LonghornLawyer
500+ Posts
Last week, one of my good friends who has Cowboys season tickets had an appointment to go out to the Cowboys Sales Center to let them try to sucker him into buying $16,000 per seat PSL's at the new stadium. He was kind enough to let me tag along. So, friends, here is my review of a few high-points.But before we get to that, let me make a note. As many of you know, I am not a fan of Jerry, the Cowboys, or Arlington. I personally think this is the biggest boondoggle in the history of an area that is repleat with boodoggles. So it is impossible for me to go into this without a skeptical eye--and I wasn't trying to. But with that being said, I'll try to relate just the facts as much as possible.The Good:1) Construction seems to be moving along nicely. Both arches are up and there are well on their way towards being halfway finished with one side of the roof. And it is a monsterous edifice. With the glass installed on the south side of the stadium, it is possible for the first time to get a feel for the architectural wonder of the stadium. It really is impressive, and I do wish it were sitting in Dallas rather than Arlington.
2) If you're into that sort of thing, then the clubs and amenities are going to be pretty unparalleled for people sitting in the club seats (i.e., the bottom three decks stretching from goalline to goalline). And let's face it, whether it be because we want to take clients and get the tax break, or because we want to take our wife or girlfriend, the clubs are a nice (and increasingly necessary) thing to have in the stadium.
The Bad:
1) We got lost on our way to the nondescript former bank building housing the Sales Center, so we had an opportunity to drive around the site. If you thought suburbs didn't have slums, you're very wrong. Jerryworld is situated smack-dab in one of the nastiest parts of the Metroplex I've ever ventured into. The fact that there's a Wal-Mart right across the street is funny; the fact that there are crack houses a block away isn't. I know Arlington says that the stadium will be a source of urban revitalization, and I think that's possible. But the area won't be revitalized before 2011, and the entire world is going to have to wade through that mess to get to the stadium. And as a Dallasite, that scares the **** outta me.
2) Part of the salesgirl's job in trying to sell you the club seats is to trash the other seats in the stadium. I recognize that. But I also don't think she had that tough a job trashing those seats. As she said, the upper deck seats would be above the roof at Texas Stadium. The fact is the upper deck sucks. And there was no talk of amenities in the non-club seats, because, I suspect, there are none. This stadium is built for the suite and club seat people--the rest are superfluous. A fact illustrated by . . .
3) The parking situation, which is in a state of flux at best. The Cowboys will only control 17,000 parking spaces. To make up the rest, they're going to have to contract with the Rangers, but as anyone who's been out there knows, the Ranger parking lots are a long way from the stadium. And even then, I don't think they'll be able to fit all the cars they should expect. So I imagine there will be plenty of parking on people's front yards. It's funny that Jerry moved all the way out to Arlington to replicate that part of the Cotton Bowl experience
The Ugly:
1) Another part of the Cotton Bowl experience may be the seating itself. I asked the salesgirl how they're going to fit 100,000 into that place for the Super Bowl and other big-time events, and she told me that "the really exciting thing is" that the lower bowl seats have removable arm rests, so they can narrow the seats. No ****--they can go all aggy and narrow the seats to literally squeeze more butts into the place. One wonders how long it will take Jerry to narrow the seats on a permanent basis to sell more lower-bowl seats. to playoff and maybe even regular season games And for those wondering, no, there is no langauge in the PSL to prevent that.2) No buses; no rail; no mass transit of any kind. Drive in, drive out. And you're dumb for even asking about it.The Open Questions:
1) One of the interesting things was a virtual seat view, by which the salesgirl contrasted our possible club seats with upper deck seats. The interesting thing about the upper deck seat at the 40-yard line is that if you look straight ahead, you're looking right at the suspended jumbotron. To see the field, you have to ignore the 60-yard television in front of your face and look down. It's going to be an interesting dynamic, and I don't know how it's going to work out. I could easily see everyone in the upper deck essentially just watching the game on television.
2) On a random weekday, Collins was packed. But the nice thing is that there are several back ways that you can take to get to the stadium, unlike Texas Stadium, which is only accessible by the three freeways surrounding it. I don't know how the traffic flow will work, but they are relying a lot on Arlington to turn streets (e.g., Collins) into one-way streets for Sundays. That may work, but in my experience of going to Rangers games, if you're relying on the Arlington police to figure out traffic patterns, you could be in a world of ****.
3) The salesgirl was very up-front about the fact that Jerry is trying to eliminate the secondary market by pricing the seats so high. I for one don't appreciate that, since I buy on the secondary market, and my season ticket holder buddy doesn't apprecaite it because he sells on the secondary market. I'm not an economist, so perhaps someone who is can review the effects of trying to eliminate the secondary market through high prices. But I expect it isn't a good idea because the option of selling through a broker is one of the things that makes tickets worth purchasing in the first place.
3) Sales aren't going particularly well, but they aren't terrible. We're through the period when only people in those seats now could buy club seats, and from what I could tell, they only had about a third of those people take PSL's. Those should be your easiest sales.
They were obviously very sensitive about the Channel 8 reports that they haven't sold any of these seats, and went to pains to show that they have. They even had a mock-up of the two sections that require a $150,000 per seat PSL to show that most of those seats are taken. But next to those sections were seats that originally required a $100,000 PSL, and that's been abandoned in favor of a $50,000 PSL. And less than a third of the $16,000 PSL's have been taken.
BTW, you don't have to pay all at once. They'll be happy to finance the price for you on a 30-year note at 8.5% interest (floating rate, of course).
Nonetheless, the salesgirl was nice. She's just trying to make a buck selling a product that's a tough sell. So I was reasonably nice. I actually felt kind of sorry for her. The place was empty, and she looked beaten down.
2) If you're into that sort of thing, then the clubs and amenities are going to be pretty unparalleled for people sitting in the club seats (i.e., the bottom three decks stretching from goalline to goalline). And let's face it, whether it be because we want to take clients and get the tax break, or because we want to take our wife or girlfriend, the clubs are a nice (and increasingly necessary) thing to have in the stadium.
The Bad:
1) We got lost on our way to the nondescript former bank building housing the Sales Center, so we had an opportunity to drive around the site. If you thought suburbs didn't have slums, you're very wrong. Jerryworld is situated smack-dab in one of the nastiest parts of the Metroplex I've ever ventured into. The fact that there's a Wal-Mart right across the street is funny; the fact that there are crack houses a block away isn't. I know Arlington says that the stadium will be a source of urban revitalization, and I think that's possible. But the area won't be revitalized before 2011, and the entire world is going to have to wade through that mess to get to the stadium. And as a Dallasite, that scares the **** outta me.
2) Part of the salesgirl's job in trying to sell you the club seats is to trash the other seats in the stadium. I recognize that. But I also don't think she had that tough a job trashing those seats. As she said, the upper deck seats would be above the roof at Texas Stadium. The fact is the upper deck sucks. And there was no talk of amenities in the non-club seats, because, I suspect, there are none. This stadium is built for the suite and club seat people--the rest are superfluous. A fact illustrated by . . .
3) The parking situation, which is in a state of flux at best. The Cowboys will only control 17,000 parking spaces. To make up the rest, they're going to have to contract with the Rangers, but as anyone who's been out there knows, the Ranger parking lots are a long way from the stadium. And even then, I don't think they'll be able to fit all the cars they should expect. So I imagine there will be plenty of parking on people's front yards. It's funny that Jerry moved all the way out to Arlington to replicate that part of the Cotton Bowl experience
The Ugly:
1) Another part of the Cotton Bowl experience may be the seating itself. I asked the salesgirl how they're going to fit 100,000 into that place for the Super Bowl and other big-time events, and she told me that "the really exciting thing is" that the lower bowl seats have removable arm rests, so they can narrow the seats. No ****--they can go all aggy and narrow the seats to literally squeeze more butts into the place. One wonders how long it will take Jerry to narrow the seats on a permanent basis to sell more lower-bowl seats. to playoff and maybe even regular season games And for those wondering, no, there is no langauge in the PSL to prevent that.2) No buses; no rail; no mass transit of any kind. Drive in, drive out. And you're dumb for even asking about it.The Open Questions:
1) One of the interesting things was a virtual seat view, by which the salesgirl contrasted our possible club seats with upper deck seats. The interesting thing about the upper deck seat at the 40-yard line is that if you look straight ahead, you're looking right at the suspended jumbotron. To see the field, you have to ignore the 60-yard television in front of your face and look down. It's going to be an interesting dynamic, and I don't know how it's going to work out. I could easily see everyone in the upper deck essentially just watching the game on television.
2) On a random weekday, Collins was packed. But the nice thing is that there are several back ways that you can take to get to the stadium, unlike Texas Stadium, which is only accessible by the three freeways surrounding it. I don't know how the traffic flow will work, but they are relying a lot on Arlington to turn streets (e.g., Collins) into one-way streets for Sundays. That may work, but in my experience of going to Rangers games, if you're relying on the Arlington police to figure out traffic patterns, you could be in a world of ****.
3) The salesgirl was very up-front about the fact that Jerry is trying to eliminate the secondary market by pricing the seats so high. I for one don't appreciate that, since I buy on the secondary market, and my season ticket holder buddy doesn't apprecaite it because he sells on the secondary market. I'm not an economist, so perhaps someone who is can review the effects of trying to eliminate the secondary market through high prices. But I expect it isn't a good idea because the option of selling through a broker is one of the things that makes tickets worth purchasing in the first place.
3) Sales aren't going particularly well, but they aren't terrible. We're through the period when only people in those seats now could buy club seats, and from what I could tell, they only had about a third of those people take PSL's. Those should be your easiest sales.
They were obviously very sensitive about the Channel 8 reports that they haven't sold any of these seats, and went to pains to show that they have. They even had a mock-up of the two sections that require a $150,000 per seat PSL to show that most of those seats are taken. But next to those sections were seats that originally required a $100,000 PSL, and that's been abandoned in favor of a $50,000 PSL. And less than a third of the $16,000 PSL's have been taken.
BTW, you don't have to pay all at once. They'll be happy to finance the price for you on a 30-year note at 8.5% interest (floating rate, of course).
Nonetheless, the salesgirl was nice. She's just trying to make a buck selling a product that's a tough sell. So I was reasonably nice. I actually felt kind of sorry for her. The place was empty, and she looked beaten down.