Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Cowboys and their cattle
Is it me, or does Jerry Jones seem like the kind of guy who’ll do anything to make a buck? The owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who are playing in their brand-spanking new $1.15 billion stadium this season, was all smiles the other night when a record crowd of 105,121 packed into the venue, where you can get a 20-inch pizza for the bargain price of $60.
About 30,000 of those fans, though, couldn’t even see the field. Purchasing a $29 “Party Pass” allowed fans to stand and watch the game, but the crowd at times went a four or five dozen deep, and many were forced to watch the game from the stadium’s huge TVs hanging above. Some didn’t seem to mind and were just happy to be there. Others, though, felt they didn’t get what they paid for.
“I didn’t get a chance to walk up to the field and take a picture,” Charles Manhard of Dallas, a 38-year-old valet company owner, told reporters. “What’s the purpose of this? I can do this at home. I’ve got a 64-inch TV.”
The cheapest seats for the game against the Giants — which ranged from $75-99 — had sold out, and the only remaining seats to buy ranged from $129-299. That made the $29 standing-room-only tickets look like a great deal to see the team’s home opener.
According to the team’s front office, about 8,000 SRO tickets have been sold for the next game against the Panthers.
Still, not everyone who attended last Sunday’s contest left in bad spirits.
“I’m probably just stating the obvious, but the best feature was simply the price,” said Cowboys fan Keith Evashevski, who made the trek to Dallas from Wyoming. “To be involved in an NFL game in 2009 and spend just about or under $30, I think that’s pretty good.”
That’s surely what Jerry Jones wants you to think. Besides, that stadium isn’t going to pay for itself.
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3 comments:
I spent $80 for SRO at Gillette Stadium a few years ago. Who you calling cattle?
Is this what it looked like? Because I know it's only 30 bucks, but I'd feel a bit ripped off if that was me in the last row.
No, not at all - it was on an upper level and there weren't that many of us - I actually didn't mind it at all. But by the height of the Super Bowl runs, it had gone up over $100 (I was wrong - it was $50 each, not $80, when we went) and it just wasn't worth it. After all, I have a friend with a 56-inch high-def TV and the Super Fan NFL Ticket package :)
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