Eric the Red
Team HuskerBoard
Dump of a Stadium Awaits Husker Fans
BY LEE BARFKNECHT
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
The Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas looks much the same as when Texas lost to Oklahoma 45-0 during the 1956 regular season.
The Cotton Bowl stadium - where the University of Nebraska will play football Monday against Auburn University - is big at 76,000 seats, but it wins no honors for fan-friendly amenities.
The art deco structure, built in 1930 on the state fairgrounds just east of downtown Dallas, was cited in 2003 for 10 "identified deficiencies" in a Fair Park Corp. Development plan.
Among the criticisms:
Undersize concourses that cause gridlock; restroom numbers significantly below standards; inadequate concession areas, sound system and scoreboard; and seats installed in 1968 that are "at the end of their useful life."
Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Sherrington, in 2005, summed up the place this way:
"The Cotton Bowl is a dump. A decaying canyon of concrete, it doesn't need bricks and mortar as much as a couple of mortar shells.
"Concourses are too narrow, stench too wide. Can't hardly swing a dead rat without hitting a woman waiting in a restroom line. And before you get up from your seat, you've first got to get your knees surgically removed from the guy in front of you."
Fans of the Cotton Bowl were heartened last month when Dallas voters approved a $30 million bond issue for stadium improvements, including expansion to 92,000 seats. The State Fair is going to chip in an additional $20 million.
Fans attending next week's Cotton Bowl will be disappointed to learn that no creature-comfort improvements will begin until spring 2007.
The most noticeable upgrade since the Fair Park report three years ago is a new video replay board.
Kevin Lippman is a Dallas attorney and the president of that city's University of Texas Exes alumni group. Since 1990, he has regularly attended the Texas-Oklahoma game, played annually at the Cotton Bowl, and he occasionally has gone to the Cotton Bowl game.
Asked to give Husker fans, who haven't been to the Cotton Bowl in 27 years, a scouting report on the game-day experience, Lippman said:
"Given today's luxury-style stadiums, you've just got to put that out of your mind. You're not going to have that experience at the Cotton Bowl. It's not a comfortable place."
Still, if football is your passion, the Cotton Bowl offers some rewards.
"To me, it's the old traditional football stadium," Lippman said. "It's for watching the game.
"The sight lines are good throughout the stadium. And the seats are relatively close to the field. That helps generate a lot of excitement in the stadium."
Cotton Bowl President Rick Baker said he was pleased that Dallas voters approved the stadium improvement bond issue.
Yet the promise of $50 million in upgrades doesn't mean that the Cotton Bowl game will continue to be played at the Cotton Bowl stadium.
Baker said his bowl is involved in a yearlong strategic planning study. A third party was hired to interview more than 100 of what Baker described as "influential people in the college football industry."
Among the review issues is whether the Cotton Bowl game stays at Fair Park - a stark and empty place on Jan. 1 - or moves to the suburb of Arlington into the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, scheduled for completion in 2009.
Said Baker: "That's the key issue for us in terms of our future."
Stephen Jones, son of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the team's chief operating officer, is on the Cotton Bowl board of directors. Baker said Cotton Bowl representatives have met with the Cowboys, as well as with Dallas city leaders.
"When you are playing in your namesake stadium and you've played in it for 70 years, we don't take that lightly," Baker said. "People have told us that because the new place will be shiny and NFL quality, that it's a no-brainer to move to Arlington."
Yet if the Cotton Bowl had wanted an NFL-quality stadium with suites, Baker said, the bowl could have moved to Texas Stadium - the Cowboys' current home - 20 years ago.
"So we want to make sure we're doing all the right things for all the right reasons," he said. "And we're going to take our time."
Dallas bought a little more time with Texas and Oklahoma when, in May, those two schools agreed to keep playing their series at the Cotton Bowl through 2010.
Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and Oklahoma A.D. Joe Castiglione declined to comment on the stadium's condition and the home of their series beyond 2010.
The issue has become so "hot and political" that public comment has proven counterproductive, said a school official. Neither school wants to appear to be holding Dallas taxpayers hostage to vote for improvements, insiders say, when neither can guarantee that stadium renovation will keep the game in Dallas.
The Texas-Oklahoma game, held at the same time that a quarter-million people are attending the Texas State Fair, can be a breathtaking experience. Ferris wheels, corny dog stands and live music performances are literally just 50 steps away from the Cotton Bowl entrance.
Last year, two Oklahoma student government bodies pushed a resolution calling for OU students to band with Texas students to try to keep the game at the Cotton Bowl.
Despite the stadium's "shabby conditions and lack of seating," the resolution said, "it would be a tragedy for the two schools to lose the experience of OU/Texas at the Cotton Bowl."
Lippman, the Dallas attorney, said his Texas alumni group is working toward a similar goal.
"The vast majority of Texas Exes we talk to," he said, "want it to stay at the Cotton Bowl."
Would Texas and Oklahoma consider moving their game to the Cowboys' new stadium?
"From what we've heard from DeLoss Dodds, they would not take Texas-OU to Arlington," Lippman said. "It looks like it would either stay at the Cotton Bowl or go home and home."
BY LEE BARFKNECHT
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
The Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas looks much the same as when Texas lost to Oklahoma 45-0 during the 1956 regular season.
The Cotton Bowl stadium - where the University of Nebraska will play football Monday against Auburn University - is big at 76,000 seats, but it wins no honors for fan-friendly amenities.
The art deco structure, built in 1930 on the state fairgrounds just east of downtown Dallas, was cited in 2003 for 10 "identified deficiencies" in a Fair Park Corp. Development plan.
Among the criticisms:
Undersize concourses that cause gridlock; restroom numbers significantly below standards; inadequate concession areas, sound system and scoreboard; and seats installed in 1968 that are "at the end of their useful life."
Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Sherrington, in 2005, summed up the place this way:
"The Cotton Bowl is a dump. A decaying canyon of concrete, it doesn't need bricks and mortar as much as a couple of mortar shells.
"Concourses are too narrow, stench too wide. Can't hardly swing a dead rat without hitting a woman waiting in a restroom line. And before you get up from your seat, you've first got to get your knees surgically removed from the guy in front of you."
Fans of the Cotton Bowl were heartened last month when Dallas voters approved a $30 million bond issue for stadium improvements, including expansion to 92,000 seats. The State Fair is going to chip in an additional $20 million.
Fans attending next week's Cotton Bowl will be disappointed to learn that no creature-comfort improvements will begin until spring 2007.
The most noticeable upgrade since the Fair Park report three years ago is a new video replay board.
Kevin Lippman is a Dallas attorney and the president of that city's University of Texas Exes alumni group. Since 1990, he has regularly attended the Texas-Oklahoma game, played annually at the Cotton Bowl, and he occasionally has gone to the Cotton Bowl game.
Asked to give Husker fans, who haven't been to the Cotton Bowl in 27 years, a scouting report on the game-day experience, Lippman said:
"Given today's luxury-style stadiums, you've just got to put that out of your mind. You're not going to have that experience at the Cotton Bowl. It's not a comfortable place."
Still, if football is your passion, the Cotton Bowl offers some rewards.
"To me, it's the old traditional football stadium," Lippman said. "It's for watching the game.
"The sight lines are good throughout the stadium. And the seats are relatively close to the field. That helps generate a lot of excitement in the stadium."
Cotton Bowl President Rick Baker said he was pleased that Dallas voters approved the stadium improvement bond issue.
Yet the promise of $50 million in upgrades doesn't mean that the Cotton Bowl game will continue to be played at the Cotton Bowl stadium.
Baker said his bowl is involved in a yearlong strategic planning study. A third party was hired to interview more than 100 of what Baker described as "influential people in the college football industry."
Among the review issues is whether the Cotton Bowl game stays at Fair Park - a stark and empty place on Jan. 1 - or moves to the suburb of Arlington into the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, scheduled for completion in 2009.
Said Baker: "That's the key issue for us in terms of our future."
Stephen Jones, son of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the team's chief operating officer, is on the Cotton Bowl board of directors. Baker said Cotton Bowl representatives have met with the Cowboys, as well as with Dallas city leaders.
"When you are playing in your namesake stadium and you've played in it for 70 years, we don't take that lightly," Baker said. "People have told us that because the new place will be shiny and NFL quality, that it's a no-brainer to move to Arlington."
Yet if the Cotton Bowl had wanted an NFL-quality stadium with suites, Baker said, the bowl could have moved to Texas Stadium - the Cowboys' current home - 20 years ago.
"So we want to make sure we're doing all the right things for all the right reasons," he said. "And we're going to take our time."
Dallas bought a little more time with Texas and Oklahoma when, in May, those two schools agreed to keep playing their series at the Cotton Bowl through 2010.
Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and Oklahoma A.D. Joe Castiglione declined to comment on the stadium's condition and the home of their series beyond 2010.
The issue has become so "hot and political" that public comment has proven counterproductive, said a school official. Neither school wants to appear to be holding Dallas taxpayers hostage to vote for improvements, insiders say, when neither can guarantee that stadium renovation will keep the game in Dallas.
The Texas-Oklahoma game, held at the same time that a quarter-million people are attending the Texas State Fair, can be a breathtaking experience. Ferris wheels, corny dog stands and live music performances are literally just 50 steps away from the Cotton Bowl entrance.
Last year, two Oklahoma student government bodies pushed a resolution calling for OU students to band with Texas students to try to keep the game at the Cotton Bowl.
Despite the stadium's "shabby conditions and lack of seating," the resolution said, "it would be a tragedy for the two schools to lose the experience of OU/Texas at the Cotton Bowl."
Lippman, the Dallas attorney, said his Texas alumni group is working toward a similar goal.
"The vast majority of Texas Exes we talk to," he said, "want it to stay at the Cotton Bowl."
Would Texas and Oklahoma consider moving their game to the Cowboys' new stadium?
"From what we've heard from DeLoss Dodds, they would not take Texas-OU to Arlington," Lippman said. "It looks like it would either stay at the Cotton Bowl or go home and home."
