One Big Home For The Boys
Accommodation has become the name of the game as the new sports economics changes everything from the size of stadiums to the demographics of the crowd.
Texas Stadium seated nearly 65,000, its replacement around 73,000 for regular games with the ability to accommodate more than 100,000 for the Super Bowl (coming in 2011) and other special events.
Originally estimated to cost $650 million, the stadium’s current construction cost was $1.15 billion, making it one of the most expensive sports venues ever built.
To paraphrase Le Corbusier’s maxim about modern houses as “machines for living,” modern stadiums have become machines for playing, part of a year-round, nonstop popular entertainment whirl in which a football game is just one option among many.
“Our main competition is the home media center,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in unveiling the stadium design in 2006. “We wanted to offer a real experience that you can’t have at home, but to see it with the technology that you do have at home.”
Although the stadium had yet to sell naming rights, many fans started referring to the project with various nicknames such as “Jerry World”, the “Boss Hog Bowl” in reference to Jones’ continued affiliation to his Alma Mater nickname, the Razorbacks (or hogs) “Six Flags Over Jerry” in reference to Jerry Jones and Six Flags Over Texas, which is near the new stadium, as well as lesser known others.
This economic segregation, in which premium seat holders have their own entrances, their own elevators and their own bars and restaurants, is one of the sorrier byproducts of corporate sports mania.
Measuring 160 feet wide and 72 feet tall (11,520 sq. feet), the high-definition television screen at Cowboys Stadium is the world’s largest.
Neven Middlesby has been a fan of the Dallas Cowboys for over thirty years. He maintains a blog that is about the dallas cowboy stadium and will be at every game the Cowboys play. He will blog about each game at the newdallas cowboy stadium.