Cowboys unveil stadium plans
Jones keeps an old tradition, expands into grander dimensions
07:28 AM CST on Tuesday, December 12, 2006
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
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HKS
A rendering of what the Cowboys' new stadium will look like at night, with the only projected light coming out of the hole in the retractable roof.
When the Dallas Cowboys move from Texas Stadium, they'll leave behind 35 years of history, but the signature hole in the roof will go with them.
Their new stadium, scheduled to open in 2009, will include two quarter-mile-long steel arches and a retractable roof that mimics the famed feature. As the Cowboys faithful would say, God would still be able to look down on America's Team and watch the games on Sunday afternoon – even in Arlington.
"We want this stadium to have our traditional hole in the roof," Mr. Jones said, noting that it's just as much a symbol of the team as the Cowboys star.
But that hole is one of the few design elements making the trip from Irving to Arlington, as fans will learn tonight when team officials formally unveil the design at a gala in Arlington.
The new $1 billion stadium, the largest and most expensive in the NFL, will be the Cowboys' home, but it will be built with a bigger world in mind.
It will feature more than twice the square footage of Texas Stadium and cost nearly 30 times more. The stadium will also seat 80,000 fans on an average day and accommodate up to 100,000 for special events, such as the Super Bowl.
The new stadium, which has yet to be named, also will feature the world's largest movable glass walls, field-level suites and open-air end zones.
Team owner Jerry Jones and Bryan Trubey of HKS Architects said during an interview Friday that the team's new home was designed as a great building – not just a football stadium – and as a world-class sports and entertainment venue.
The stadium could host a World Cup soccer match or Olympics opening ceremony just as easily as an NFC East rivalry game.
"We made sure there really isn't any event it can't handle," Mr. Trubey said.
This new, grand stadium is something Mr. Jones said he has wanted ever since he bought the Cowboys in 1989 for $150 million. Although he said that at the time, he couldn't have imagined the advances in technology, such as the 60-yard-long video screen in the new stadium, or that the price tag for a stadium would soar this high.
Long time in the making
The work on the stadium also started much earlier than most outside of the Cowboys organization realized. Mr. Jones said Friday that he has been working with Mr. Trubey for nearly eight years on plans for a new stadium – even though Arlington voters approved the public financing only two years ago. The city's share of the cost is capped at $325 million – an amount that was originally expected to be half the stadium's cost.
Mr. Jones and his family closely studied the new NFL stadiums – more than 15 have opened in the last decade – but they didn't feel hamstrung by just football or even just U.S. sports venues.
The Jones family visited London's Wembley Stadium three times and studied Bloomberg Tower in New York City, the airport in Nice, France, and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
"We didn't want it to just be a fine stadium," said Charlotte Jones Anderson, Mr. Jones's daughter and an executive with the team. "We wanted it to be a great piece of architecture that would reflect character and reflect the strength of sport, but at the same time, the living, the moving, the changing environment that happens when you put sports and entertainment in a venue."
Mr. Jones said he was looking to build a stadium that would inspire awe, illustrating his point with a story about his first visit to New York City.
The first order of business was a taxi ride to the Bronx.
"I had the cab take me out, and I put my hand on Yankee Stadium. That's all I want – just to touch it," he said.
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An artist's rendering shows a view of the stadium from the northeast.
And that's what led the Joneses to agree on a modern design for the stadium.
Just down the street is the Texas Rangers' traditional, red brick Ameriquest Field, which was also designed by HKS and architect David M. Schwarz. The nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter took its architectural cues from the Rangers; the Cowboys did not.
The new stadium will be glass on the exterior with a glazing that will give the perception that the glass changes color, including shades of silver and blue from the Cowboys' helmet, from the top to the bottom. It was described as luminescent, elegant and strong: a limestone base "rising out of the earth" with great horizontal expanses of glass on top.
Comparison shopping
Jerry Jones Jr., team vice president and son of the owner, said the team benefited from the building boom in the NFL and seeing what other teams have done.
"As much as we compete on the field, we don't compete off the field," he said. "Everybody is very open-minded about sharing."
Mr. Trubey said he avoided the standard "racetracks," as the circular, bland stadium concourses are often called. Instead, the areas will be dotted with team gift shops and clubs.
The team also included field-level suites, which were first introduced by the Seattle Seahawks as the "red zone suites."
Stephen Jones, another son and team vice president, said many NFL executives regretted not building big enough. The new stadium's end zones will take care of that. Each will feature the glass doors, which are expected to stay open during most games.
That creates 210,000-square-foot plazas that can accommodate standing-room-only fans or could be used for temporary seating. Each end zone also has a three-level party deck inspired by Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Fla.
"There's really no end to the party," Mr. Trubey said about the plazas, which extend beyond the stadium walls.
While the Cowboys aren't playing, Mr. Jones said he wants to see his new stadium attract top-level bowl games and other college match-ups. There has been talk about whether the New Year's Day Cotton Bowl game or the Texas-Oklahoma game during the State Fair of Texas would eventually move to Arlington, but no public commitments have been made.
He said the magnitude of the stadium will give teams big enough paydays that it's worth giving up a home game.
"When a kid is in Louisiana or playing at a school in Minnesota, we want them to be hollering, 'We've got to go play in that stadium,' " Mr. Jones said.
Even in the off-season, the stadium is expected to be a draw. The team plans a football Hall of Fame that will be open 350 days a year and feature a pair of Norman Rockwell works as well as an extensive collection of football memorabilia.
The stadium – which also will offer tours year-round – could even become a destination for schoolchildren on field trips, said Gene Jones, Mr. Jones's wife.
Mr. Jones said this effort in Arlington goes beyond building a new stadium. It's intended to be a monument to one of the world's great sports franchises and had to be done right.
"This is a part of the franchise, the legacy of the Dallas Cowboys," he said. "We don't think we own the Dallas Cowboys. The fans do."
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