- Texas Stadium was purposely destroyed so that the City of Irving had no choice but to blow it up. It remains a giant billboard hanger until its Sunday implosion.
I love blowing up a building as much as the next person, but the demolition of Texas Stadium in Irving this weekend just pisses me off.
Since buying the team, Jerry Jones spent little on upkeep of the property. By running the stadium into the ground, he forced the area to build him a new one. By the time the team left, Texas stadium was an eyesore.
When Arlington won the bidding war, after Dallas refused to hand over as much taxpayer money as he wanted, the destruction of the Irving property seemed to accelerate.
Irving originally had some wonderful plans for the property — extend the canal from Las Colinas, build apartments and offices and hotels in a park-like setting.
Now we learn that after the stadium is blown up, the property will be used to stage the expansion of Airport Freeway for the next seven years!
The Eyesore in Irving will give way to an even bigger blot.
Surely, the stadium could have been saved and plenty of uses for it could have been found. Yes, scheduling concerts and high school and college football games here would have cut into Jerry Jones’ and Arlington’s profits. Yes, it have cost some money to renovate the property that the Tarrant County Cowboys’ owner destroyed. But blowing it up costs money too. (And yes, I believe that if the team isn’t in Dallas County or the City of Dallas, they should pay us royalties on the use of “Dallas.”)
Although maybe the interior destruction of the facility’s infrastructure was even more significant than the exterior’s deterioration. If that’s the case, a nice big bill should have been sent to Jones.
Am I really getting sentimental about Texas Stadium? No. I just dislike this sort of unnecessary waste. But most people in the area do have their memories of it.
My best memory of Texas Stadium? We filmed the Season 1 finale of “Friday Night Lights” here because the Alamodome (much closer to “home-base” Austin, where most of the series is filmed) was not available. And shameless plug: Season 4 begins airing on NBC on May 7. Filming for season 5 gets underway in Austin this month.
The Arlington Cowboys have left their mark on the face of this city. Numerous drug busts, high-profile arrests back in the 1980’s and a scar on the city of Irving. Arlington may live to regret the deal they made with Jones. Numerous studies show that the money spent on these glitzy sports stadiums is rarely recovered. The economic impact of them is highly inflated.
Meanwhile, from folks I know who have actually been to a game, it cost them an arm and a leg and they felt like they were watching the game on TV. Furthermore, I suspect the Cotton Bowl Classic will never be as much fun as it used to be in the real Cotton Bowl. Go figure?
Well said David! It’s a shame they did not renovate the facility for other use or try to keep the team in Dallas. Who knows, maybe Jones will move them to Connecticut. The Hartford Cowboys….interesting!
Not to defend Jerry Jones, but isn’t Craft paying for part of the implosion? I thought it was going to be one big promotion for Macaroni & Cheese (W..T..F…).
I do not have any memories of Texas Stadium, but it’s worth mentioning that much of the economic impact from big games played in Arlington will benefit Dallas directly. And next time we need to film inside a football stadium, Dallas has one of the most beautiful and historic stadiums in the state inside Fair Park, which is becoming quite the shooting location these days.
Arlington is now the largest metropolitan area in the nation without any public transportation. But who needs bus and rail when you have the world’s biggest TV screen?
I attended the first event ever held at the stadium. It was a Billy Graham revival, and featured Johnny Cash and June Carter as the entertainment. Everyone marveled at the hole in the roof design.
I hate to see these buildings come down! It’s always sad to me. But, this stadium was considered one of, if not the worst in the nation. Maybe I’m in the minority but I believed the City of Dallas made a mistake by not giving in and building the stadium in Dallas! It seems as though Arlington is benefitting greatly from all this! And, the impact that next year’s Super Bowl will have on Arlington, as well as all of DFW will be HUGE! What responsibility did the City of Irving have on the upkeep of Texas Stadum?
I actually think the new Arlington stadium is an eyesore. My heart hurts every time I look at it. It is a like a giant weight bearing heavily down on Mother Earth and it just does not belong in the area it is placed in – the energy doesn’t flow to me – poor Feng shui. It looks like a giant spaceship and I hope it flies back into space…
Hey Renee, I guess my personal feng shui must be off because I like the new stadium. Particularly at night. But I am probably in the minority. A friend of mine calls it a giant pimple on the face of Arlington. It does kind of look like a big space ship, but I like that look I guess.
The city of Dallas gets the publicity of having an NFL team but doesn’t pay any of the costs. Instead, the ‘burbs get stuck with the bill for stadiums, roadways, law enforcement, etc. I can live with that. Let Jerry Jones screw Arlington.