It’s not easy to find things Dallas did right in preparing for the Super Bowl.
An ESPN commentator said he didn’t think it was possible to find a worse host city than Jacksonville, but they did.
And the Australian press wrote scathing commentary about Dallas asking, “How’s a married man on a ‘business trip’ to the Super Bowl supposed to flaunt his trophy girlfriend — be she rented or otherwise — when she’s being forced to wear so many clothes?”
Today we learn that Jerry Jones sold 3,500 tickets for nonexistent seats, not the 1,200 as reported earlier. The NFL said they’re offering these fans tickets to next year’s game, although not the airfare to get there or cost of extra hotel nights.
Stupid things were planned like a series of outdoor concerts in February, including one that pandered to the lowest stereotypes and was marketed unsuccessfully to the LGBT community. Seriously. Has anyone ever gone to an outdoor concert in Dallas in February?
And who could have predicted that ice would fall off of a domed roof? TV news reports suggested that heat from inside the stadium might have caused snow on the roof to melt. Ya think?
However, the most successful Super Bowl-related party was put on by the Cedar Springs Merchants Association. They combined outdoor street party with plenty of indoor venues. Thousands attended.
Interesting that the NFL-Super Bowl host committee didn’t sanction the party and didn’t allow them to use the Super Bowl name. So congratulations to the CSMA for throwing the best Super Bowl party despite the Dallas host committee. The LGBT community is responsible for this, not Dallas or the host committee. We’re not accusing them of homophobia, just stupidity for not knowing that Cedar Springs is a Dallas asset.
But here’s one thing Dallas, or really Jerry Jones, did right: He never did name his stadium.
A front page story in the New York Times today complains about the name of the new Shea Stadium. The replacement is named after one of that city’s financial institutions that almost collapsed and received the largest federal bank bailout. And why is this suddenly an issue today? Because this week, the owners of the Mets are tied to making profits off of Bernie Madoff and are being sued for $1 billion.
Naming a stadium or venue can be tricky. In Houston, Enron Field has been renamed, but who can bother to keep up with all the new names? And if you don’t like the Astros, it’s much more delicious to call their park by the name of its original corporate criminal benefactor.
In Dallas, American Airlines Center stuck because it’s the only name the place ever had. Well, for a few weeks it was referred to as Victory Arena, but the AA name is all anyone’s ever really used.
However, in Fair Park, Starplex has been renamed so many times, most recently with a long, dopey dotcom name. I liked the year it was named after a brand of vodka. Seriously.
In Grand Prairie, their 6,000 seat arena-theater went from being named after a phone to a phone company. Or vice versa. One is the actual brand I have but the other is not my carrier. Either way, I don’t remember or care which one is the current name.
And the worst was the couple of years The Ballpark in Arlington was renamed Ameri-something field. It wasn’t Ameriprise, the mutual fund company, and it wasn’t American anything, but I can’t really remember the company that bought the naming rights. Funniest part of that story was when KRLD, which used to have its studio in The Ballpark, refused to give the company free advertising by using the name every time they did a station ID — and got evicted.
But Jerry and Company did it right. Some commentators referred to the stadium as The Death Star. But most simply called it Cowboy’s Stadium. It’s simple. It’s direct. It’s what it is.
It’s called Texas Stadium you dumbass. GOOOO COWBOYS!
dallas – that’s your comment after reading the entire story?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboys_Stadium#Naming_rights
Somebody is a douche.
Texas Stadium was the stadium in Irving that was torn down last year. Cowboys Stadium, pictured above, is in Arlington and that is the unofficially official name that is used until Jerry Jones gets someone to pay him a lot of money for naming rights. Citibank paid the Mets $20 million for naming rights for 20 years and the Cowboys are worth a hellova lot more than the Mets.
The point of the article is that the longer he waits, the less valuable naming rights get. Once a name is established, the stadium continues to be called by the original name. The only reason we call it American Airlines Arena is that’s the only name it’s ever had. No one seriously calls Starplex the Superpages Dot Com Center, especially after it’s had several other names.
I didn’t think the outdoor tent concert was a bad idea…I’ve been to several parties in the winter that included heated outdoor tents and they were just fine…actually they were quite comfy if done right….I do agree with you about the LGBT oriented concert…it was quite obvious that no one gay had anything to do with the performance selection…or if they were gay, they were an old gay who is not keeping up with what us younger LGBT’s are into…the Village People? It’s like trying to make an event targetting young black people and having Chubby Checker.
Tisha – what a stunning example of a blatantly ageist and completely disrespectful comment. My friends and I are all 50+, and trust me we had no interest in seeing the Village People either. You might be surprised that we actually DO know who Cazwell is also and had no interest in seeing that skinny poseur either. I would politely suggest you show a little respect of us “old gays”. We were marching down Cedar Springs by the hundreds fighting for gay rights long before you “kids” were throwing your little Twitter marches every 5 seconds like you did all last year, and calling about 15 people and one dude with a speaker a “huge rally”. Rudeness.
Yeah, Tish, I want respect from you! And TW – it was one of those old gays (by my friend Tish’s standards as well as everyone at the Voice who likes to introduce me as the oldest person at Dallas Voice) who wrote this in the first place.
I enjoyed seeing the Village People when they appeared at Gay Day at Six Flags … free … years ago. And when they were a campy added attraction to Razzle Dazzle … years ago. But as the main event … to pay … and sit out in a tent … even in a heated tent … in February … no.
And there were lots of great, big-name choices. Lady Gaga might not have been available, but she would have taken an invitation to Dallas very seriously. Chely Wright hasn’t performed here and she was so endearing at Black Tie Dinner that many of us who aren’t country fans would have flocked to see her … indoors. Lots of other better choices as well, I’m sure.
But CSMA did it right. Some popular local entertainment. Plenty of indoor space as well as closing the street. A fun party atmosphere. No charge. And no help from the host committee. And despite the snub from the host committee, they did a fantastic job of getting the word out so that they were receiving calls from celebs from around the country for information. Several local news orgs did their broadcasts from Cedar Springs that night rather than from one of the official Super Bowl events.
Thank you David for your wonderful support. A little bit warmer temps would have been nice, but we certainly do appreciate all of you who braved the frigid weather by coming out and showing Dallas (as well as our Super Bowl visitors) how Cedar Springs celebrates!! Chaz Marie rocked the street! We look forward to seeing everyone at our upcoming Art Festival (April23rd) and for the revival of Razzle Dazzle Dallas (June 4th). Cedar Springs Road will once again be closed for both of these huge events. And….we promise warmer weather! See you on The Strip…….
CSMA: Don’t feel like you need to make it too warm, especially for Razzle.