Lake Life

Take a tour of the new Cowboys Stadium
By Kerry Yancey
Monitor Staff Writer
ARLINGTON–Many praise it as an almost unbelievably ornate and vast temple dedicated to enjoying sports and entertainment, while others deride it as one man’s obsession to satisfying his own vanity – and making a buck in the process.
Whatever you might think of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, there’s no denying he got his money’s worth (about $1.15 billion) when he built the new Cowboys Stadium.
Seeing the stadium on television just can’t convey the actual size of the place. It really is gi-normus.
Having been to Texas Stadium three or four times as a reporter/photographer and once as a spectator, I suggested to my wife, Shirley, that we tour the new Cowboys Stadium while we were driving through Arlington on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
You get tour tickets (about $17 each, with tax, with discounts for seniors over 65 and children) and form a line inside the stadium’s gift shop. Tours run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday (last tour departs 4:30 p.m.) and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays (last tour 3:30 p.m.).
Tours stop at noon the day before a game or major event, no matter when the game/event is scheduled. The entire facility is smoke-free.
You can book tours on-line at the Dallas Cowboys website, and to book group tours (20 or more people), call (817) 892-8688.
Tours take about 80 minutes, maybe a little less, depending on how fast the group is moving. You should wear comfortable walking shoes – you will be hiking most of the time.
You can’t bring video recorders, and you can’t bring backpacks or bags (other than purses). A point-and-shoot camera is fine, but professional-grade camera equipment won’t be allowed. The photos with this article were taken with a Canon point-and-shoot.
Now that all the rules are clear, you head directly for the main concourse level, and troop out to a typical stadium seat.
Of course, the first thing everybody sees is the truly enormous video screens hanging about 90 feet above the playing field (which is 50 feet below ground level).
Our guide said people try to watch the game on the field, but soon give up, because the video screen – in the words of U2 – is “better than the real thing.”
Produced by Mitsubishi Electric Diamond VisionTM, the center video board is actually four screens – two facing each sideline and two facing the end zones – each delivering true 1080p high-definition images.
The center sideline panels are 72 feet tall by 160 feet wide (stretching from one 20-yard-line to the other 20). That’s the same as putting 4,920 flat-panel 52-inch TVs side by side. Each display contains more than 10.5 million LEDs.
Both end zone displays are 27 feet tall and 48 feet wide. Believe it or not, there’s actually a display board on top of the center stack, so that the action on the field below can be visible to the blimp or helicopter providing aerial views down through the retractable roof.
Speaking of the retractable roof, as one would expect, it’s the world’s largest, spanning 660,800 square feet and enclosing 104 million cubic feet of volume, the largest enclosed NFL stadium anywhere.
The retractable panels take 12 minutes to open, to mimic the iconic hole in the Texas Stadium roof (according to legend, the hole was left so God could look down and watch His team play).
If it’s a really nice day, each end of the stadium can be opened by retracting the end zone doors. Each of the five-leaf openings is 120 feet high by 180 feet wide, and they both have to open and close at the same time, to avoid air pressure changes blowing out the stadium’s windows.
Two arches hold up the roof 292 feet above the playing surface. Each arch is 35 feet deep and 17 feet wide, and the entire span is almost the same length as a dragstrip – 1,225 feet.
The entire stadium is designed so any fan, seated anywhere, has a good view of the action on the field (or stage). In addition to the center video boards, there are flat-panel TVs scattered everywhere. You’re never more than a few steps away from seeing a TV.
Tours visit a “typical” luxury suite. While most suites are customized, every suite includes motorized, retractable windows, so there’s nothing between you and the field except air, if that’s what you want.
Suites have their own restrooms, and some include kitchens, even though food easily can be delivered to the suite from a nearby concession stand.
Speaking of concessions, in Texas Stadium, visiting one of the four concession stands usually took at least 30 minutes. With more than 1,000 concession locations in Cowboys Stadium, nobody has to wait very long to get that hamburger or nachos – and that’s also true about finding a restroom.
A wide concourse circles the entire stadium seating area, and the end zone plazas are spacious, providing room for gathering or entertainment.
Heading down deep into the bowels of the stadium, tours visit the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room.
Each player has his own labeled dark mahogany-paneled locker, even though players spend no time there except on game days. A short walkway on one end leads to the press area, where players and coaches speak to the media after the game.
The players walk down a wide corridor and under a huge lighted star to reach the playing field. The Cowboys have their own artificial turf – other turf is used for collegiate games.
During the few minutes the tour spent walking on the stadium floor, under the huge video boards, some private history was being made – a young man knelt on the Cowboys helmet logo in the end zone and proposed to his girlfriend, who said “oh, yes.”
A “small world” moment – we found out the couple lives in Athens, and, believe it or not, I have known the girl’s grandparents for many years, as they attend our church (First Baptist, Canton).
While walking to the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders’ locker room, the tour passes Jones’ private parking area and elevator to his personal suite.
The guide said the first thing the cheerleaders noticed about their new locker room was that everybody had an electrical outlet in their locker. At Texas Stadium, he explained, there were only three outlets for all the girls to use.
Scattered throughout the stadium are 18 huge – monumental-scale – artworks created by an international array of artists. But then, the entire stadium looks like a piece of sculpture, especially at night.
The new Cowboys Stadium is more than three times bigger than Texas Stadium, and the amenities are at least 30 times nicer. It’s a great place to visit, even if you’re not watching the game.