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The Milwaukee JOURNAL SENTINEL published an article on the Dallas Cowboys new stadium (naming rights TBA) which will open next year. The stadium will cost USD $1.1 BILLION. (about JAM $77 BILLION.)
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THIS STORY
How Cowboys new stadium will change the NFL
Opening next year, football palace raises the stakes in revenue game
By DON WALKER
dwalker@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 20, 2008
Arlington, Texas - Jerry Jones, the owner, president and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, is a former oilman, so he knows a little something about risk.
New Cowboys Stadium
Photo/Max Faulkner/Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Like the Dallas Cowboys' current home, Texas Stadium, their new palace in Arlington will feature a hole in the roof, though this one can be covered. A 600-ton video board will descend to 90 feet above the playing field and will cover the area between the 20-yard lines.
The Specifics
Graphic/Dallas Morning News
Click to enlarge
Outside The Stadium
Graphic/Dallas Morning News
Click to enlarge
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Ask him what amount of risk he is taking with construction of his $1.1 billion football palace, scheduled to open next season in this city sandwiched between Dallas and Fort Worth, and Jones doesn’t hesitate to answer.
“More than I have ever taken in my life,” he said.
Spending more than $1 million a day on an 80,000-seat stadium, expandable to 100,000, Jones is banking that his gargantuan stadium — with the hole in the roof, the center-hung scoreboard and the 300 suites — will be the focal point of North Texas and the talk of professional sports.
America’s Team — sorry, Packers’ fans — is changing the economic calculus of the National Football League in a Texas-sized way. And if Jones succeeds, the revenue gap will widen between the big and small markets.
“I do think the Cowboys will raise the bar,” says Mark Murphy, president and CEO of the Packers. “Each stadium is different. For us, one thing that we have that the other stadiums don’t is history and tradition. But this does raise the stakes.”
Jack Hill, the stadium’s construction manager, says Jones was pretty clear on what he wanted.
“He wants people to marvel at it,” Hill said. “Not simply to go in and see it. He wants people to be in awe of it. I don’t think there is another stadium like it.”
That’s music to Jones’ ears. He says the Cowboys are the most-watched team in the National Football League: they’ll be at Lambeau Field tonight to play the Packers on national TV. Jones reasons that the Cowboys,
which Forbes magazine recently said was worth $1.6 billion, can’t just play in any old stadium. It has to be the biggest and the best.
“I could have built this for a third less,” he said. “But this is what the Cowboys fans and the NFL deserve.”
Jones’ stadium is being watched closely by other franchises, including the Packers, in the increasingly budget-conscious NFL. Couple it with construction of the Giants-Jets stadium in New Jersey, itself a $1.6 billion stadium, and a stadium arms race is under way.
The Packers were ahead of the curve with their $295 million makeover of Lambeau Field. Now there is talk in Green Bay of development and expansion west of Lambeau to increase revenue for the franchise.
Down in Texas, Jones has taken the concept of more in-stadium revenue and injected it with steroids.
“The Cowboys, Giants and Jets will leapfrog several NFL teams in revenue rankings over the coming years due to the economic boost of the new stadiums, underscoring the single most pressing issue among ownership today, that despite a salary cap encouraging a relatively equal playing field of talent, there are vast disparities in revenue generation between the clubs,” says Andrew Brandt, a former Packers executive who teaches and writes about pro football at the NationalFootballPost.com
“Club owners feel pressure to continue to spend on players for competitive reasons” while watching their competitors in new stadiums increase revenue, Brandt said.
“Teams on the outside looking in at new stadiums can only watch their revenues fall further behind their peers and hope for a sharing arrangement that makes sense for all,” Brandt said.
Jones, one of the more outspoken leaders in professional football, doesn’t see it that way. He sees the new stadium as a showplace for the sport.
“This stadium, I hope, will be a symbol of the NFL,” Jones said. “It will help the NFL’s image of excellence and is a look into the future. A rising tide lifts all boats.”
Arlington will be owner
To be sure, Jones has financial exposure in difficult and uncertain economic times. The City of Arlington will own the stadium. Its share of the cost of the stadium is capped at $325 million. That $325 million is being raised through a combination of a sales tax, a hotel tax and car rental tax.
Jones is on the hook for the rest. And he’s confident he made the right choice to think big.
“We can’t do things the way we did in the past,” Jones said of NFL economics. “A new stadium like this gives teams a chance to re-examine themselves. That’s the history of the NFL. Teams build a stadium and revenue goes up.”
Jones’ stadium is proof of that. Hill, who was involved with the Miller Park construction project and has worked on such major projects as the Ballpark at Arlington and the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, said he believes the stadium is the biggest in the world.
The project is part of the City of Arlington’s plan for an entertainment district. Nearby is the Ballpark in Arlington, the home of the Texas Rangers. A few miles away is Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, an amusement park and water park.
The Cowboys’ stadium will take up 3 million square feet of space. By comparison, Lambeau Field is 1.6 million square feet, and Miller Park is 1.3 million square feet.
There is a hole in the roof — just as there is at Texas Stadium in nearby Irving — but this one has a retractable cover. But the most dominant elements of the stadium are the two arch trusses that support it. The trusses are nearly a quarter-mile long.
Jones is not cutting corners. Much of the steel comes from Luxembourg. The glass that envelops large portions of the stadium is from England.
Another eye-popping feature, besides the 300 suites and the huge doors at both end zones, is the enormous video board.
The video board, being assembled on the floor of the stadium, will feature 25,000 square feet of high-definition video. It will be hung from the center of the stadium, thanks to the trusses, and will cover the entire area between the 20-yard lines. The board is 70 feet tall, and its end boards are 30 feet by 50 feet.
Hill said fans sitting in the nosebleed seats will likely be watching the game on the video board instead of on the field below. Players will look like they’re 15 feet tall.
Brandt, who credits Jones with coming up with new sources of revenue, said the Cowboys owner has always believed that it is a franchise’s obligation to find, develop and augment revenue. For example, Jones reached agreement with the then-Miller Brewing Co. for a 12-year sponsorship deal estimated at $8 million a year.
Waiting in the wings is an anticipated deal for naming rights. Jones said he is talking to a few blue-chip firms, though he declined to say which ones. Sports business experts say Jones could fetch more money than the $20 million the New York Mets are getting per year from Citigroup for naming rights to its new stadium.
Besides Cowboys football, Jones also has secured the Super Bowl for 2011, is bidding for an NCAA Final Four men’s basketball final and hopes to land concerts and other bowl games.
The Cowboys Hall of Fame also will be located at the site.
The Cowboys fan, as passionate a fan as there is in the NFL, will be paying more, too. The most expensive seats in the house will be $340 a game. And those seats come with a seat option, requiring the owner to pay $16,000 to $150,000 to reserve the right to renew the seats for 30 years.
The least expensive seat will be $59, according to the Cowboys.
“The amount they are getting for personal seat licenses is off the charts,” said one NFL executive who asked not to be named. “It has raised the stakes for everybody. That’s where the league is heading and where you gain the competitive edge.”
Even with the NFL season in full swing, Jones calls or visits Hill at the site. Sometimes, Hill said, design changes are done on the fly.
“We like that,” Hill said. “It gives us an opportunity to get his vision of every aspect of the stadium. He will not apologize for that because it is in the best interests of the stadium.”
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JS ONLINE: BUSINESS:
E-MAIL | PRINT
THIS STORY
How Cowboys new stadium will change the NFL
Opening next year, football palace raises the stakes in revenue game
By DON WALKER
dwalker@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 20, 2008
Arlington, Texas - Jerry Jones, the owner, president and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, is a former oilman, so he knows a little something about risk.
New Cowboys Stadium
Photo/Max Faulkner/Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Like the Dallas Cowboys' current home, Texas Stadium, their new palace in Arlington will feature a hole in the roof, though this one can be covered. A 600-ton video board will descend to 90 feet above the playing field and will cover the area between the 20-yard lines.
The Specifics
Graphic/Dallas Morning News
Click to enlarge
Outside The Stadium
Graphic/Dallas Morning News
Click to enlarge
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Ask him what amount of risk he is taking with construction of his $1.1 billion football palace, scheduled to open next season in this city sandwiched between Dallas and Fort Worth, and Jones doesn’t hesitate to answer.
“More than I have ever taken in my life,” he said.
Spending more than $1 million a day on an 80,000-seat stadium, expandable to 100,000, Jones is banking that his gargantuan stadium — with the hole in the roof, the center-hung scoreboard and the 300 suites — will be the focal point of North Texas and the talk of professional sports.
America’s Team — sorry, Packers’ fans — is changing the economic calculus of the National Football League in a Texas-sized way. And if Jones succeeds, the revenue gap will widen between the big and small markets.
“I do think the Cowboys will raise the bar,” says Mark Murphy, president and CEO of the Packers. “Each stadium is different. For us, one thing that we have that the other stadiums don’t is history and tradition. But this does raise the stakes.”
Jack Hill, the stadium’s construction manager, says Jones was pretty clear on what he wanted.
“He wants people to marvel at it,” Hill said. “Not simply to go in and see it. He wants people to be in awe of it. I don’t think there is another stadium like it.”
That’s music to Jones’ ears. He says the Cowboys are the most-watched team in the National Football League: they’ll be at Lambeau Field tonight to play the Packers on national TV. Jones reasons that the Cowboys,
which Forbes magazine recently said was worth $1.6 billion, can’t just play in any old stadium. It has to be the biggest and the best.
“I could have built this for a third less,” he said. “But this is what the Cowboys fans and the NFL deserve.”
Jones’ stadium is being watched closely by other franchises, including the Packers, in the increasingly budget-conscious NFL. Couple it with construction of the Giants-Jets stadium in New Jersey, itself a $1.6 billion stadium, and a stadium arms race is under way.
The Packers were ahead of the curve with their $295 million makeover of Lambeau Field. Now there is talk in Green Bay of development and expansion west of Lambeau to increase revenue for the franchise.
Down in Texas, Jones has taken the concept of more in-stadium revenue and injected it with steroids.
“The Cowboys, Giants and Jets will leapfrog several NFL teams in revenue rankings over the coming years due to the economic boost of the new stadiums, underscoring the single most pressing issue among ownership today, that despite a salary cap encouraging a relatively equal playing field of talent, there are vast disparities in revenue generation between the clubs,” says Andrew Brandt, a former Packers executive who teaches and writes about pro football at the NationalFootballPost.com
“Club owners feel pressure to continue to spend on players for competitive reasons” while watching their competitors in new stadiums increase revenue, Brandt said.
“Teams on the outside looking in at new stadiums can only watch their revenues fall further behind their peers and hope for a sharing arrangement that makes sense for all,” Brandt said.
Jones, one of the more outspoken leaders in professional football, doesn’t see it that way. He sees the new stadium as a showplace for the sport.
“This stadium, I hope, will be a symbol of the NFL,” Jones said. “It will help the NFL’s image of excellence and is a look into the future. A rising tide lifts all boats.”
Arlington will be owner
To be sure, Jones has financial exposure in difficult and uncertain economic times. The City of Arlington will own the stadium. Its share of the cost of the stadium is capped at $325 million. That $325 million is being raised through a combination of a sales tax, a hotel tax and car rental tax.
Jones is on the hook for the rest. And he’s confident he made the right choice to think big.
“We can’t do things the way we did in the past,” Jones said of NFL economics. “A new stadium like this gives teams a chance to re-examine themselves. That’s the history of the NFL. Teams build a stadium and revenue goes up.”
Jones’ stadium is proof of that. Hill, who was involved with the Miller Park construction project and has worked on such major projects as the Ballpark at Arlington and the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, said he believes the stadium is the biggest in the world.
The project is part of the City of Arlington’s plan for an entertainment district. Nearby is the Ballpark in Arlington, the home of the Texas Rangers. A few miles away is Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, an amusement park and water park.
The Cowboys’ stadium will take up 3 million square feet of space. By comparison, Lambeau Field is 1.6 million square feet, and Miller Park is 1.3 million square feet.
There is a hole in the roof — just as there is at Texas Stadium in nearby Irving — but this one has a retractable cover. But the most dominant elements of the stadium are the two arch trusses that support it. The trusses are nearly a quarter-mile long.
Jones is not cutting corners. Much of the steel comes from Luxembourg. The glass that envelops large portions of the stadium is from England.
Another eye-popping feature, besides the 300 suites and the huge doors at both end zones, is the enormous video board.
The video board, being assembled on the floor of the stadium, will feature 25,000 square feet of high-definition video. It will be hung from the center of the stadium, thanks to the trusses, and will cover the entire area between the 20-yard lines. The board is 70 feet tall, and its end boards are 30 feet by 50 feet.
Hill said fans sitting in the nosebleed seats will likely be watching the game on the video board instead of on the field below. Players will look like they’re 15 feet tall.
Brandt, who credits Jones with coming up with new sources of revenue, said the Cowboys owner has always believed that it is a franchise’s obligation to find, develop and augment revenue. For example, Jones reached agreement with the then-Miller Brewing Co. for a 12-year sponsorship deal estimated at $8 million a year.
Waiting in the wings is an anticipated deal for naming rights. Jones said he is talking to a few blue-chip firms, though he declined to say which ones. Sports business experts say Jones could fetch more money than the $20 million the New York Mets are getting per year from Citigroup for naming rights to its new stadium.
Besides Cowboys football, Jones also has secured the Super Bowl for 2011, is bidding for an NCAA Final Four men’s basketball final and hopes to land concerts and other bowl games.
The Cowboys Hall of Fame also will be located at the site.
The Cowboys fan, as passionate a fan as there is in the NFL, will be paying more, too. The most expensive seats in the house will be $340 a game. And those seats come with a seat option, requiring the owner to pay $16,000 to $150,000 to reserve the right to renew the seats for 30 years.
The least expensive seat will be $59, according to the Cowboys.
“The amount they are getting for personal seat licenses is off the charts,” said one NFL executive who asked not to be named. “It has raised the stakes for everybody. That’s where the league is heading and where you gain the competitive edge.”
Even with the NFL season in full swing, Jones calls or visits Hill at the site. Sometimes, Hill said, design changes are done on the fly.
“We like that,” Hill said. “It gives us an opportunity to get his vision of every aspect of the stadium. He will not apologize for that because it is in the best interests of the stadium.”
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