Welcome to Jerry’s World! A.K.A. Cowboys Stadium
Posted by royaleval on February 14, 2010
I had the opportunity to follow my beloved Oklahoma State University Cowboys to the AT&T Cotton Bowl this year on January 2. This was the second trip for OSU and my family to the Cotton bowl in the last decade. The first trip in 2004 was mostly remembered by my family by the 2 hour wait it took to get out of the parking lot at the original Cotton Bowl stadium at the Texas State Fair.
This time the game was at Jerry Jones new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. This would be my first visit to the new stadium. Because of our problems at the last Cotton Bowl we decided to get to the game plenty early so that we could avoid any possible traffic problems. About 5 hours prior to game time, we hit the road to the stadium. Surprisingly, we had no traffic problems and got right to our parking lot. In the parking lot they had a few port-a-potties. The Cotton Bowl committee was so prepared for this game they even had Cowboys themed port-a-potties for the OSU fans! (Ok, maybe they were just for the Dallas Cowboys.)
No detail left untouched!
We made it up to the stadium, about a one mile walk, and headed for the OSU pep rally on the other end of the stadium. My family brought some food to eat so we could have a tailgate before we entered the stadium. This was when I needed one of those port-a-potties. The problem was that I had to go on a wild goose chase to find one.
At the time, we were right outside the pep rally, so I entered it thinking they would obviously have a place to use the restroom. I was wrong. I proceeded to walk for miles before I finally found one in a parking lot a quarter mile from the stadium. Lesson learned. Go when you get the chance!
Once I returned, Erin needed some medicine for a headache. No problem! Wal-Mart is right across the street from the stadium! Those people at Wal-Mart know where to build.
Once we made our purchase we entered the stadium. They had everyone get patted down in ladies only or men only lines. The ladies only line took so long because they had to examine bags as well in the lines. The clearly needed more lines for the women or to add an addition staff member at each line to check bags.
We easily found our seats on the third level. The seats were closely located next to a concession stand and the restroom. The line was fairly short and moved at a decent pace before the game. At half time, the lines hardly moved because they did not have enough staff members working the concession stands.
I had to get a souvenir Cotton Bowl cup while at the game. I still have a cup from the Houston Bowl in 2001 at Reliant Stadium. Those specialty cups give me great memories that last about a decade in some cases.
TV Screen Stats on the Screen
During the game, you could not help but watch the mammoth big screen over the field. It is the largest TV screen in the world! I had a great line of sight to the field but in comparison to the TV, the players looked so small! The only downside was that if the TV did not make it back to live action before the game started, I missed the start of the play. That screen dominates your senses at the game.
That is a TV screen!
Another first for me at this game was going to be for me to use Twitter at an OSU football game. At the home games for OSU in Stillwater, the AT&T service is so poor you cannot use an iPhone to make calls, get text messages, or use the internet. Since the Cotton Bowl was sponsored by AT&T, I was hopeful that Twitter could allow me to have an entirely different game experience.
I was disappointed. AT&T did not have enough service in Jerry’s World to use the internet. You could send and receive text messages and phone calls but no Twitter.
How does a company spend millions of dollars to sponsor a bowl game and not take the time to make sure that your phone could fully function on their network at the game? It blows my mind how some companies blow their money. I would encourage AT&T to save some money on bowl sponsorship and spend that money on upgrading their phone system.
Once outside the stadium, I was able to get the internet to work on my wife’s iPhone. That is when I was able to access Twitter and realized that everyone else with AT&T service had the same problem in the stadium.
Mr. Orange Power
Once we made it back to the car, we easily made it out of the parking lot and down the road. Taking advantage of all the gameday traffic cops and detours, we got back on the highway within about 10 minutes and it took us about the same amount of time to get back to home base as it did to get the stadium. This was a huge improvement in comparison to the old Cotton Bowl stadium traffic.
In the end, the Cowboys lost the game but I am so glad that I got to see Jerry’s World. It was amazing. Jerry Jones has set the bar so high for professional sports stadiums that I cannot wait to see what gets built next!
