Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Cowboy Stadium? TOO BIG? [J. Mark English]

Jeff Mosier of The Dallas Morning News explains:

Arlington officials and the Dallas Cowboys are discussing the possibility of reducing the number of standing-room-only tickets by two-thirds after crowds became unruly Sunday night when they weren't allowed into the stadium.

Assistant Fire Chief Don Crowson said negotiations Monday would have the Cowboys limit sales to about 10,000 Party Passes at future games, though there could be a few exceptions.

Team officials said they sold 30,000 of the $29 tickets to Sunday's game, which was the Cowboys' first regular-season matchup at the new stadium in Arlington. Cowboys officials, however, said they were willing to talk with the city about changes but have not agreed to anything.

The attendance of 105,121 was a record for a regular-season NFL game.

As kickoff approached Sunday night, Cowboys and public safety officials decided to stop trying to control the flow of fans into the end zone decks when the crowds became angry.

"We believe that it was a better decision to go ahead and let people in vs. confronting them in a situation out on the plaza based on the how the crowd dynamic was evolving," Crowson said.

Although the stadium wasn't truly closed, Crowson said, the number of fans allowed into the end zone decks slowed as the stadium approached capacity. That happened as the start of the game neared.

My thoughts:

Um, what was the the dancers in the upper section of the Stadium? I think I heard Al Michaels joke that they were the minor league cheerleaders as opposed to the actually Cowboy Girls down on the field.

Also, Mike Francesa pointed out that they should not count the fans outside of the stadium as part of the attendance. Its a bit cheesy and not genuine.

The stadium really does look like the Death Star.

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