Cowboys Stadium likely off-limits for drilling

ARLINGTON - The Dallas Cowboys' new $1.15 billion stadium would probably be off-limits for underground drilling under the team's contract with the city of Arlington.

City Attorney Jay Doegey said there are concerns about the possible risks of drilling under such an ex-pensive and huge structure, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday. The stadium weighs more than 805 million pounds.

"We don't want the ground to give and cause it to crack or sink," Doegey told the newspaper.

Options for drilling are already limited because the 200-acre site is in a developed area, but language in the contract makes it potentially harder to lease the property for drilling.

The language was added before five small earthquakes shook Cleburne, a town 50 miles southwest of Dallas. Researchers are examining whether those earthquakes were caused by gas drilling.

In recent years, thousands of wells have been drilled in the areas of North Texas. The region sits upon the Barnett Shale, a geologic formation that is perhaps the nation's richest natural gas field.

Attorney Glenn Sodd said the potential ban could affect his clients - former property owners whose land was acquired for the stadium. Sodd's clients were allowed to keep some mineral rights through a previously unpublicized deal.

If the city bans drilling under the stadium property, Arlington could only lease the land to drillers if it were "pooled" with adjacent property. Revenue would be split among all mineral rights owners.

There are no immediate plans to lease the stadium property for gas drilling.

The market for drilling leases has dropped in the past year due to the recession and falling natural gas prices. Signing bonuses have decreased from nearly $30,000 per acre in some areas to about $2,000 to $2,500 per acre.