Cowboys and Birthdays

We have celebrated a couple of birthdays since my last post. Grant turned TEN months on Sunday which means I've got to start thinking about a 1st birthday party. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! How did this happen so fast?! :)

My Dad also celebrated a birthday and we took him to tour the new Dallas Cowboy's stadium in Arlington also known as "Jerry World." It was something.

Let me take you on a little tour via pictures. And a disclaimer for all you Chicago Bears fans, Jason has not been lost to the dark side. He made it known in our tour group that he was definitely a Bears fan and was only on the tour due to family peer pressure to take in the largest, most expensive stadium in the world. I think the final price tag is like $1.4 billion dollars. Only twice what the original projection was.





They were rolling up the field to set up for the Paul McCartney concert. The grass is synthetic and I think they have at least 4 different fields that they can roll up and store. There's the Cowboy's field, a high school field, a college field, and a soccer field.


This is the club level lounge that can be rented out on non-game days however our tour guide would not tell us how much it cost to rent. He would only say that none of us could afford it. The marble on the floors, counters and elevators was imported from somewhere overseas because it has flecks of Cowboy blue in it. And there are more than 3,000 flat screen TVs throughout the stadium. Overkill? Not in Jerry World.


They do have Shiner Bock on tap in case you were wondering.


View from the press box. It's a huge box but it's off in the corner because press gets in free so why give them the good seats? :)


View from one of the luxury suites. No idea how much these go for but our tour guide was quick to correct a misprint in the papers recently. It does NOT cost $90 for a pizza in a luxury suite, it only costs $60. Must be some damn good pizza.
The screen is the largest in the world and is 60 yards long with more than 30 million light bulbs. It is in high definition and 5 guys are hoisted up behind the screens for 5 hours during games to change out the light panels in case one of the 30 million bulbs burns out. There are no bathrooms so they wear adult diapers. No thank you. Also, interesting fact, the Jonas Brothers played a concert here a few weeks ago and rented out the big screen for 2 hours at $4,000/hour to play Halo.



The stadium seats 80,000 but can be expanded to 100,000 for certain events. Jerry is also selling "standing room only" tickets for $29 if you'd like to stand for 4 hours and watch a game.


This is the Cottom Bowl office. I believe the Cotton Bowl will be hosted at the stadium beginning in 2010.


This is one end of the upper deck. Those are huge panels (5 total) that slide open to make the stadium open air if Jerry so chooses. There are identical doors on the other end of the stadium and both sides have to be opened simultaneously or the bullet-proof glass panes will break due to the change in pressure. Crazy.


And of course we have to have a retractable roof for the Cowboys. The roof can be opened and as you may know during games the blimp flies over the stadium and in the old stadium you could see the big Cowboy star in the center of the field (They're bringing over the star from the old stadium to put on the field for games.) but in this new stadium the ginormous screen covers the view of the center of field. So, Jerry, the branding genius that he is, had a HUGE Cowboy star put on top of the big screen so that when the blimp flies over you can still see it. Marketing baby, marketing.


And of course, the Cowboy's locker room. There are 5 locker rooms in the stadium. One for The Boys, one for visiting NFL teams, one for the Cowboy's cheerleaders, and 2 for high school and college teams when they play there.





Jason and Grant checking out the Cowboy's shower room.


Another view of the HUGE big screen.


That little box that juts out is Jerry's private suite. He has a private access elevator from it to the field and if he wants a larger space to watch the game he along with Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, and Miller Lite own the entire box that runs the length of the field on the lower level.


Do you see the "Mitsubishi Electric" sign at the bottom of the big screen? Those letters are each 5 FEET tall.



The little man pooped out about 2/3rds of the way through the tour. He was not impressed. :)



The Cowboys will run out onto the field under that big, lighted star. A couple of interesting twists: (1) They will run out at mid-field around the 50 yard line instead of at the end zone, and (2) That area in the picture is a bar. Yes, your Dallas Cowboys will take the field after running through a bar packed with rich, drunk fans. Interesting. If you are privileged enough (or wealthy enough) to pay for access to this bar you can also stay after the game and watch the post game interviews which take place on the other side of the glass windows at the back of the bar. Anything to keep the fans in the stadium spending money.

The tour was really interesting and I'd recommended going if you get the chance. It's a little sickening and kind of sad that so much money was spent on something like this, but since it's there, you might as well go see it.

Happy birthday, Dad! Hope you enjoyed your birthday celebration!


I know G-man had a good time! :)