Ever since construction started on the new Cowboys Stadium I've been extremely interested in the project. I lived in Arlington at the time right next to Hurricane Harbor so I was able to watch it go up daily in it's early stages. Once I moved a little further away from there I'd still drive by every few weeks to check the place out. So once the place was finished and tours started up I couldn't wait to go see what the mostly finished product looked like.
When you first get to the stadium you're sent to the gift shop, where all the Cowboys merchandise you could ever dream of is available. There are no signs or anything showing where to go for the tour so we walked around the shop until the check-out area was found. It was here that you buy your tour ticket, a sticker with the stadium logo on it, and are sent to the line for the next tour. Once the tour got underway you're first taken to the main concourse level and immediately see the dominating feature of the stadium.
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That video screen is almost absurd. Just from standing behind the main concourse seats, with the stadium empty and nothing playing on the board, I had trouble seeing how anyone would watch what is going on on the field. Your eyes are just drawn to this thing and once it's going with live game video, replays, ads and whatever else they through up there it seems like it'll be hard to look away.
One benefit of the screen though, at least from where you first see it, is that it makes the stadium feel more intimate than it really it. Since it spans 180 ft it blocks off most of the seats in the upper level on the opposite side. This gives the illusion that you're in a much smaller space. It's an odd effect and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out during games.
After being able to take in the size of the screen and the building you head through the Main Concourse Club and up to the Silver Level suites. The Main Concourse Club is pretty extravagant for what amounts to the main concourse for the place. I think this is open to any one with main concourse tickets and will be where concessions are sold.
In the Silver Level suite it's hard to notice anything outside the window but the video screen. The screen is completely eye level here and there's no way anyone in these suites will watch the game live on the field. But I guess when you're paying that kind of money to be there the game isn't exactly the most important thing going on.
And what kind of view do you get for spending a couple million dollars for a 20 year lease? The beautiful Wal-Mart right across the street of course!
The press box and video control room are also on this level. The press boxes are basically just converted suites but do provide a good view of the field.
The video control room will be the spot that all 3000 video screens throughout the stadium are controlled from.
The Upper Concourse, the place where the commoners are banished to, was the next stop. The view from the end zone platform on the east end of the stadium was great, both inside and out. Our tour guide said that standing room only tickets for this area will be available for $25-$30 for Cowboys games. If you can actually get those tickets it may be one of the best spots to watch the game from.
From up here the video board isn't nearly as dominating a feature as it is from the sidelines. Being up this high you also get your first idea of how enormous this place really is. The finish out in the Upper Concourse is obviously no where near as nice as it is in the lower levels. This is to be expected, but the huge differences were very noticeable and a little jarring.
The next destination was the Event Level which houses the locker rooms, sideline clubs and sideline suites. This is where we really get to the parts that most people will never see while a game or event is going on. The locker room was still under construction but it is huge and seems to be very nice, not that anything else is to be expected.
From the locker room the players will enter the field through the sideline club, which only sideline suite holders have access to. I can't really imagine the players enjoying this entrance and exit during a game that isn't going so well.
Once you're standing on the field you finally get how big the place really is. Also, standing under something that weights almost 500,000 pounds, is hanging 90 feet above you being and being held up by 16 3" diameter steel cables isn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.
The last stop was the the Hall of Fame Club, which I'm pretty sure can only be entered if your bank account reaches a certain number. This will be the hideout for the ultra rich, most of which won't even know a game is going on outside.
After that we were lead back to the gift shop and sent on our way. The whole thing took about an hour and fifteen minutes. If you get the chance it's definitely worth checking out.
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