Cowboys Stadium Is Open

[RedScare]

Anyone watching ESPN2 right now is getting one of the first viws of the new Cowboys Stadium (no naming rights deal yet). While the panorama views of the upper decks are very striking, I am stunned by how frighteningly ugly the field views are on television. Additionally, the turf is the worst I've ever seen. I believe the Cowboys will play on Field Turf, so this grass may have been brought in for the soccer match, but it is brown, uneven, and some of the seams do not match. It is a terrible display of the first sporting event in a $1 Billion stadium.

Back to the field view. I believe there are field level suites for the big spenders to watch at ground level. The problem for TV is that the first row of fan seats is 10 to 12 feet above the playing field. So sideline camera shots do not show fans. In fact, the suites make it look like you are looking at the underbelly of the stadium. It simply does not present well on television. The announcers claimed that there are nearly 100,000 fans in the stadium, but watching on TV, it looks like a few hundred most of the time, because the fans in the seats are out of camera range.

It will be interesting to see if the football setup is any different. The one or two views of the upper decks were sweet, though.

[RedScare]

First Cowboys game in the new stadium, and the most notable event was the Tennessee Titans' rookie punter hitting the gargantuan Jerrytron with a punt, resulting in a do-over. Jeery Jones blew a gasket, insinuating that the punter tried to hit the TV screen on purpose, but it achieved its purpose, in that everyone is talking about the monument to wretched excess, and whether it hangs to low.

The second notable incident involved attendance. Instead of announcing attendance, as is customary, the Cowboys announced 75,720 tickets distributed, suggesting that far less than a sellout actually attended the first football game in the 80,000 seat stadium, with potential standing room capacity of over 100,000.

[lockmat]

First Cowboys game in the new stadium, and the most notable event was the Tennessee Titans' rookie punter hitting the gargantuan Jerrytron with a punt, resulting in a do-over. Jeery Jones blew a gasket, insinuating that the punter tried to hit the TV screen on purpose, but it achieved its purpose, in that everyone is talking about the monument to wretched excess, and whether it hangs to low.

The second notable incident involved attendance. Instead of announcing attendance, as is customary, the Cowboys announced 75,720 tickets distributed, suggesting that far less than a sellout actually attended the first football game in the 80,000 seat stadium, with potential standing room capacity of over 100,000.

Wow, are they able to raise the video screens? I doubt they'll want to and this will surely happen again. Here are the game highlights including the punt/screen incident: http://www.nfl.com/v...boys-highlights

Also, teams always announce the paid attendance. Do you happen to know if the "distributed" tickets is something different?

And even though there's great anticipation for the stadium, I don't really expect them to have a preseason sellout (are the Texans preseason games sold out? now that wouldn't surprise me). Plus, isn't the 100,000 probably only going to be used for super bowls or highly anticipated games?

Edited August 22, 2009 by lockmat

[RedScare]

Wow, are they able to raise the video screens? I doubt they'll want to and this will surely happen again. Here are the game highlights including the punt/screen incident: http://www.nfl.com/v...boys-highlights

Also, teams always announce the paid attendance. Do you happen to know if the "distributed" tickets is something different?

And even though there's great anticipation for the stadium, I don't really expect them to have a preseason sellout (are the Texans preseason games sold out? now that wouldn't surprise me). Plus, isn't the 100,000 probably only going to be used for super bowls or highly anticipated games?

Apparently, the 'tickets distributed' number is different than the 'paid attendance' number, as the Dallas Morning News reporter noted that this is the only time he had seen it announced that way. Tickets distributed includes freebie tickets. The reporter noted that many of the most expensive seats were empty. This also happened to the NY Yankees when they opened their billion dollar stadium. Interestingly, Jones decided to sell SRO tickets for $29, even though the game was clearly not sold out.

For comparison, the Texans have sold out every game in their history, including pre-season. Of course, 'sold out' and every seat filled are two different things, but the Cowboys did neither, which just demonstrates clearly how much the recession is affecting things. If this stadium had opened 2 years ago, it would have been full, even at Jerry's obscene ticket prices.

[lockmat]

This Dallas Morning News video says Jerry knows they will keep hitting the big screen but he's not going to move it. I'm really surprised the NFL did not have more say in that matter during the design phase. I wonder if this will alter NFL plans to have this place be a regular location for super bowls?

Also, the reporters said people with good seats might still be tempted to watch the video instead the field. Funny how that works.

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/hp/index.html?nvid=391539&shu=1

[N Judah]

(from http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/cowboys-stadium-windows-did-not-shut-down-succesfully.ars)