Cowboys Consider Oxnard Site

Oxnard’s city manager said Tuesday he may learn within a week whether the Dallas Cowboys will beat the Texas heat by spending part of their summer training camp at a city practice field.

The team recently sent representatives to view the field at the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel in northern Oxnard, where the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders once held their summer camp.

“They were very pleased with the area,” City Manager Ed Sotelo said.

The Cowboys also visited sites at Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State, NFL sources said.

City officials say that the Cowboys would probably spend the last two weeks of summer training in Oxnard. Sotelo said he doesn’t know if it would an annual event.

Exactly how much they would pay in rent, if anything, has not been discussed.

Oxnard hasn’t forgotten its experience with the Raiders, who paid $1 a year to rent the four-acre parcel but gave little else back to the community. The team, which practiced at the site from 1985 to 1995, put black tarps around the practice field to keep the public at bay. And the much-anticipated revenues from fans and visiting journalists never materialized.

Meanwhile, the city spent more than $1 million to prepare the two football fields to the Raiders’ standards. Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, who was on the City Council when it approved the Raiders deal, said the city must benefit from any arrangement with the Cowboys.

“Every professional team has a lot to offer, but I would not pay them to come here,” Lopez said.

Lopez sat down with two Cowboys representatives a few weeks ago.

“They like the site and they like the weather,” he said. “I think they just want to come here for a portion of their training.”

Residence Inn general manager Doug Pflaumer said officials with the team asked him how many rooms are available in the 252-room hotel.

“It would be great for business,” he said. “But they are looking at a number of places.”

The team is tight-lipped about any deal.

“Our club policy is that we don’t make any announcements or comments . . . until we have reached an agreement,” said Rich Dalrymple, team spokesman.

The Dallas Cowboys Web site said the triple-digit heat from their current summer training camp at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, has been a major concern for the club. A short stay in California could keep the Cowboys fresh, the Web site reported.

Dean Maulhardt, an Oxnard City Councilman, said he’d love to see the Cowboys arrive.

“My understanding is that Dallas would be community friendly,” he said. “They have an open-gate policy to let people watch them practice. Oakland wouldn’t even let you sit on a hill and watch them practice.”

From 1963 until 1989 the Cowboys practiced at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

“They were really open,” said Linda Paige Fulford, spokesman for Cal Lutheran. “They were active with our community leaders, they signed autographs, and they let people watch their practice.”

Still, Oxnard Councilman John Zaragoza is being cautious.

“Until I hear what they are proposing, I think we have to be very careful,” he said. “We have experience with the Raiders--and I’m not comparing them--but we need to know exactly what they are asking for.”