City votes to guard future details of parades... - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Flacolaco · 12-06-2006, 10:06 AM

Quote:

11:45 PM CST on Tuesday, December 5, 2006By DAVE LEVINTHAL /

The Dallas Morning News

Stupid. Moronic. Idiotic.

These were among the milder terms indignant Dallas Mavericks fans used to
describe city officials who announced the specifics of a victory rally after the
team built a 2-0 lead over the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals. Four games
later, the Mavs and the rally plans were undone.

Hoping to avoid such a predicament again, the Dallas City Council's public
safety committee voted 4-1 Tuesday to support keeping the details of major
sports celebrations quiet until the Dallas team in contention actually wins
something.

Upon passage by the full council, the policy would direct city staff to stop
briefing the council on event preparations – routine for years – and to quit
making public announcements until after Tony Romo raises the Lombardi Trophy or
Mike Modano hoists the Stanley Cup.

Such a policy could have spared city officials the ire of Mavs fans after the
Heat won the NBA title, four games to two.

"Personally, I was vilified. I was threatened," said Office of Special Events
manager Celia Barshop, who conducted the fateful tell-all celebration news
conference in June – and immediately became the bane of talk radio and bloggers'
hoop dreams. "There is a negative impact to the team, as felt by all of us."
The new policy would align with city practices for other major public events,
such as parades and marches. The city largely determines the location, route and
security measures for such events in private.

The city in 1993 made planning for sports celebrations a decidedly public
process. Revelers nearly rioted after the Dallas Cowboys won Super Bowl XXVII,
and police arrested dozens of them. Current policy mandates that staff members
brief the council's public safety committee at least 45 days before a team's
first potential playoff date. It also requires city staff to make public a
team's requests for a victory celebration.

Ms. Barshop says she'll release event information to the news media upon
request; she just doesn't want to volunteer it. The last thing she wants to do
is jinx a Dallas team or provide an opponent with bulletin board fodder, she
said.

"As long as it's still an early, transparent process, I don't have a problem,"
said council member Ron Natinsky, who voted for the policy change.
"It brings uniformity to the process, and it makes sense," Deputy Mayor Pro Tem
Elba Garcia added.

If and when a Dallas team wins another championship, "the very next day, we'll
go to press with all the details," Ms. Barshop said.

brilliant.....