Unfair Park put the question to Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau head Phillip Jones: why didn’t they show Fair Park to the Professional Convention Management Association meeting that was in town last week? Jones answers that they highlighted Fair Park in promotional materials, but that he was more concerned with emphasizing downtown.
Since the DCVB’s brochure featured “an entire section” about the State Fair, were the convention planners given the impression that nothing happens out at Fair Park, other than when the Fair is running? Wick said in the January “print product” that Fair Park is too valuable to continue to let the State Fair occupy it.
A few weeks ago I spoke with Michael Morris, the transportation guru for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, about Dallas’ effort to make a bid for the 2012 Olympics, for which he developed a transportation plan. When I asked what lessons had been learned from that failure, his response centered on Fair Park.
The Olympic people were very clear on this: “You’re so close to your amenities, you underestimate their value. Fair Park–there’s nothing else in America like Fair Park. You should have talked about it more in your Olympic bid … the historic nature of it, the size of Fair Park.”
