Cowboys, Moving Camp to Oxnard, Say: ‘Y’all Come’

The Dallas Cowboys announced Friday that the team will move its summer training camp from Texas to Oxnard for two weeks in August and erect a mini-theme park next to football fields.

Under an agreement set for City Council approval Tuesday, the Cowboys’ training camp would go beyond the spartan program the Los Angeles Raiders held at the same River Ridge Golf Club until 1995, when the team returned to Oakland.

Unlike the Raiders, who draped field fences with a view-blocking black tarp, the Cowboys will erect bleachers for fans. There will be no admission charge.

The Dallas Cowboys Experience will include souvenir booths, interactive football games, children’s play areas, team memorabilia, concession stands and possibly a traveling Cowboys museum, officials said. A $2 admission charge may be imposed for the attraction, but proceeds would go to local charities.

“There are a lot of big, inflatable bouncy things where kids have a lot of fun,” Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said. “It includes inflatable jumping rooms, games where you kick field goals and another where you throw a football and where you simulate running with the football.”

A free one-day cheerleading clinic will be headed by at least two of the team’s cheerleaders.

“The Cowboys pride themselves on their community participation, and this is designed as family entertainment,” Councilman Tom Holden said. “It’s a good deal, and a lot less expensive than the previous attempt to get a professional sports team here.”

The city hopes that the Cowboys’ openness will bring tourists to town. The team practiced at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks from 1963 to 1989, and fans flocked there to watch.

“When we trained in Thousand Oaks, we developed a fan following in Southern California,” Dalrymple said. “And Oxnard is familiar with hosting a training camp, so that’s a big plus too.”

Oxnard won out as host over Cal State campuses in Long Beach and Fullerton because of conflicts with university athletic programs there, Dalrymple said.

But the Cowboys chose Oxnard mostly for its cool climate, having endured 100-degree temperatures at its camp in Wichita Falls, Texas. The team will practice in steamy Texas for three weeks this summer, before moving to Oxnard on Aug. 13.