Cowboys unveil stadium plans
Jones keeps an old tradition, expands into grander dimensions
December 12, 2006
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
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.
That's the type of wonder a world-class stadium could inspire and what Mr. Jones has been seeking.
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."
E-mail jmosier@dallasnews.com
Irving Starry about Stadium
City says entertainment district at site could pump up economy
Thursday, June 23, 2005
By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING – The Texas Stadium site could be transformed into a vibrant
destination that includes a convention center, hotel, apartments, shops
and even waterfront and park space, according to a proposal released
Wednesday.
Some of the scenarios, such as demolishing the stadium except for its
roof and the landmark hole, are whimsical. Other options resemble
Dallas' Mockingbird Station or a riverwalk.
City Council members discussed development options for the stadium site
and nearby land but didn't issue recommendations. They'll study the
matter this summer.
Whatever is built, city officials imagine a high-density place for
people to live, work, visit and play. The project could be a chance for
Irving to pump up its economy.
Council members say they're excited about the possibilities.
"Losing the Cowboys might have just been the best thing to happen to
this city," council member Beth Van Duyne said. The Dallas Cowboys are
expected to leave for an Arlington stadium in 2009.
Next on the agenda: City officials and consultants will shop the plans
to investors and developers to gauge reaction.
It appears the city will continue to work with two other landowners near
the stadium. The three entities – including the University of Dallas and
Southwest Premier Properties – jointly hired consultants and began the
development process.
The area is ripe for development, Irving officials say, as hundreds of
millions of dollars in light-rail and highway improvements are planned
for near the stadium site.
City officials could do the following, based on the options presented by
planners RTKL Associates:
•Create an urban environment that would include retail, restaurant,
entertainment, hotel, business and residential areas. Venues could
include an indoor water park hotel or a casino hotel.
•Develop a mixed-use district that would emphasize residential, business
and community retail uses. The district could be linked to the Trinity
River and the Campion Trails system.
•Build an urban village similar to Dallas' Uptown that includes
residential and commercial developments and features neighborhood pocket
parks.
•Renovate the city-owned stadium to host recreation and entertainment
events at venues including amphitheaters and parks.
•Keep the roof, and the hole, but remove the stadium's interior. The new
structure could be home to businesses and offices and pay homage to the
stadium and team that helped put the city on the map.
•Demolish the stadium, which could cost about $10 million, according to
a Magill Architects study that was also released Wednesday.
The projects would require hundreds of millions of dollars in
investments, said David Leininger, the city's chief financial officer.
The scenarios come as city officials are taking a closer look at a
convention center that could be built on Texas Stadium land. Council
members could hire consultants later this year to study the matter.
Regardless, council members want to capitalize on the land's proximity
to the Trinity River and major highways, including state highways 114
and 183 and Loop 12. Interstate 35E is nearby. Hundreds of thousands of
motorists drive past the stadium each day. In addition, a Dallas Area
Rapid Transit rail line is to run near the area in about five years.
At about 450 acres, the developable land is comparable to the area of
downtown Dallas, Irving officials said.
Losing the Cowboys will hurt the city in the short-term, but developing
the land is a significant opportunity for Irving to improve its tax
base, Mayor Herbert Gears said.
The land has potential, partly because it's the gateway to the city, he
said.
"We'd be silly to just sit on our hands and pout that we're losing the
Cowboys," he said.
The development will spur growth on land near the stadium, most of which
is vacant, and generate interest in Irving and excitement in the
community, says Bob Galecke, University of Dallas' senior vice president
for finance and administration. He also said the development could raise
the profile of the college, which is in Irving.
The project means the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau could help
market the area, bringing new visitors and businesses to the city, said
Maura Allen Gast, the bureau's executive director. The land's access to
the river is particularly appealing, she says.
"There are so many opportunities," she said. "There's a wealth of
opportunity. It's limitless."
COWBOYS STADIUM REFINANCING MAY COST $28 MILLION
September 18, 2008
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Arlington, Texas - Refinancing $164 million in Cowboys stadium bonds to a fixed rate is
expected to cost Arlington an additional $23 million to $28 million.
The biggest expenses include millions for new bond insurance and fees paid to terminate the
existing financing agreement. The city has been trying to refinance the bonds since July.
The bonds have a variable interest rate, which has risen drastically the past few months
because of uncertainty in the credit market and a downgrade of the bond insurer's rating. The
interest rates, which had ranged from 3 to 4 percent since 2005, spiked to 9 percent this summer,
causing city leaders and the City Council to consider other options. Monthly interest-only
payments, for example, rose from $500,000 to more than $1 million.
The city chose variable-rate financing back in 2005 because financial advisers estimated that it
would save $20 million in interest over the life of the debt. The financing had saved the city about $2 million in interest over the past three years, but those savings are dwindling as interest rates remain high.
Deputy City Manager Trey Yelverton said Arlington expects to get a 5.31 percent interest rate,
but only after paying millions for bond insurance through Berkshire Hathaway, one of the last
Triple-A-rated bond insurance companies.
Getting out of the existing bond financing will not be cheap. The city now expects to pay $7
million, or possibly more, in termination fees. In July, city staff estimated that it would cost $3.1 million to get out of the agreement. The city plans to pay the termination fee with sales taxes and other revenue it has already collected to pay down the stadium bonds, Yelverton said. (Fort Worth Star Telegram)
COWBOYS REFINANCE DEBT
December 11, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
Arlington, Texas - The Dallas Cowboys have refinanced about $435 million worth of debt for
their new $1.1 billion stadium despite the troubled bond market, team owner Jerry Jones said.
The old debt had a variable rate, which has been a problem as the credit crisis caused some
bond rates to fluctuate wildly this year. Jones said the new fixed interest rate is below 5 percent.
Bond issuances of that size have been uncommon recently as corporations and state and local
governments have found it harder to sell bonds.
"It's quite a compliment to us because there just haven't been any of those kinds of sizable
financings done," Jones said. "This is one of the few of this magnitude that has gotten done."
He said this is essentially replacing the structure of the original debt for the stadium. Additional details about the transaction were not immediately available.
The announcement came two days after Arlington revealed that it was able to refinance $104.3
million worth of stadium bonds, which were at a varying synthetic fixed rate. The rates for those
newly refinanced bonds ranged from 4.5 percent to 5.73 percent. The city has about $60 million
more that it intends to refinance when the market improves.
The total cost of the city's share of the stadium bond debt, including interest, is expected to be $502.9 million. That's about $44 million more than the city initially expected. The new projection is also $26.5 million more than the city would have paid had it sold all the bonds at a true fixed rate in the beginning instead of selling some at a synthetic fixed rate.
The total interest rate for all the bonds was now calculated at 5.33 percent, about a full
percentage point more than initially projected.
Arlington officials had been trying to refinance that debt since July. The rest of the city's
stadium bonds were already set at a fixed rate. (Dallas Morning News)
COWBOYS PLAN THREE STADIUM FIELDS
December 24, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
Arlington, Texas - The Dallas Cowboys haven't booked a soccer game at their new stadium, but
they're already planning to buy a removable field for the other "football."
The annual Cotton Bowl game will also have its own field with permanent markings separate
from the field the Cowboys will use. The new stadium in Arlington will be the only one in the NFL
with three separate fields for different sporting events, the turf manufacturer announced.
"This is the only stadium in the NFL that has the option to have as many different kinds of
fields as they want and can change out for every event," said Reed J. Seaton, CEO of Hellas
Construction.
The Cowboys have purchased two separate football fields and notified Hellas, installer and
manufacturer, that they intend to buy a soccer field too. The football fields will roll up into 41 separate 6,000-pound wheels for storage. Each strip of synthetic turf is 15 feet by 172 feet.
This is similar to systems in place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, although that stadium has
just one field.
From the beginning, the Cowboys have said they intended for this $1.1 billion stadium to be a
multipurpose venue. It already has a Super Bowl, NBA All-Star Game, college football bowl game
and a NCAA men's Final Four basketball tournament scheduled. An application has also been
submitted to host the NCAA lacrosse Final Four, and the Cowboys have mentioned that they're
interested in hosting World Cup soccer.
Seaton said that swapping out the fields - which takes a little more than 24 hours - allows the
Cowboys to customize the surfaces for different sports. The soccer field would probably have less
cushioning and shorter synthetic grass blades.
On the football fields, the standard markings, such as the Cotton Bowl logo, Cowboys star and
boundary lines, won't be painted after the turf is manufactured. The logos and markings will be
created by coloring the individual strands of polyethylene yarn that make up the fields.
Seaton said he also believes that removing the field when it's not needed could extend its life.
Stadiums that host concerts, tractor pulls and other events usually place plywood or other materials on top of the field to protect the turf.
Bruce Hardy, Texas Stadium's manager, said the turf at his venue has been resilient, even
when thousands of music fans or tons of trucks weigh down the plywood covering the field.
"It doesn't even hurt it," Hardy said. "We've had Billy Graham for four nights, and we've had
rock concerts here. In that case, we put a fireproof tarp over it."
Still, Hardy said he guesses that the new field will be 25 percent to 50 percent better. Both stadiums use Sportfield's RealGrass turf, but the turf in Arlington will be a newer version with 50 percent more fiber ends that mimic grass blades and longer fibers. It will also have more give, like real grass and earth, and also be more uniform throughout the field, Seaton said. (Dallas Morning News)
At Cowboys Stadium, a Familiar Face Switches Hats
December 29, 2008
Copyright 2008 MediaVentures
The new Dallas Cowboys stadium is a house that Jack Hill has built, and now he's going to manage it.
The construction manager took on the title of stadium manager in the fall. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones hired Hill in 2005 to oversee the construction of the $1.2 billion facility and now expects the 53-year-old to manage the maintenance and bookings.
The Star-Telegram talked recently with Hill, who also worked on Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and the American Airlines Center, about the challenges he will face in his new job.
Describe your new position.
I have been named the stadium general manager, which is great because I'm very familiar with the building and have been for the last four years. I know all the nooks and crannies of the building. I'll be working very closely with Bruce Hardy, who is the stadium manager currently at Texas Stadium, and he and I have a great relationship and we value all the experience that he's had running a stadium. It will be a collaborative effort. We will be responsible for the fan experience that's out here. The way the fans are treated. Everything from parking to security to how the suites and the place are cleaned up, the different types of acts that come out here, how they set up and take down, and close coordination of the different events that we're going to have here at the stadium.
What will be some of the challenges you face in maintaining a 2.6 million-square-foot building?
We have visited a lot of other stadiums about this, and one thing that they always tell you is, you can't have a large enough cleaning budget. So just keeping the place clean is going to be a challenge in and of itself. Of course, we have an ongoing maintenance program. We want to make sure that we have capital expenditures put back so that as items routinely wear out or need to be replaced, we've got the budget there to keep the stadium upgraded in tiptop shape.
What types of events will you have at the stadium?
We're looking at a lot of different types of events. One thing that's nice about the stadium is, you can open it up and have an open-air experience or you can close it and condition the space. So that allows us a wide variety of events, such as basketball, and we're looking at soccer. We have a series of concerts that we're looking at coming in this summer and obviously football. Right now our plan is to continue with the high school football. We've looked at lacrosse and . . . what we call dirt events. We think there will be a wide variety of types of events that are here at the stadium.
With six months until the opening of the facility, what will be going on to prepare the stadium?
Between now and June, when the first event is planned, you have that transition. There are actually a couple of things. The contractor is in the middle of finishing the building and so he is finishing certain portions. We'll start to occupy spaces in the building after the first of the year. But the transition from Texas Stadium to here will be a challenge in and of itself. You've got the equipment that is coming out of Texas Stadium. You've got all the staff that is coming from Texas Stadium and they need to become familiar with a new building. You have all of the food service, the concierge, the ushers, all the people that you would typically see at Texas Stadium, only bigger now, more of those folks.
And so we need to go through our job fairs. We need to go through our orientations and we need to get people trained on getting around the new building so the fan experience is a good experience.
What did it mean to you, as someone who grew up in Fort Worth and lives in Grand Prairie, to be managing the new stadium?
I have been fortunate enough to be involved with some great facilities in the Metroplex, so when they asked me to take on this challenge, I was flattered. I was excited about it. Personally, it's a great building. It's a great staff of folks. I look forward to working with each and every one of them. It's a great opportunity to be involved with a great organization and run a great building. Source: Star Telegram
DEVELOPMENT NEAR ARLINGTON STADIUMS MAY RESUME
January 8, 2009
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Arlington, Texas - When it was first announced in 2006, Glorypark was thought to be a sure
thing. It featured lots of shopping, restaurants, and bars. But this past spring, it was put on hold - indefinitely.
Now, Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck says the project is being revived with a new focus, and
quite possibly a new name.
Last May, the owner of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars, Tom Hicks, said the nation's
financial crisis forced him to delay the $500 million Glorypark, indefinitely.
When first proposed the development was to include one million square feet of retail, but not
now.
Cluck says Hicks is talking with a new developer about the project. The development is slated
to be built between the Ballpark in Arlington and the Cowboys Stadium.
Cluck says the area will now feature entertainment, movies, bowling, bars and restaurants. "A
lot of fun stuff," said Cluck. "And to me, that fits better in that location."
Mayor Cluck says he believes two hotels are still planned for the development, but that the
proposed Westin Hotel will not open in time for the 2011 Super Bowl, as originally hoped. (KTVT)
February 19, 2009
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After about a year of negotiations, the Dallas Cowboys have agreed to pay for the level of
public safety staffing that Arlington believes is necessary at games and other events at the new
football stadium, city officials said. Under the agreement, the Cowboys will pay for at least 34
fire and rescue personnel, 260 police personnel and a number of city-employed traffic
management personnel to help with security and traffic during events at the 80,000-seat
stadium. The $1.1 billion venue is expected to open in June. (Dallas Morning News)
