Tom Fox / DMN

Construction of the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium on November 6.

DALLAS - Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones may have more problems than just fans upset at his announced ticket prices.

A News 8 investigation has unearthed questions about his stadium deal with Arlington, specifically, the potential of reaping huge profits at taxpayers' expense.

City and county elected officials in Dallas thought they'd never live it down.

They thought they would be brutalized by Cowboys fans for losing the new stadium to Arlington a few years back.

But the criticism is starting to fade as details emerge about the sweet deal that Arlington residents may not be aware they made with Jerry Jones.

The grandeur and scale of new Cowboys stadium is exactly what Arlington taxpayers expected when they voted for a tax hike to pay for their half - $325 million.

But as in many deals, the devil is in the details.

Such as, with interest on the construction bonds, Arlington taxpayers will shell out closer to $650 million, instead of $325 million.

But with the announcement of personal seat licenses starting at $16,000, going up to $150,000, the revenue intake for Jones gets more intriguing.

If Jones gets what he's asking for in terms of seat licenses, which is about $400 million, plus the $325 million from taxpayers, plus naming rights which Cowboy officials admit could be in the $1 billion range, not to mention his income off 200 suites, Jones could make big money.

Dallas civic leader Darrell Jordan was among those upset with Dallas city and county officials for not bringing the Cowboys to the Cotton Bowl.

But now that he sees Jones' seat pricing scheme, he knows why Jones did a deal with Arlington. He says Dallas taxpayers would not have approved it.

"The pricing he's asking for under the guise of a public, private partnership is going to enable Mr Jones to make hundreds of millions of dollars, well beyond his share of the construction costs of the stadium," he said.

But a closer look at the master agreement between Arlington and the Cowboys reveals even more.

That $325 million that taxpayers agreed to, which is really $650 million after interest, is just part of what taxpayers have agreed to give Jones.

According to the fine print, Jones' share of the costs of the Cowboys complex will come from a 10 percent ticket tax and a $3 parking tax, city tax dollars handed over to Jones to help him pay his share of the billion dollar stadium costs.

Robert Baade is considered by many the premier sports economist in the country.

He has studied countless taxpayer-supported stadium deals in every major sport.

He says he's never heard of a deal quite like this and in his opinion there is a question about its legality.

"Now that is an unusual arrangement and one that really has to be looked at a little more carefully because that may be in violation of laws as it relates to using tax proceeds to in fact finance or subsidize private business," he said.

Both the Cowboys and Arlington say the arrangement is not unusual, not illegal, but specifically provided for by state law.

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck not only says he has opinions from experts that say its legal, he says it's a great deal for Arlington residents, who stand to reap huge windfalls from revenue generated by the stadium over 30 plus years.

"We are going to have, I think, best estimates a $1.1 or $1.2 billion stadium. We are going to be paying a third, maybe a little more than a third but certainly not half the cost of the stadium. I think that's a good deal," he said.

But Baade disagrees.

In fact he says Arlington taxpayers are also apparently being priced out of their own stadium and that also presents legal questions.

"It may well be that at some point government interferes in a meaningful way to restore some kind of commercial sanity to what seems to be an out of control process," he said.

Jerry Jones declined our request for an interview on this topic but his spokesman says everything in the master agreement is legal and the current pricing structure is fair.

Ultimately, it's up to the public to decide and right now, of a 5,000 seat initial offering only about 1,800 seats have been sold.

E-mail bshipp@wfaa.com