We arrived in Dallas to hot, very hot sun and temps – 95 degrees. We got into our rental car and went to the condo that we had rented for the weekend through vrbo.com – vacation rental by owner. The owner met us there; it was a great spot only a few (hot) blocks from the stadium. We settled in and decided to get the lay of the land.
We walked over to Cowboys Stadium. From the outside, it looks like a giant space ship landed right in the middle of the concrete city of Arlington TX. In the evening, from the rooftop deck of the condo, we could see the top of the space ship – eerily emitting lights from the underside.
The condo was well-located, as we were able to walk to dinner. It was still hot.
On Saturday, family arrived from Austin – my husband’s son, his wife and our two grandkids. When we went out to dinner that night at a local barbeque place, and it was still 94 at 8:00 p.m. I kept wondering how in the world we were going to sit through a 3-1/2 hour football game in that heat – Bears fan or no fan, I am a heat wimp.
Sunday dawned sunny and – you guessed it – hot. We donned our Bears shirts and headed over to the venue. We go there at 10:45 for a noon kick-off and the place was already swarming with people – lots of Bear fans tailgating in the parking lot.
We stood outside in awe for a few minutes, and then ventured inside. It’s the first time I have been to an indoor football game – doesn’t seem like real football to me, a died-in-the-wool, football should be played in cold weather fan – but it was AIR CONDITIONED.
Originally estimated to cost $650 million, the actual construction cost was $1.3 billion. To help Jerry Jones cover the cost of the stadium, Arlington voters approved the increase of the city’s sales tax by 0.5 percent, the hotel occupancy tax by 2 percent and the car rental tax by 5 percent. The City of Arlington provided over $325 million in bonds as funding and Jones covered all cost overruns. Also, the National Football League provided the Cowboys with an additional $150 million, per the policy of giving teams a lump sum of money for stadium financing. (source: Wikipedia).
The stadium has yet to sell naming rights, so it is referred to as ‘Jerryworld’ among other nicknames. To ensure you don’t miss a play, there are over 3,000 Sony LCD displays throughout the stadium – it really does defy description. Suffice it to say that you have to force yourself to watch the field, as this gigantic screen (about 60 yards long!) is right in front of you, huge Cowboy faces taunting the other team with such things as “Hey, no one beats us in our house.” And noisy – there is a constant din and resembles the atmosphere of a casino.
I was wondering if the players spit indoors – they do.
We found our seats, at the 50-yard line in the 400 section – quite a ways up – and the seats were padded. Two hot dogs, two beers and a small bag of chips was $38.
The national anthem was performed by Jay ‘the voice’ Perez. We all agreed that it was one of the best renditions we had ever heard. When he returned home, my stepson emailed Mr. Perez and much to his delight, he received an answer thanking him for his email. Perez is a huge tejano music star.
…and it was a great game. A really good game – no interceptions for our side. There was a lot of action – and no mistakes. There were quite a few Bears fans in the crowd – and you could often hear the familiar chant of ‘GO BEARS.’ Interestingly, at the start of the game, every time the Cowboys made a first down, the announcer very emphatically stated, “and that’s a Dallas FIRST-T-T DOWN.” As the game went on into the fourth quarter and looked like things were going our way, he wasn’t quite so enthusiastic and was rather stating that Dallas had made a first down in a rather bored monotone.
Knowing that even with one minute and a few seconds to go with the good guys ahead by 7, a seasoned Bears fan knows we don’t celebrate till the fat lady sings. The on-side kick went our way, we hung onto the ball and we are now 2-0 and oh, yeah, the Cowboys are 0-2. Lots of Cowboy fans left the venue, not many Bears fans left early. We won – and it was a glorious win.
We have gone to away games for the past four years – this is the first time I was able to wear my Bears shirt home on the plane. And is that shirt cool or what - a silk screen of da coach. Now onto Monday night against Green Bay. Go Bears Go!
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