Checked A Bucket List Box!

Some of you know that I am a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan (don’t hate).  When Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys and other business leaders built a new stadium in Arlington, Texas, I quickly added a stadium tour to my bucket list.  After 15 years, I finally made it there!

On the tour heard about the unique construction features of the stadium, the engineer in me loved that, and we saw many of the behind the scenes areas, which the Cowboys fan in me loved.

Some of the unique features were explained on the tour:

There are two, 3,255-ton, 1,225-feet long steel arches raise 320-feet above the field anchored by 4 abutments. The abutments are 60 feet underground, with an additional 40 feet showing above ground.  They are the longest single-span arches in the world.  You can see one of the abutments in the pictures above and below.

Because of these single span arches, there are no columns of any kind inside of the stadium. This means that there are NO obstructed view seats. Hopefully the pictures below give you a sense of that.

The stadium houses the largest retractable glass doors in the world at 180-feet wide by 120-feet tall. Located at either end of the field, they take only 18 minutes to open or close.  

In addition to the retractable glass doors, the roof of the stadium is retractable as well. ‘The roof has two expansive retractable panels, covered in translucent fabric membrane, and measuring an impressive 256 feet by 410 feet. They are operated by a precision rack-and-pinion drive system, opening, and closing in a mere 12 minutes, to offer fans a breathtaking experience or shield them from the elements.’¹

The stadium’s unique design allows the playing field to sit 50 feet below street level, affording fans a panoramic view of the field.

Since it is technically considered a room, it holds the title of the world’s largest air-conditioned room.  It takes 11,000 tons of Air Conditioning to cool the place.

In 2009, when the stadium was completed, it housed the biggest HDTV screen in the world. The display was changed a few years ago to the latest 4K technology. These screens are HUGE, I mean really HUGE!! If you look closely at the pictures below, you will see numerous tractor trailers on the stadium floor. Look at how small they are compared to the screen.

The AT&T lettering on top of the roof is 43-feet tall and 385-wide AT&T The sign is heated to melt snow and ice.  

Back to those tractor trailers on the stadium floor. The night before our tour, Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown played a concert. The tractor trailers were loaded up with the stage parts from the concert. One of the things that we found very impressive about the stadium was how incredibly clean it was including the parking lots. Despite the fact that less than twelve hours before our tour the place was packed with concert goers.

So you may be asking yourself, so what do they do about the field when there is a concert? Great question.  There are 41-interchangeable panel turf called SoftTop Convertible Turf System which allows for the stadium to remove and install it in 24 to 40 hours depending on the type of event the stadium is hosting.  There are different fields for pro, college, and high school football, as well as soccer. Here is a picture of a portion of one of the fields.

Oh and the vehicle in that picture, that is the vehicle that drives over to the helicopter pad to pick up Jerry Jones and bring him to the stadium!

Here are pictures of the behind the scene areas that we were treated to. They include, the Cowboys Locker room, the Cheerleaders locker room, the press box, one of the suites, and the area where the players run onto the field (which is actually through the Miller Lite Fan bar area).

Sorry for such a long post, but it really was fascinating to hear about the stadium and to see all the places that Cowboy players are during a game. We had an amazing time and learned so much!

1. https://www.walterpmoore.com/projects/att-stadium ↩︎