ARLINGTON -- Organizers of the Miss Texas pageant were thrilled in May 2009 when Arlington officials -- including U.S. Rep. Joe Barton -- sold them on moving the event east from Fort Worth, its home for the previous 46 years.
"Arlington is a happening place and we thought we would get in on the happenings," then-Executive Director Jean Magness said at the time.But after three years at the University of Texas at Arlington's Texas Hall, the 77-year-old pageant and its companion Miss Texas Outstanding Teen competition are switching venues again, this time to the Collin County city of Allen. The move comes after a leadership change late last year in the host Miss Texas Organization, which has a new executive director and only one holdover on its six-member board.The decision to move the pageant was made in January, and offers from a few other cities were also considered, said Executive Director Michelle Martinez Metzger, who was crowned Miss Texas 1996. Allen prevailed after agreeing to a $20,000 sponsorship fee that will help the pageant foot the bill for its contestants rather than leaving it up to local pageants and their sponsors.The compressed time frame didn't allow the pageant to put out a request for proposals, Metzger said, but she expects that to happen next year.The 2012 host venue, the Allen Event Center, is inside The Village at Allen, a mixed-use development with hotel accommodations, shopping, dining and parking -- which Metzger says will make for a more family-friendly set-up."We had two issues in Arlington, to put it bluntly," she said. "One is that it was a parking nightmare. The other is that they have the Rangers in town, and hotel rooms are $189 a night. Our families didn't want that."Experience Arlington, formerly the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau, made a bid to keep the pageant in town but was turned down, CEO Jay Burress said."It's unfortunate they're leaving, but we wish them luck," he said.As for hotel rates and parking issues, Burress said, "CVB staff members bent over backward and worked very hard to meet the pageant's needs. ... It was a very time-intensive effort."Meanwhile, pageant contestants will participate in Allen's patriotic festival Saturday, and preliminary pageant activities begin Sunday.In other changes, the pageant will be broadcast on TV -- on NBC DFW Nonstop -- for the first time since 2006, and the final round July 7 will start with 15 contestants, as opposed to 10. One of those contestants will be chosen by the public.The 15 finalists will compete in reality-TV style, with eliminations taking place after each event as the evening progresses rather than all finalists competing in all three events.The goal, Metzger said, is to give Miss Texas a more legitimate chance of being crowned Miss America, something that hasn't happened since 1975. The reigning Miss Texas, Kendall Morris, a Texas Christian University student from Ennis, placed in the top 10."This is Texas," Metzger said of the state's long title drought. "That's not right. That's just not right."This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.Patrick M. Walker,817-390-7423Twitter: @patrickmwalker1Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
