Ventura County’s tie to the National Football League is alive and well.
The gates at River Ridge Playing Fields in Oxnard swung open the morning of July 26 and welcomed a throng of fans numbering in the thousands for the opening ceremony of 2025 Dallas Cowboys training camp.
Once seated in the grandstand, the public address announcer whipped them into a frenzy, proclaiming that “the road to the Super Bowl starts right here, and it starts right now.”
Five-time Super Bowl winner and Cowboys legend Charles Haley spoke first, hyping this year’s team. His remarks were followed by a performance from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
Though the team held practices at River Ridge Playing Fields that were open to the public most of the prior week, Saturday’s ceremony officially kicked off 2025 training camp for the Cowboys — the 19th held in Oxnard since 2001.
The Oxnard City Council unanimously approved a new five-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys on July 1 to keep the team’s training camps at River Ridge Playing Fields until 2030.
Five Oxnard city officials joined Mayor Luis Mc Arthur at the ceremony, including Mayor Pro Tem Gabe Teran, Councilmembers Gabriela Rodríguez, Michaela Perez and Burt Purello, and Assistant City Manager Eric Sonstegard.
“I am just so ridiculously excited to have the Dallas Cowboys here in our great and beautiful city of Oxnard,” Mc Arthur said. “The Dallas Cowboys could go anywhere in the world to have their practice, their training, yet they chose to come back here to our great city of Oxnard and for us, that means the world.”
Jerry Jones, the 82-year-old billionaire owner of the Dallas Cowboys, then took the stage to address his team’s fans.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Oxnard, for being such a supporter of the Cowboys,” Jones said. “It’s not hard when you take the kind of support and enthusiasm that you have, and you couple it with these great facilities.”
Mc Arthur presented Jones with a celebratory medallion and in return received a “small token of appreciation” from the team in the form of a $25,000 check to the city of Oxnard.
“Thank you again to the mayor, his council and to the leadership for extending five more years that we are going to be here in Oxnard, training the Cowboys,” Jones said. “That is called feeling at home.”
“Now down to business,” Jones added.
With those words, the crowd of fans in the grandstand erupted in unison.
Chants of “Sign Micah,” referring to Dallas star linebacker Micah Parsons, who is still engaged in contract extension talks with the team during camp, could be heard over enthusiastic cheers.
Parsons has been on the sidelines at training camp while dealing with back tightness and came over to the fence lining the practice fields last week to sign an autograph for Justin Saavedra and his 5-year-old son, Liam, who swapped a bag of Airheads for a signature.
“They need to re-sign him ASAP,” Justin Saavedra said of Parsons. “He is a dog.”
In his remarks, Jones detailed changes the team has made since they finished a disappointing third in the NFC East last season with a 7-10 record — the worst Cowboys season since 2020.
“I want you to watch what we have done in the areas that we needed to work on,” Jones said. ”Look at what we have done in this offensive line. Look at what we have done, if you will, with our receiver corps. Look at what we are doing with our defense. A lot of changes out here.”
The team had an active offseason, trading for Steelers star wideout George Pickens to play opposite CeeDee Lamb, signing running backs Miles Sanders and Javonte Williams to one-year deals, and re-signing defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa — not to mention welcoming new head coach Brian Schottenheimer into the fold.
Dallas also acquired quarterback Joe Milton III, who has shined thus far in camp, from New England.
Oxnard’s decades-long partnership with the Cowboys is as strong as ever, Mc Arthur told The Star. The mayor said he was enthusiastic to ink a new deal in his first year in office, calling it a “no-brainer” decision that boosts the city’s economy and prominence.
“They can go anywhere they want in the world,” Mc Arthur said of the Cowboys, “and they choose to come to Oxnard.”
Training camp will continue in Oxnard through Aug. 13.
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for the Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Cowboys, Oxnard celebrate partnership during training camp’s opening ceremony
Reporting by Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
