Houston vs. Dallas (Austin, Arlington, Irving: vacation, short term, percent)

[Trae713]

Could have. We'll see on the capacity thing. 115,000, including standing room only, sounds right. Not 115,000 AND THEN standing room only added on.

The Pro Bowl being held in Miami this year is just a test. Plus, it's the week before the Super Bowl, which makes it even more stupid. Like the players playing in the Super Bowl really want to play in the Pro Bowl now. And the media? The media can get up and move. It's not hard. And it's not likely Dallas will have the Pro Bowl in 2011. The NFL has not said they want to do this after Miami (yet), and nothing was said about Dallas (well Arlington) at all. This is strictly just a one year test, and Hawaii will be getting the Pro Bowl back in 2011. And about the players, yeah they get incentives, but Hawaii is a big one. They are always talking about "going to Hawaii".

Now Arlington does need to revitalize. It was trying before the economic crisis, but before the meltdown really went down Glorypark and other projects were canceled (or I believe put on hold). I haven't heard a thing about mass transit in Arlington either. I personally believe the setup is dumb. Every city trying to get some type of event. Dallas should have worked harder for this stadium. No one wants to go to the suburbs. It's a reason why the MLB All-Star game won't come back to DFW.

[AK123]

Houston may have the occasional hurricane, but Dallas and elsewhere in north Texas has ice storms.

Texas death toll stands at 6 as icy weather hits state | Top stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6234382.html - broken link)

[atxcio]

The official site says 80K seating capacity expandable to 100K for events like the Superbowl. I think any estimate over 100K (maybe even that estimate) is including the people outside in the endzone plazas... which are supposed to have a view of the game and jumbotrons. I wonder if they will count those as official attendance for the game.

Dallas Cowboys New Stadium

Currently, the largest attendance ever at a football game in Texas is 98,621. Should be interesting to see when the new Cowboy's stadium surpasses that number. That's a big number for an NFL team, but it's been done before.

[Trae713]

Don't the Redskins get nearly 90,000 at FedEx Field every home game? Oh, and this stadium won't be the last stadium to have an all around capacity of 100,000. There will be others in the future. Stadiums are always outdone by another. The stadium in Arlington is still nice.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by Angel713

Don't the Redskins get nearly 90,000 at FedEx Field every home game? Oh, and this stadium won't be the last stadium to have an all around capacity of 100,000. There will be others in the future. Stadiums are always outdone by another. The stadium in Arlington is still nice.

Oh, it's more than nice! I'm especially liking the 365-day open thing. Even if you never have the scratch to get in on game day, you can at least go and eat at one of the sports bars and "experience" the stadium.

[Trae713]

The stadium in Arlington is still nice.

[Nairobi]

I wanna start a war: if Dallas is so nice, how come they don't build a stadium in the city like everyone else?! A downtown football stadium would have been exciting.

[portyhead24]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

I wanna start a war: if Dallas is so nice, how come they don't build a stadium in the city like everyone else?! A downtown football stadium would have been exciting.

Because the citizens of Dallas aren't big enough suckers to finance half of this monstrosity unlike the utopian society known as Arlington. Dallas has more important things to do like actually develop a more liveable, walkable, denser, transit-oriented city unlike Arlington. Here's a fun article to read.

Questions over stadium deal with Arlington | Latest News | WFAA.com (http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080201_lj_cowboysstadium.7f627350.html - broken link)

[metroplex2003]

Originally Posted by Angel713

Could have. We'll see on the capacity thing. 115,000, including standing room only, sounds right. Not 115,000 AND THEN standing room only added on.

The Pro Bowl being held in Miami this year is just a test. Plus, it's the week before the Super Bowl, which makes it even more stupid. Like the players playing in the Super Bowl really want to play in the Pro Bowl now. And the media? The media can get up and move. It's not hard. And it's not likely Dallas will have the Pro Bowl in 2011. The NFL has not said they want to do this after Miami (yet), and nothing was said about Dallas (well Arlington) at all. This is strictly just a one year test, and Hawaii will be getting the Pro Bowl back in 2011. And about the players, yeah they get incentives, but Hawaii is a big one. They are always talking about "going to Hawaii".

Now Arlington does need to revitalize. It was trying before the economic crisis, but before the meltdown really went down Glorypark and other projects were canceled (or I believe put on hold). I haven't heard a thing about mass transit in Arlington either. I personally believe the setup is dumb. Every city trying to get some type of event. Dallas should have worked harder for this stadium. No one wants to go to the suburbs. It's a reason why the MLB All-Star game won't come back to DFW.

The NFL Commish stated that the Superbowl players will not be part of the Pro Bowl...that's the plan thus far. And I have inside sources on Dallas and the Pro Bowl for 2011. As for Hawaii...yeah it's nice...but it's not like they cannot afford to go anytime they want. And the 125K refers to standing room only plus seats as I stated in my previous post.
Regardless...this is a big deal for the state of Texas. And the prospects of the Pro Bowl and Superbowl here in the same year in the state of Texas is a good thing regardless if you're pro houston or pro dallas.
But again, I am agreement with you on the stupidity of having it the week before the superbowl...if anything they should do it mid season...or keep it the way it was...but the main complaint a/b the status quo is the anti-climatic nature of the Pro Bowl. Most "all star" situations occur midway through the season.
As for Arlington, I'm not the biggest fan of where the stadium is...but then again, I'm not a big fan of public financing of stadiums either unless if the public desires so...it just so happens that the City of Irving and Dallas both felt that they can spend their money for other uses and get just as much economic benefit. www.crossroadsdfw.org
Arlington was the only suburb willing to put up the dough to build the stadium. As for Glorypark, it's on hold. Hopefully the economy will recover more quickly in Texas so both the DFW area and Houston can again continue their construction boom.

My biggest gripe with Arlington is the lack of public transportation. As the 48th largest city in the US, it's sad that they did not join DART or Ft. Worth's system or the TRE. It would have been nice if Arlington had rail service to their stadium/6 flags area.

Now as for the concept of suburban stadiums...it's not unheard of: New York Giants/Jets, current Cowboys, Boston's New England Patriots, etc. etc etc.
The thing Arlington needs to do is improve infrastructure. It's horrible compared to Irving or Dallas or Ft. Worth for that matter.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by portyhead24

Because the citizens of Dallas aren't big enough suckers to finance half of this monstrosity unlike the utopian society known as Arlington. Dallas has more important things to do like actually develop a more liveable, walkable, denser, transit-oriented city unlike Arlington. Here's a fun article to read.

Questions over stadium deal with Arlington | Latest News | WFAA.com (http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080201_lj_cowboysstadium.7f627350.html - broken link)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't a major, brand new, soon-to-host-the-Super-Bowl stadium in a CBD bring a lot of business and activity to Downtown Dallas? Especially during the regular season?

I'm not an expert on these types of things, so I may be suggesting something nonsensical, but let me know.

And since when is NFL football a bad thing to finance?