Room For Two? Dallas Mayor Pushing For Chiefs To Join Cowboys, Move 'Home'

Eric Johnson, the mayor of Dallas, wants to see two NFL teams in his city.

Nov 21, 2021; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

It's hard to believe that a back-to-back Super Bowl champion could be thinking of relocation, but that's the situation the Kansas City Chiefs find themselves in.

On Tuesday night, voters in Jackson County, Missouri struck down a sales tax proposal that would've helped fund major renovations to Arrowhead Stadium, as well as a new ballpark for MLB's Kansas City Royals. The Chiefs, who had committed $300 million in private money to the renovations, were hoping to use public funding to help support the $800 million project.

Nov 21, 2021; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

"We would not be willing to sign a lease for another 25 years without the financing to properly renovate and reimagine the stadium," Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said Tuesday, via the Associated Press. "The financing puzzle is very important to us to make sure we have enough funds to do everything we've outlined."

Now that voters have shot down the proposal, the Chiefs' future in Kansas City may legitimately be in question. They could try again with a revised proposal, or they could listen to offers from other cities. If they actually do decide to relocate (which is still a long ways away, just to be clear), then where might they move?

For Eric Johnson, the mayor of Dallas, a homecoming for the NFL's newly-crowned dynasty could be in order. Remember, the Chiefs began life as the AFL's Dallas Texans in 1960 before moving to Kansas City three years later. After Tuesday night's news, Johnson posted an article with the caption "Welcome home, Dallas Texans! #CottonBowl," and then continued his campaign on Wednesday morning.

“Dallas was named the top sports city in the United States because we play to win,” Johnson said in a statement Wednesday to The Dallas Morning News.

“As I have said previously, our market is big enough, growing enough, and loves football more than enough to support a second NFL team — especially a franchise (and an owner) with deep roots here.”

Johnson clearly believes his city can support two NFL franchises, and he has campaigned for an expansion franchise before. However, is competing so closely with the Dallas Cowboys, also known as America's Team, really feasible? For Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the answer to that question is a definitive "no."

“You can be rest assured that you would not have the NFL supporting another team because of the kind of value that the game and the NFL receives of having [the] Dallas Cowboys as one of its marquee teams and again, logic tells you [the NFL] wouldn’t want to water that down,” Jones told The Dallas Morning News in June 2022.

There's little to suggest the Chiefs are even considering moving back to Dallas, as the most-common relocation suggestion being that they just move to the Kansas side of the area. Their stadium lease also doesn't expire until 2031, so it's not like they're under the gun.

Until a resolution is reached, though, Johnson - seeking attention if nothing else - will likely continue to campaign for a second NFL team in Big D.