Financial Advisor to the Dallas Cowboys Football Club

In December 2001, Estrada Hinojosa was retained as Financial Advisor to advise the Dallas Cowboys Football Club (owners of the National Football League franchise) in their plans to develop a new $1.1 billion stadium. The 75,000-seat stadium with the innovative retractable roof design gained world recognition and led to the Dallas-Fort Worth area winning its bid for Super Bowl 2011.

Challenge:

A private-public partnership would be critical to building a project of this magnitude. To succeed, the Dallas Cowboys would need an elaborate and detailed financing plan to identify capitalization mix, funding timing, as well as sources and uses of construction funding for the stadium. Estrada Hinojosa was called on to develop a public debt offering and recommend strategies to secure the offering with fees and taxes to supplement the client’s equity.

Results:

• Estrada Hinojosa successfully identified available revenue sources for funding
• Developed plan for a public debt offering secured by user fees, dedicated car rental, hotel occupancy and sales taxes, along with equity provided by the Dallas Cowboys
• Worked closely with the City of Arlington’s investment banking firm to expedite analysis of assumptions
• Developed proprietary financial models to project accurate bonding capacity
• Through respected relationships with rating agencies and bond insurance companies, the firm confirmed assumptions on coverage ratios, growth assumptions, bond insurance and surety bond pricing
• The project was successfully funded as planned. Cowboys Stadium opened in 2009 to rave reviews worldwide