Putting a dome on the Cotton Bowl

[CShine]

No, seriously.........


Deep within a multimillion-dollar contract to renovate Dallas' Cotton Bowl is an easily overlooked item that may resurrect an otherwise defunct idea from last decade – doming the stadium. The $30,000 study would investigate options for covering the Cotton Bowl with a permanent roof or something semi-permanent, such as an inflatable, retractable or removable dome.

The Dallas City Council is scheduled to vote today on the contract, which taps Atlanta-based Heery International Inc. to coordinate the estimated $45.5 million in Cotton Bowl design and construction work. The vote was scheduled to come the day after Dallasites were expected to approve $30 million in Cotton Bowl renovation bond funding to augment millions of dollars that the city and State Fair of Texas already have fronted.

These funds will provide a bevy of new amenities for the 76-year-old facility – seats, scoreboard, bathrooms, concession areas and locker rooms, among others – and increase its capacity to more than 92,000 fans. It does not, however, allocate funds for doming the stadium.

City leaders fear that without some way to keep out wind and cold, the Cotton Bowl will lose its namesake AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic college football game to the Dallas Cowboys' domed stadium in Arlington, which is scheduled to open in three years. For the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic to ever join college football's top-flight Bowl Championship Series, some game advocates believe the game must be played indoors.

"We have to make the stadium competitive. We need to move on this doming idea as fast as possible," said Dallas City Council member Leo Chaney, whose District 7 includes the Cotton Bowl.



http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/colleges/cottonbowl/stories/110806dnmetcottonbowl.31bc373.html

[Fraggle145]

Retracting wouldnt be bad... so long as it was open for OU/TX

[mrowl]

never happen folks. move along....

[Flagstaffsooner]

I'd hate to think of the smell if you put a lid on that thing.

[AlabamaSooner]

Anything to keep the Red River Shootout there, I'm for it.

[westcoast_sooner]

Maybe they could move the roof with the hole in it over from Texas Stadium after Jerry moves his boys to their new palace, and God can watch his REAL team - the Sooners!!!

[DrZaius]

The doming would suck as bad as the domers but the other renovations would be great!

[MamaMia]

Wouldn't putting a dome on the Cotton Bowl stadium be the equivalent of putting a glass case around an osu football that was autographed by XLK? :P

[RedStripe]

Dallas will rue the day they let the cowboys move to Arlington and not redue the Cotton Bowl. Idiots, fo real.

[Crimson and Orange]

I'd hate to think of the smell if you put a lid on that thing.

Much spek.....if I had any to give.

Dallas had the most golden of all opportunities a year or two ago when they dismissed the idea of building a new retractable roof 90K seat stadium, all because they couldn't stand the idea of subsidizing Jerry Jones. They would have had 8 Cowboy games a year, OU-UT, high school playoffs, a couple of other college games (maybe even Tech-A&M), the Cotton Bowl itself - perhaps moving it up to BCS-status -- and also be in the mix for periodic big games like the Big XII Championship, All-Star games, Super Bowl, etc.

Morons.

[auto]

Much spek.....if I had any to give.

Dallas had the most golden of all opportunities a year or two ago when they dismissed the idea of building a new retractable roof 90K seat stadium, all because they couldn't stand the idea of subsidizing Jerry Jones. They would have had 8 Cowboy games a year, OU-UT, high school playoffs, a couple of other college games (maybe even Tech-A&M), the Cotton Bowl itself - perhaps moving it up to BCS-status -- and also be in the mix for periodic big games like the Big XII Championship, All-Star games, Super Bowl, etc.

Morons.


Good for Dallas. As a resident and frequent viewer of Jerry out in the hood, I could give two shiaaats less about taxpayer funding one cent of a billionaires stadium. Let that shiaaaathole Arlington have the resident No Fun League Franchise. As for doming, my God, grow a sack and endure the elements.

[BudSooner]

Fix what needs fixed and leave the dome out, this ain't gonna be the deal breaker if it doesn't happen.
Increase the seating, fix the damned plumbing/add more crappers would all be moves in the right direction, this is just lipstick on a pig if you ask me.

Just my .02

[jwlynn64]

The correct fix would be to build a new stadium in the fair park and demolish the old one. Seems like it would cost as much to fix the old one as it would to build a new one.

[DenverSooner751]

Good for Dallas. As a resident and frequent viewer of Jerry out in the hood, I could give two shiaaats less about taxpayer funding one cent of a billionaires stadium. Let that shiaaaathole Arlington have the resident No Fun League Franchise. As for doming, my God, grow a sack and endure the elements.

I can speak from exp on this. Being a Denver area resident, we have paid for the Denver Bronco's stadium "Invesco Field at Mile high."

The old "Mile High Stadium" was owned by the city and county of Denver. So the revenue share from events and parking went to the city and county and thus they went to things like parks and rec, etc.

Now, Invesco paid I don't remember how many millions of dollars for the naming rights but the $400+ million was paid for by us, the humble citizens of Denver. Not only did we have to pay for it, but now the parking and other revenues go straight to Pat Bowlen's (the Bronco's owner if you aren't in the know) pocket. Parking at the old stadium was $10, now it is $30. Seems a little out of wack to me.

.10 percent of every dollar you spend in this city (at least at any business) goes to the stadium fund. If you ask me.....ridiculous.
I don't blame the people of the city of Dallas for voting down such a hideous proposal. It would not be as big of a deal if the revenue share still existed. It may, but to my nollege it does not.

I would say the best thing for Dallas to do would be to tear down the terd shed Cotton bowl and just build a new one on the fair grounds. If there is enough land that is.

[King Crimson]

yup, Bolen fleeced the city and people of Denver with the less than ambiguous threat to move the club.

[soonersam]

if you want me to crap in a box and mark it gauranteed. I can, I have some free time.....

[GrapevineSooner]

Actually, the citizens of Dallas never had a chance to vote on the proposal.

I'm not a big fan of the public financing these playgrounds for owners. Lord knows if Jerry wanted to foot the full bill for the construction of his stadium, he could.

But that's for another discussion.

Point is, I find it baffling that this city couldn't get it's act together enough to lure the Cowboys back into the boundaries of Dallas, but now, they want to do whatever it takes to ensure OU-Texas doesn't travel 15 miles to the west to Arlington.

Too little too late if you ask me. And as decrepit(sp?) as the Cotton Bowl is, they'd better off letting the current stadium stand as is until the OU-Texas and Cotton Bowl game contracts run out. After those games leave town, blow it up to make more room for some rides in the Midway.

Or turn it into a play park or somesuch.

[mrowl]

FYI. The citizens of Arlington will pay $325M, of what they thought would be a $650M stadium.

Now, it is a $1.0B stadium. Much better, bigger and nicer than the original plans. Not a bad investment for something that the city of Arlington will have paid off early. (they paid all the debt for the Ballpark several years early)

The city of Arlington will end up with a million sq. feet of new retail, a few new hotels, I-30 is getting new work now, a super bowl (maybe more), a final four, the Cotton Bowl, the Arena football team, and hundreds of conventions.

[jwlynn64]

My personnal opinion is that Stadiums and sports franchises are part of what makes a good city. I understand that people don't want to shell out money to a billionaire to get a team into their city. Unfortunately, that is the current cost of being a large city and having the things that big cities should have.

Like Ron Kirk or not, he saw fit to ensure that Dallas had the Mavericks and the Stars. Laura Miller missed out on a perfect opportunity to get the Cowboys back into the city of Dallas.

I remember growing up in Oklahoma and coming down to Six Flags with my family. We never stayed or went into the city of Dallas. We stayed in Arlington and did all our shopping and eating in that city.

No guts, no glory Dallas.

[StoopTroup]

They've been talking about making it "The Cotton Dome" for years.

I did a seach on this topic as I'm sure we've discussed this before but I bet it was on the old board.

They need to do something before the event is gone forever.

It's not like they don't have the money.

They just can't decide how to go about doing it.

[MamaMia]

The citizens of Dallas should have paid to do a little here and there each year to that stadium, just like schools keep up their stadiums, and it would not have all caught up with them at once.

[goingoneight]

I'd hate to think of the smell if you put a lid on that thing.

Yeah, really. Cuz it is half-way filled with Texas fans... :D

[AlbqSooner]

If they put a dome on it the winds won't be so tricky.

[DenverSooner751]

FYI. The citizens of Arlington will pay $325M, of what they thought would be a $650M stadium.

Now, it is a $1.0B stadium. Much better, bigger and nicer than the original plans. Not a bad investment for something that the city of Arlington will have paid off early. (they paid all the debt for the Ballpark several years early)

The city of Arlington will end up with a million sq. feet of new retail, a few new hotels, I-30 is getting new work now, a super bowl (maybe more), a final four, the Cotton Bowl, the Arena football team, and hundreds of conventions.


Good to know! I was not aware that the people of Arlington are paying out for this.

Still though.......one third of the price of the stadium is a minor price to pay to bring the jobs and revenue into the city.

This is much different than the situation in Denver. We paid the whole bill, and get CRAP back for it. Good thing I'm not a Bronco's fan. That poop product they have been putting on the field ever since they built that stadium is a joke.

On the cotton bowl topic. Who really give a ****. It's got historical value and all, but oh well.