It’s time to cut off the head of zombie Woodrow stadium plan for East Dallas park

The zombie football stadium for Woodrow Wilson High School, an idea that has lurched along for a decade or more, has again risen from the dead in my East Dallas neighborhood.

Local Facebook pages have exploded with debate since the posting earlier this month of yet another plan — backed by anonymous donors — to build a 4,000-seat “game field” in Willis Winters Park, located just across the street from Woodrow.

No formal proposal has gone to the city or Dallas ISD. For now, the stadium boosters are gauging potential blowback to the facility, which would replace the park’s by-reservation-only soccer field.

“Cut off its head” is the opposition’s point of view.

Count me with those who say you can love Woodrow, but not support the plan to plop down a stadium in a park already heavy with sports facilities.

Ross Williams, a Santa Fe Avenue resident and the public face of this project, wants us to keep an open mind. He also points to work his group is willing to do within the green space to sweeten the deal.

But his plan fails a simple eyeball test for many who live in the dense adjacent neighborhoods, navigate the area’s narrow roads or play in the ever-improving Winters Park.

Residents and park advocates have fired back with concerns about the lights, noise, traffic and parking problems that a new stadium is likely to bring.

My question is this: Winters is a city park, not a DISD park. It’s purpose is to serve the community, not cater to one high school. Why is Winters Park — and by extension the Dallas Park and Recreation Department — being asked to solve a DISD problem?

I appreciate that boosters of Woodrow and its adjacent J.L. Long Middle School want a stadium for their kids. The Wildcats — hardly the only DISD school without their own game facility — play their “home” games seven miles north at Franklin Field, adjacent to Hillcrest High School.

But when DISD puts a $3.7 billion bond proposal — the largest in state history — in front of voters in November, not a dime of it will be designated for a Woodrow stadium.

The desire for the Woodrow football and soccer teams to have their own stadium isn’t rooted in any kind of districtwide equity issue but rather in this campus having deep-pocket donors looking to grant a wish. Just because Winters Park already hosts many Woodrow and Long practices and games in its existing facilities doesn’t mean it should be further co-opted.

Last week, amid the passion, competing data points and misinformation flying around, Juliette Fowler Communities brought together more than a dozen stakeholders to try to clear the air.

Fowler’s large retirement community sits across the street from the proposed stadium, and residents have peppered Fowler CEO Nicole Gann with questions and concerns about the proposed stadium.

Moderated by Gann and packed to the 100-person Zoom limit, the meeting was a much-needed dose of balanced and complete discussion. Williams made the case for the stadium; Tom Methvin, who lives on the park’s perimeter, argued for the opposition. Each came armed with data-laden PowerPoint presentations and support from other speakers.

(Details of the stadium proposal — and opposing points of view — are available on the Randall/Willis Winters Improvement Project News page on Facebook.)

The Woodrow athletic director and booster club president beseeched neighbors to see that they would be making a small sacrifice to “do what’s right for the kids.”

Representatives of the surrounding neighborhoods and green space advocacy groups were, at best, skeptical of Williams’ arguments. Most problematic is his refusal to divulge who would bankroll the funding.

The handful of elected and appointed leaders on hand said they were still gathering information — and noted yet again that no official proposal has come before them.

Calvert Collins-Bratton, president of the Dallas Park Board, left no question about her team’s role: “We are appointed as stewards of park land. We serve the best short- and long-term interests of our parks and to the public who uses them.”

Gann told me Friday that Fowler residents are about to release a statement with their point of view. Based on an earlier survey, I expect the Fowler retirees will give the plan the same thumbs down voiced by Mount Auburn and Junius Heights neighbors who spoke at the forum.

Among those in Tuesday’s virtual audience was the namesake of the park, retired Dallas Park Director Willis Winters. He led the joint Dallas-DISD effort to overhaul this East Dallas space, formerly known as Randall Park, and worked out the details of the 2004 interlocal agreement between the city and school district.

Under that deal, DISD gets first choice on reserving dates for the boys’ baseball field, the girls’ softball field and the soccer field, which doubles as a football practice space. Once Woodrow and Long make their picks, all the facilities are available to the many community leagues and teams.

Nothing in the 2004 agreement gives DISD or Woodrow any special say in further development of the park. Winters recalled that when stadium supporters first contacted him about eight years ago, his reaction was the same as it is now: “A project of this magnitude must have the support of the immediate surrounding area.”

Winters is enormously concerned about the potential negative impact from the proposed plan. “Mitigating those issues — lights, noise and traffic — will be essential for the project to ever be acceptable to the neighborhood. …. If neighbors aren’t on board, you are in trouble.”

He ticked off a number of other details that trouble him: The funding sounds squishy. The proponents’ idea for off-site parking with shuttle service is no cure-all. Space for the now-existing adult soccer field may not be available in the stadium footprint once space is allocated for bleachers.

Woodrow alums and parents, especially those who don’t live around the school, likely don’t realize what a special place Winters Park has become.

A decade ago, it was defined by vandalism, graffiti and trash; its only real asset was the top-notch ball fields. But under the leadership of Friends of Randall Park (now Friends of Willis Winters Park), neighbors have transformed it into a place that residents and rec sports families and fans cherish.

The Friends group worked with the city to bring down penitentiary-style fencing and gates. They organized regular cleanup campaigns, added trash cans and better picnic tables. This month they are hard at work on a pollinator garden that park visitors and Juliette Fowler residents can enjoy.

With gyms closed during the pandemic, residents have organized socially distanced yoga, impromptu weight workouts and baseball bleacher runs at Winters.

This past Saturday, soccer tots swarmed the corner of the park that the stadium backers have their eyes on. Men of all ages hustled in a fierce but good-natured game of basketball.

Two teen-age girls sat on a blanket in the green space where the Woodrow band practices many mornings. A mother watched over her three little ones in the playground while dad jogged alongside a boy wobbling along on his tiny bike.

Assuming that Williams and his donors continue to move forward, trying to persuade Dallas City Hall to drop a football stadium onto this park will be a long, long process..

My message to the stadium funders — whoever you are — is to quit trying to dump this mess into the lap of the Dallas Park Department and instead take your case to DISD.

Leave Willis Winters Park alone.