Thursday November 27th, 2014. Week 13 Eagles @ Cowboys

Holy mother of Jerry World. I mean… I can’t even… it’s just… wow. The Dallas Cowboys don’t play in Dallas, they play in Arlington, which I thought was weird until we drove up to this place and realized that there was simply nowhere else this structure could fit. The expression “there are no words” is thrown around quite a bit, but it’s never been more relatively applicable to anything the way it is to AT&T stadium.

Since Jerry took us for every penny we had on the game tickets, we my wife looked for deals on hotels and found one in Irving (which ended up working out well as we learned Irving can get pretty fancy pants-y, so the hotel was great). The drive to the stadium was only 25 minutes so the location worked perfectly. There’s a Walmart directly across the street from the stadium, so that made tailgate prep pretty easy. We spent too much money for a parking pass to get into lot 4, and got there as early as they allowed us to. We were among the first to arrive, getting into the lot around 11am (game started at 3:30pm). We had kind of a Dumb and Dumber moment, expecting the lot to be fuller or fill up quicker than it did. Fans really didn’t begin to pile in until around 1:30pm, which seemed absurd to us, Thanksgiving or not.

The fans that were there early did it right, although we were never able to actually go hang out with them. Tailgate rules at AT&T Stadium indicate that you can only put down a grill, chairs, or otherwise occupy space tailgating along the perimeter of the parking lot in the grassy areas. We did not have a grill, so it didn’t make sense for us to occupy a space and potentially take it away from somebody who was grilling. I’ve never seen that before and, in my opinion, it really takes away from a great tailgate experience. Every stadium we’ve ever been to had the fans tailgating throughout the parking lot behind their cars, which is like parking in the middle of a party. You park, get grilling, share some drinks, meet your neighbors and have a great time walking through the rows of fans. Forcing the action to the perimeter ensures that it remains simply a parking lot. Most people parked and walked away or met up with friends. The people who stayed put would park and then just kind of stand there with a beer. It was a scattered, almost desolate atmosphere. The tailgating that is happening along the perimeter gives it the feel of a private party and not a social event. Rows of cars giant pickup trucks line the grass side by side, with the action happening behind them. In order to get to their party, I’d literally have to turn and walk sideways in between the vehicles. Feeling as if you’ve forced your way into a party is shitty, so we didn’t bother. That’s not a tailgate, that’s a party nobody else is invited to. The opposite perimeter was up against the sidewalk facing the stadium and those people were much more friendly, although I suppose they had to be as the traffic was consistently crossing their face. All things considered, the tailgate experience was sub par. Why you would have parking lots that large but only allow tailgating in a fraction of them is beyond me. Unless you’re hosting the party, know somebody who is and your vehicle is needed to be a barricade, or just REALLY prefer to have a short walk to the stadium, there is no reason to spend the money on a pass for one of the main lots. Park somewhere else and walk in, because sheepishly walking around an empty parking lot is the same whether you pay to be there or not.

We decided to head over to the stadium about 2 hours before kickoff, and this place did not disappoint. We entered through the East concourse, which was really just a large, extended tailgate area. There was a stage, DJ, food and drink tents, and 4 giant overhead TV screens of which one was playing the early game (Bears/Lions). The centerpiece to the East concourse is the “Sky Mirror.” It’s cool all by itself but it sits atop huge infinity pool, because what stadium isn’t complete without one of those. A row of lights above the doors flashed and that was our signal to move in.

Unsurprisingly, we were awestruck upon entering the stadium. We walked onto a concourse filled with racks of Ford vehicles and a colored fountain… we arrived at Jerruh World. Once we got through and towards the field, the first thing you’re forced to notice is the giant video board above the field. It is every bit as awesome as advertised, and boy do they use it. Pregame analyst talk, on field video, advertisements, movie trailers, live NFL game action… The hardest part of trying to see the rest of the stadium is taking your eyes off the damn video board. The stadium began filling up and it was time for the player intros, which were a whooole thing. From this point on the experience straddled the line between sporting event and Michael Bay film. Fire, explosions, loud music, massive animated characters, they ran a trailer for a movie called Exodus but dubbed in some Cowboys/Eagles stuff… it was very weird.

The game atmosphere, much like the tailgate, was void of any real substance. It all felt very forced. The fans weren’t terribly involved, they had to practically beg them to get loud on 3rd downs with a prompt on the board and there were more Eagles fans in the house than I would have imagined. I promise I’m not trying to shit on Cowboys fans or how they operate, the whole thing was just very vanilla and not at all what I expected. There weren’t any unique food options of note, it was all very corporate. Imagine watching a football game with a bunch of rich white guys in suits on a yacht where you’re afraid of spilling on the carpet. That’s AT&T Stadium. Without the stadium’s frills, there wouldn’t be much at all to write about. This was the Thanksgiving game, so maybe that had something to do with it? The Cowboys got absolutely blown out, so maybe that had something to do with it? I don’t know. The stadium itself is an absolute marvel, but the game day experience was a major disappointment. [EDIT]: I was reminded by my wife and had to go back into this post to add that Pitbull was the halftime show performance. The entire game was such an over the top production, that the fact that Pitbull played a damn concert with pyrotechnics, fire and bright colors just faded into the background of my mind.

We’re headed south to Houston’s NRG Stadium to watch the Texans in 3 days. We’re interested to see the difference 250 miles makes.