The decision was hard, with everything swirling around it, but ultimately it was taken out of the Dallas Cowboys’ hands. Each year for the last decade plus, the team has escaped the Texas summer heat to conduct their annual training camp in the breezy conditions of Oxnard, California. It allows the team the bonding experience of getting away from home for six weeks, in addition to being a more suitable environment with temperatures in the 60s and 70s as opposed to potential 100-degree days in the heart of Texas.
However the coronavirus pandemic, limits to interstate travel and general concern for being in facilities not completely owned by the team seem to all have factored in the league’s decision to not allow the Cowboys to travel to California, but instead hold their training camp in the friendly confines of The Star in Frisco, team headquarters. In fact, all teams will remain at home.
Can confirm the #Cowboys will forego having training camp in Oxnard in 2020, and will instead hold it at the team’s headquarters in Frisco, TX.
The team had been mulling a decision amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Assuming camps are permitted, the Cowboys will stay in TX to train.
— Patrik [No C] Walker (@VoiceOfTheStar) June 2, 2020
And so the NFL has told all its teams that they must stay at their team facilities for this summer's training camps.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 2, 2020
Last week, the governor of Texas outlined a potential re-opening of sports venues to fans, allowing for 25% capacity in open-air stadiums. That could be the first step towards Dallas actually hosting their slate of home games during the 2020 season. The planned season opener is on the road against the Los Angeles Rams, in their new SoFi Stadium.
Dallas christened the Rams return to L.A. in the 2016 preseason and is also scheduled to be the official soft-opening opponent for SoFi, facing off against the Chargers who will share the new stadium. Owner Jerry Jones was instrumental in the plan that saw the Rams and Chargers plan to relocate from St. Louis and San Diego a few years ago, a move that led the Raiders to leave Oakland and set up shop in Las Vegas, also planning to unveil their new stadium this season.
Delays in construction, as well as a possible stricter level of re-opening guidelines in the state of California could threaten both the early and later dates.
For now, though, if the Cowboys are able to conduct a training camp, it will be in a building they are even more familiar with than those in Oxnard.
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