Red Dragon
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(Warning: Relatively long read)
- Strategic White Paper for the Dallas Cowboys -
The Dallas Cowboys are simultaneously one of the most blessed and cursed franchises in all of professional American sports. Dallas enters the 2011 season at crossroads in many senses. A new, young head coach, a patchy roster, a season scheduled with formidable opponents and the sting of over a decade's futility will determine the direction that this franchise takes.
Strengths:
Financial clout: The Cowboys exert enormous financial value and potential. The Cowboys are the most valuable franchise in all of the four major sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL,) and have one of the best-selling sports brands and largest merchandise revenues in the country. The Cowboys possess perhaps the most valuable and lucrative stadium in the United States and have financial resources at their wherewithal beyond those of many other teams.
Fan base/visibility: The Cowboys, likewise, benefit from one of the largest fanbases of any professional American sports team. Few teams come close to matching the diversity, geographic spread, and numerical size of the Cowboys' fanbase. Dallas consistently draws some of the NFL's highest television ratings and supporters from all corners of the United States. In addition, the media tends to divert more attention towards the Cowboys and East Coast NFL teams than towards other NFL teams. Whether praising or criticizing, the media's focus on the Cowboys ensures that Dallas will never lack in visibility.
Cowboys Stadium: Dallas has the finest venue in American professional sports and, perhaps, the world. Cowboys Stadium possesses advantages in size (90,000+ seats,) amenities (the video board,) and iconic uniqueness beyond those of any comparable NFL competitor. The size of Cowboys Stadium, combined with the high demand for Cowboys tickets, ensures a consistent stream of abundant revenue for the franchise in the form of ticket sales. In addition, the Cowboys have the ability to generate revenue outside of football in ways that few other NFL teams can. Few other NFL stadiums would have held the same appeal for hosting the NBA All-Star game, for instance, or a would-have-been Pacquiao-Mayweather match.
Geographic hegemony: Dallas benefits from a relative lack of NFL teams within their geographic vicinity. The Cowboys have a monopoly of sorts over all of north Texas and Oklahoma, and in parts of Arkansas and New Mexico as well. The Northeastern United States, by contrast , crams the Patriots, Eagles, Jets, Giants, Bills, Steelers, Ravens and Commanders into a comparitively jammed region, all competing with each other for fan loyalty. It needs to be pointed out, though, that the East coast, though, is a more densely populated region.
Weaknesses:
Futility on the field: The Cowboys are in the longest postseason drought of their franchise's history, having won only one playoff game in the past 14 seasons and not appearing in a conference title game in 15. It has been nearly two decades since they last won a road playoff game. Such a dearth of postseason success is matched only by the likes of the Chiefs, Lions, Browns, Bengals and so forth.
The fickle nature of the Cowboys' fanbase is, in a certain way, actually a benefit. The nature of bandwagon fans is that it does not take much for them to abandon ship, but often doesn't take much for them to return to the ship either. The Cowboys have teased their fans only barely enough to keep them holding on. At the risk of stating the obvious, this is a franchise that needs to win badly, and soon.
Mediocre management: The Cowboys have not had the benefit of shrewd management such as that which catapulted the Patriots to the top of the league or keeps the Eagles playoff contenders year in and year out. The Cowboys' performance in the Draft has not been the same ever since Jimmy Johnson left, and, despite the acquisition of gems such as Ware, Witten, Ratliff and Bryant in recent years, still gives little cause for encouragement.
The Cowboys' poor management is in part a product of Jerry Jones' tendency to give out too much value for players of unwarranted value. Jones is too easily impressed; it took little to persuade him to give a 1st and 3rd round pick and contracts worth $99 million for Roy Williams and Marion Barber.
Lack of time and a dwindling window of opportunity: The Cowboys are a decently talented team - they have 7 Pro Bowlers on the roster and one of the league's top-10 quarterbacks behind center. In a league where you are only as good as your weakest link, though, their unaddressed holes at positions of need - offensive line, secondary, and kicker - make any run at the Super Bowl a long shot.
The Cowboys are faced with a doubly painful situation: They are in need of long-term talent and rebuilding, but do not have the luxury of time with which to rebuild. Tony Romo is 31 years old and not getting younger, while Witten and Ware are at the peak of their career and only going downhill in a few years' time. The Cowboys are not a particularly old team; they are right in the middle of the pack as far as age is concerned. Dallas, though, is facing an urgent crunch of time as their "championship window of opportunity" is dwindling rapidly and any rebuilding program that takes 2-3 years to gel will simply not generate results quickly enough.
The way forward/look to the future:
The hard truth is that most of the Cowboys' strengths lie off the field, not on it. The Cowboys still retain great assets in the form of their stadium and vast fanbase, but have not been able to exploit this potential to the maximum by having a winning product on the field.
1. At the risk of stating the obvious, the Cowboys must win, win big, and win soon. The Dallas fanbase, not as loyal as that of Cleveland or Kansas City's, has been tested to the limits of its patience and may reach the breaking point with two or three more seasons of postseason futility. Due to the Cowboys' visibility in the media limelight, though, a real "dynasty" is not necessary.
The abundance of attention on the Cowboys - and fan overreaction- at any time, though, means that a Super Bowl win for Dallas is worth twice as much as a Super Bowl win for Pittsburgh. A Cowboys championship would do twice as much for the franchise as a similar title would for the Steelers.
In this sense, the Cowboys must also try to extend their championship window as long as possible. The 1990s dynasty ended several seasons prematurely, as the 2000s Eagles and Patriots have shown that it is perfectly possible to keep a team dominant and in contention for up to a decade or longer. Dallas must acquire a realistic championship-caliber QB to groom for a few years until Romo retires.
2. The Cowboys should try to take their sports brand abroad, internationally, instead of just domestically. The Los Angeles Lakers and New York Yankees are examples of professional U.S. teams that have taken their marketing appeal a step further to Asia and elsewhere. Given the lack of interest in American football around the world, this will be more difficult for the Cowboys, but if there were any team that could do it, it would be Dallas. Latin America and Mexico would be a good place to start, as the Cowboys and Steelers already both possess a significant Hispanic following. Central and South America could be the next logical steps to follow up with.
