ARLINGTON – Dallas Cowboys stadium contracts worth nearly $121 million have gone to minority- or women-owned businesses under a "fair share" agreement.

The head of the Arlington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a group that previously criticized progress toward meeting the contracting goals, said the numbers now speak for themselves. By April, minority- and women-owned businesses had been awarded 28 percent of the contracts for the $1.1 billion stadium.

"The numbers are there," said Greg Vaquera, president of the Hispanic chamber. "It speaks well for them."

The fair share agreement sets minority- and women-owned contracting goals for the stadium's construction.

Early in construction, officials with the Hispanic chamber said members weren't getting notified about potential work early enough to assemble competitive bids. They also said some members' bids weren't getting adequate consideration.

Mr. Vaquera said he hasn't heard those concerns recently.

One of the biggest critics, Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, declined to comment.

He was critical of the Cowboys when they hired two smaller minority-owned companies to partner with the general contractor, rather than one large company that could be more of a peer than a subordinate.

His wife, Arlington City Council candidate Vera McKissic, said she has not mentioned the fair share agreement in her campaign. But she said she has mixed feelings about progress toward the goals.

"It's good, but it's not as good as it should be for blacks," she said. "I'm glad to see that they are diversifying some of the spending, but it remains to be seen just how it turns out."

Black- and Hispanic-owned firms have received the same number of contracts – 23 each – according to the latest figures.

But Hispanic-owned firms had contracts worth $57.7 million, compared with nearly $14.7 million for black-owned companies.

Women-owned businesses had 47 contracts worth $42.2 million. Companies owned by minority women could be certified in either category.

The fair share agreement does not have goals for specific minority groups. It sets goals for minority- and women-owned businesses as a whole in five contract categories: construction, architecture and engineering, other professional services, other services, and goods.

The Cowboys and the city of Arlington are slightly above their goals for construction contracts and slightly below for architectural and engineering contracts and those for other services. The goal for other professional services is 37 percent, but 62 percent of the contracts so far have gone to minority- or women-owned businesses.

For goods, the goal is 18 percent, but only 3 percent of contracts have gone to minority- or women-owned businesses. However, contracts have been awarded for only a small fraction of that category.

"It certainly indicates to us that we're on target," City Council member Sheri Capehart said about the most recent report.

She said she expects some of the categories where the percentages are lagging to improve as the stadium is finished. The stadium is scheduled for completion in June 2009.

The goals are voluntary, and are weighted to encourage the hiring of local companies. For example, 100 percent of an Arlington firm's contract would count toward the goal, but only 60 percent of an out-of-state company contract would count.

Mr. Vaquera said that problems early in the project were probably the result of learning the new fair share system.

"We can't blame it all on them," Mr. Vaquera said about the city and the Cowboys. "It was new to everybody at first."

Now, he said, contractors have their "feet wet" and better understand the process.

Ms. Capehart said this was the first time Arlington had a fair share agreement for one of its projects. There were no such contracting goals when the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington was constructed in the early 1990s.

"There was a probably a great learning curve for everyone," she said about the Cowboys stadium.

Katrina Keyes, who was hired to monitor the goals and encourage bidding by minority- and women-owned businesses, said it can take six months or a year on big construction projects before some contractors actually get work. And in many cases, she said, people don't see much progress at first.

"In the beginning, people don't understand how long it takes to get to a contract," she said. "We can't show numbers until the people have the contract, and we start paying them."

Council member Gene Patrick said he talks often to some of the past critics of fair share, and he said he's not hearing the same concerns.

"They are pleased with the progress, but they are not supposed to ever get satisfied," he said. "They are supposed to keep working on it."