Sunday, June 7, 2009

Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opens With A Few Glitches

Last night's George Strait/Reba McEntire concert in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium apparently pleased most of the 60,188 people in attendance.

Yet there was country singer Blake Shelton saying, "Traffic coming into this thing sucks. I didn't know if we were going to make it here on time."

When you did make it to one of the 14 parking lot entrances you learned it cost $40 to park. There was off-site parking available for an even steeper price. Like the CiCi's Pizza on Collins Street, directly across the street from the west entry to the stadium, charged $60 for parking. With that $60 you also got access to the CiCi's Pizza Buffet.

In some areas of the stadium the air-conditioning was not working. It being a 90 degree day, that might have been a bit uncomfortable. Construction was not completed in some areas of the stadium, with insulation awaiting a sheetrock cover, painter's tape was stretched along a wall.

There was an hour wait to get a frozen Margarita, trash bins were overflowing, some of the concession stands ran out of straws, others ran out of hamburger buns, Pepsi dispensing machines malfunctioned.

On the plus side, apparently the humongous video screen was very impressive and people liked the restrooms.

At some point during George Strait's time on stage he said something about opening the roof, saying only one man, Jerry Jones, has the power to open the roof. So, the crowd started chanting, "Jerry, Open The Roof." Soon the roof began to open.

Arlington's Cluck mayor declared that the stadium "will be a wonder of the world."

I suspect Mayor Cluck may be right. Where else in the world can you get all the pizza you can eat and park for $60?

5 comments:

Tonasket Tootsie said...

Interesting. Sounds like fun.
You went to the $$ grand opening without me? Sad I`m very sad. Maaaaaybe I`ll live.

Julie said...

I was at this concert and I dont know where you got this information. It was very comfortable ...I actually got a chill at times. The stadium was beautiful!! The only thing was the eco. Every now and then we would get an eco that made it hard to understand what they were saying. It was really bad when Lee Ann was on stage, it got a little better..but Over all it was an experance that I will never forget..AND A GOOD ONE AT THAT!!!!! Oh and one more thing, I waited only 10 min. for a margarita. The bathrooms were great, as a woman we always have a line and not once did I have to wait.

Durango said...

Julie---Did you walk all over the stadium? The glitches are being widely reported. The info is out there. Including that echo that was fixed as the sound system was adjusted as the concert progressed.

Reba Fan said...

I think Julie meant echo. That was bad til they got it fixed. I saw the long margarita lines, the flat panels not working and the walls not sheetrocked and felt the muggy areas where there was no air. But, it is one super cool stadium. They probably should have held a practice event before they held one where people paid good money to attend.

Brian B said...

The stadium was great, a wonderful place for a football game. We were in section 441 row 27, up in heaven. The big screen was terrific, otherwise we wouldn't have seen anything, but we had a horrible problem with the sound. As clearly as George sings his songs, we could barely make out the words during the concert. .. Major problem for concert goers.