ARLINGTON, Texas - On June 6, the stirring contrast of
George Strait's unmistakably measured voice, Reba McEntire's thundering vocals
and thousands of screeching fans will envelope the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium.
For the past two years and for the next eight weeks, the sounds emanating
from the 2.3-million-square-foot venue are more of an industrial melody: Cranes,
power drills, fork lifts, hammers, wall sanding, you name it. It's a 2,000-man
band collaborating on one massive anthology - the largest domed stadium ever
built - and it's almost finished.
The building's sheer size alone is matchless. Supported by twin structural
steel arches, its quarter-mile length measures twice the distance of the St.
Louis Gateway Arch. The Statue of Liberty can stand completely inside the
retractable roof structure. When open, the roof's hole will respectfully
resemble that of Texas Stadium's signature trait.
The stadium's event schedule already validates its considerable presence.
This summer it opens with the Strait-McEntire concert, a Jonas Brothers show and
international soccer matches. In the coming months and years it will host some
of our nation's eminent sporting events: Super Bowl XLV, the 2009 Big XII
Football Championship and Cotton Bowl, the 2010 NBA All-Star Game and the 2014
men's Final Four.
The Cowboys are the main and recurring act. The $1.1 billion structure will
house America's Team beginning in August, a fitting residence for what owner
Jerry Jones calls "the No. 1 team when it comes to visibility in the NFL and
interest throughout this country."
"When people see it and are in it, I guess it's the ninth wonder now,"
Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips told reporters last week. "The Astrodome is way
behind, being the eighth wonder at the time. And I don't think anybody's going
to be able to duplicate this these days in this kind of stadium. We may have the
best stadium for a long, long time in the world."
Wearing our protective vests and hard hats, DallasCowboys.com took a two-hour
tour of the yet-to-be-named stadium as it approaches completion.
Finishing Touches
That's a broad and somewhat misleading term when
considering the unprecedented enormity and complexity of this project. But the
building is "87-90 percent" complete and all stadium employees have moved
operations from Texas Stadium, project manager Jack Hill said.
Driving down Randol Mill Road, the structure (designed by HKS and contracted
by Manhattan Construction) looks essentially finished and identical to the
renderings released by the Cowboys in 2006. At closer glance, the exterior glass
and stone has come along nicely. Workers are continuing outside landscaping at
the entrances and the end zone plazas, which will serve as key gathering and
entertainment spaces, as well as focusing on the seam where the roof's two
interior retractable panels come together.
Inside there's no turf yet, but most of the seats have been installed. Suite
amenities (furniture, television sets, etc.) are beginning to arrive. Concession
stands are slowly sprouting.
"There's a lot of finishing touches to put on the building and there's a lot
of work that has to be done," Hill said. "But we all know that in not too long
this thing will be open and the tours that we have will be public tours. At some
point in time we'll get to take our hard hats off and it'll be just a regular,
incredible building."
Board of Entertainment
There won't be a bad seat in this house. It's impossible. Not with the
erected center-hung video board that stretches between the 20-yard lines,
approximately 90 feet above the field.
The sideline boards (180 feet wide by 50 feet tall) look like Godzilla's
personal movie theater screens. The smaller end zone boards (48 feet wide by 27
feet tall) serve as bookends for the sideline boards and offer a high-definition
viewpoint for fans sitting on each end of the stadium.
No surprise that it's the world's largest HDTV video board, complete with 30
million light bulbs and a $40 million price tag. Its 72-foot tall steel frame
structure contains 10 levels of catwalks and weighs 800,000 pounds.
And there's no need for tailgaters to bring a TV set from home. Large media
screens will also hang on each exterior end of the building, displaying the game
for fans outside.
Suite Life
We headed downstairs and caught a glimpse of a
field level suite on the visitor's sideline. Ever imagine watching a baseball
game from your favorite team's dugout? That's essentially what the stadium's
field level suites provide for viewers on either sideline: the same perspective
as the players and coaches.
We also toured an unfurnished suite that soon will be adorned with leather
seats, a marble-countertop bar area, TV screens and a business center with
Internet access.
There's apparently no bar in the press box blueprint. Oh well. We'll be
sitting in the upper northwest corner, a little higher than the suite-holders.
But hey, this stadium is for the fans, not the media.
Locker Rooms
Hill said the stadium project team has
prioritized its schedule as the June 6 opening concert approaches. Public areas
- restrooms, suites, concession stands, etc. - obviously take precedent over
private locations like locker rooms, which will be ready in time for the games.
The Cowboys' locker room, located near midfield, is mostly barren for now.
But we did spot a handful of custom wooden lockers wrapped in plastic and power
connection outlets for each locker spot. The room will be equipped with
motorized projection screens and a video display wall. State of the art stuff.
Located further west down the corridor is the team's equipment and training
rooms, an auxiliary locker room for other sporting events and the Dallas Cowboys
Cheerleaders' locker room.
For the Fans
On our way back to the parking lot, we noticed a
group of fan-personalized brick pavers lining the outer walkways - a reminder
that the team's vision was to create the most fan-friendly sporting venue in
history, complete with every imaginable bell and whistle.
Thanks to literally thousands of workers over a three-year, six-day-a-week
schedule, opening night is merely weeks away.
"It's been an exciting project and we've had a great team," Hill said. "The
involvement with the city and just all the team members throughout this last,
really four years.
"We're still focused on the end. We haven't really started patting ourselves
on the back because it's by no means done. But you can definitely see that this
thing is about to really be incredible."
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