practice would begin July 25.
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"That's all they wanted," Mery said of the mere 15 days the team will practice in San Antonio.
The San Antonio Boat Show is scheduled to move into the dome Aug. 16. The Cowboys' first preseason game is Aug. 9 in Irving against defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis.
In the time between those dates, dome workers must remove the field and prepare the building for the boat show.
Typically, camp starts the last weekend in July. But that's not possible this year because the preseason opener is three days earlier than last season's first exhibition game.
"We were forced to move up the time for reporting to camp because our first preseason game is Thursday instead of Saturday, something that's never happened to us before," Dalrymple said. "The players will probably have the day off after the game, so it wasn't feasible for them to come back to San Antonio for just a couple of days and then leave again (because of the boat show)."
City officials said they have no problem with the abbreviated camp. Mery said the two-week window for fans to see the team could produce healthy attendance at an event that sometimes struggled to draw crowds during its previous stints at the dome.
"To do three weeks, that's almost too long," Mery said.
Mery is hopeful he will receive practice times and a date for the camp's kickoff party later this month.
"There will be some type of an opening event," Dalrymple said. "We are still working on the details. It will probably be the night of July 24th."
Another scheduling conflict at the dome in 2008 could force the Cowboys to train elsewhere. A major Church of God convention is scheduled for the dome that year during much of the time the team traditionally holds camp.
"We'll adjust," Dalrymple said. "We've always worked well with the people at the dome."
It's also possible the team won't hold all of its practices at the Alamodome.
According to the five-year contract the team signed with the city in March 2006 for rent-free use of the dome, the Cowboys may hold up to 10 "off-site or closed" practices each year at a cost of $2,500 per workout.
The Cowboys have already discussed with San Antonio Independent School District athletic director Gil Garza the possibility of holding some practices at the district's Spring Sports Complex near Burbank High School.
The pact calls for the city to collect all revenue from parking and concessions and $2 from each ticket sold should the Cowboys scrimmage another team.
