History of AT&T Stadium

Walking into AT&T Stadium is an experience unlike any other. If you come for a game on Sunday or Monday night the stadium’s daytime Blue walls and Grey roof flip colors to light up the night with the “AT&T Stadium” logo painted in the sky. You didn’t have to watch Rob Riggle during the Cowboys’ Divisional Playoff pre-game show to understand that this is Jerry’s World and we’re just living in it. Jerry Jones’ know-how and successful business background drove the building of the stadium forward from its conception to grand opening. This stadium is an incredibly complex modern day miracle of architecture and we have many stories along the way. The stadium itself visually astounding but all the work and strategizing that had gone into it is genuinely interesting. As the once popular phrase still goes “everything is bigger in Texas.” In our case, the story is bigger than the masterpiece.

People in Texas mean business and they like to be forward with one another about how they intend to get it done. In researching this topic I came across an amazing document that chronicled the building of the stadium called “Cowboys Stadium Scoreboard Vol. 5. Issue 1.”[1] In today’s day and age when the privacy of serious matters is significant and heightened Jerry’s openness, trust, and commitment to the project shine through. It was a difficult road but Jerry accomplished his dream all thanks to a retired Doctor who wanted to “bring something big to Arlington.”

Dr. Robert Cluck is the retired Doctor who became an Arlington City Council member after a motorcycle accident ended his medical career. He noticed that Arlington had become “stagnant” without “new economic activity” and wanted to “bring something big to Arlington.”[2] Make no mistake; his eyes were set on Jerry Jones, who for the last five years “had spent at least part of each day dreaming about and planning a new stadium befitting the stature of the most popular franchise in the NFL.” In Jerry’s own words, “I knew from studying other NFL cities that have built new stadiums the number one common trait was for the team to align with great political leadership.” This was not just a guideline for Jerry but the foundation of a philosophy that served him in making his dreams a reality. In this instance he used his power to set up political leadership that suited his interest behind closed doors. It’s after the success of the project that we hear about his preliminary conversations with ambitious City Councilman Cluck. In the periodical a picture of “Mayor Cluck” supposedly answering what was in reality Jerry Jones’ blocked Caller ID shows a sad and contemplative yet stern and discerning City Councilman hearing from the Owner of the Cowboys regarding AT&T Stadium “there would be interest” “down the road.” Cluck was was relying on the project to boost his fledgling political career. He told Jerry, “I’m a City Councilman. I have to make a decision pretty soon, if I’m going to go ahead and run for mayor. Part of it depends upon if I have an opportunity to bring something big to Arlington.”[3] The language of Dr. Cluck again stuck and the project eventually worked out with two men who were a match made in heave with a shared and distinct vision.

After the funding happened (which will be explored after the entire building display is explicated) the building was underway. Deputy City Manager Trey Yelverton was the middleman who worked with the Cowboys and the City of Arlington to meet their needs and keep the City Council informed. He described to project as “a shot of adrenalin for the City staff, like a swift kick in the pants.” [4] This is an understatement when you consider the stories of all the workers and visitors of the stadium. It’s a quote that works better in describing the strife of the process than the production. Even after the building was complete in December 2009 two workers went onto the roof in near-freezing temperatures and wind without attaching their safety harnesses to the roof.[5] The difference between life and death for both workers lay in the fact that they fell flat instead of tumbled and as a result they never picked up enough pace to fly past the gutter on the roof of the stadium. AT&T’s gutters are hardly safety measures; you can tell just by looking at the stadium’s roof from many angles they’re hardly visible and are proportionally comparable to a normal house’s gutters.[6] In another incident during the Super Bowl in 201 bowling ball-sized ice chunks injured Win McNamee, a veteran photographer for Getty Images.[7] “Huge sheets of ice and snow atop the stadium could be seen sliding off the dome and crashing 200 feet to the ground as temperatures warmed and the sun reappeared.” In McNamee’s words “I covered a war, I covered the stuff in Haiti last year. You always figure if something is going to happen, it would be in one of those places – not at a football game.” “Honestly, while it was hitting me, I was thinking I’m going to die here.” Win fractured his left shoulder in four places and required surgery. That the gutters have been shown to be unsafe but no remolding has taken place shows the strictness of the vision Jerry Jones has and the disregard for safety that was even greater during the building of AT&T Stadium. Still, the actual construction was even more dangerous.

NFL.com documents the death of an electrician who was performing an electrical test at AT&T Stadium during the peak of the construction phase in June 2008. The man, Timothy Mackinnon, was described as a “journeyman electrician,” touched a high voltage line and became wedged between his ladder and the stadium wall. This sounds like something that could’ve been prevented with proper safety gloves yet the cause of the accident “remained unknown.” This incident came two days after a crane accident sent three workers to the hospital. Then, two months later in August a crane hit a worker in the back and in 2007 a worker fell 20 feet through hole between stadium levels.[8] The injured all recovered over time. The death occurred around the peak of construction in in May 2008 when AT&T Stadium had 1,700 workers from 110 companies plugging away every day. In June, 123,633 square feet of concrete were poured for the parking lots.[9] These numbers are just a hint at the complexity of the project. We can now look at the construction in detail not to rationalize the injury and loss of life but to explain the factors our Owner Jerry Jones insisted on for the stadium.

Jack Hill, General Manager of Operations and Stadium Construction said, “we had a budget and a schedule and a retractable roof, and retractable doors, and all that glass, and the video screen. We felt pressure every day.” City of Arlington Project Coordinator Steve Quirk said, “We didn’t want any hiccups. Issues had to be solved right away, because we were on a mission to get done on time. We talked openly and honestly and we lived and breathed it for three years.”[10] Jerry Jones said, “The history and tradition of Texas Stadium was the biggest single influencer in the design of our new stadium. From the signature shape of the roof and its opening above the field to the Ring of Honor we wanted to maintain many of the signature elements that made Texas Stadium the cultural icon it is today.”[11] The irony of Jerry’s statement is that AT&T Stadium required so many workers (several of whom we have shown to be inexperienced or careless) because they wanted to leave Texas Stadium quickly for one that was more profitable and had a larger capacity. As the project became more and more expensive the urge to finish it during the economic downturn became more and more pressing. Despite ultimately being thankful for the cheaper price of building during a time when materials were worth less, Jones acknowledged the unexpected risk of his investment in a harsh economic climate.[12] And despite his praise of Texas Stadium, much of what Jerry Jones says should be taken with a grain of salt and can often even be read as duplicitous. If Texas Stadium’s signature “strange top” said to be “so God can watch his team play” it’s just a result of financial and structural problems for a piece of architecture that needs to fit a strict budget.[13] For a team who’s recent success is based off a miserable year marred by an injury to their franchise quarterback backed up by key draft picks Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott; AT&T Stadium appears to be architectural icon that is a direct expression of modern capitalist urges and the extravagance of a fun-loving owner flying by the seat of his pants.

To appreciate the aesthetic and the substance of the stadium we need to begin with Jerry’s words. “We spent a great deal of time studying the architecture of buildings across the country as well as Europe, Asia, and Australia. And we didn’t just focus on stadiums; we studied hotels, office towers, museums, and other public buildings as well. You have to look at both the vast design elements like the arch at Wembley Stadium while not forgetting to appreciate the details, like the subtle difference in the shade of the color of glass at the Nice Airport.”[14]

There was a great deal of care that went into keeping the dust, noise, and traffic down. Fifty water trucks per day were used to control dust. The dimensions ended up massive: “300 feet high, a quarter mile in length, with a 2.3 million square-foot floor, the world’s largest floor space under one roof.” [15] Retractable roof panels and doors at each end zone 30-feet wide and 120-feet tall moving on railroad tracks. The entire building was encased in glass and used 22,000 tons of steel, 2,000 concrete columns 10 stories high as well as 225,000 cubic yards of concrete, and half a million square feet of glass and stone. The hardest part was building the steel arches. Two 3,255 ton, 1,225 foot long arches had to be in place in order to support the retractable roof and giant video screen. To give an idea of how large the arches are the St. Louis Arch is 630 feet long.[16] The dimensions and scale show AT&T Stadium to be a modern architectural miracle. The retractable roof is as big as 12 football fields at 660,800 square feet and the scoreboard is the world’s largest HDTV at 1.2 million pounds, 160 feet long, and 72 feet tall.[17]

Jerry’s defining explanation for AT&T Stadium employed an analogy I’m very familiar with “I grew up watching Walt Disney bring Mickey Mouse to life and when he built Disneyland in California, nobody had to ask what it was, or where. I wanted that for the Cowboys, something that even transcends football, a level of unparalleled visibility. I mean, the video board alone cost more than the entire construction of Texas Stadium.” “Anybody that’s got any Cowboy on ‘em at all, or has ever had it on, I want them to walk in here and say that’s my Dallas Cowboys. That’s what this is all about.”[18] City Project Coordinator Steve Quick summed up the emotions of finishing the project: “when it was done, I felt like I could do anything. Now the limelight is back on Arlington.” Mayor Cluck closed their conference saying, “We are extremely proud of the citizens of Arlington for helping us build this magnificent stadium. Without their support, this building would not have been possible.” In my opinion a “Thank you!” would’ve been in order but politicians and NFL owners don’t like being questioned and rarely are humble enough to admit to themselves that their business ventures mainly serve their own interests.

As we will see, Arlington and its citizens came to build AT&T Stadium as a result of a special set of circumstances. Building on the idea that AT&T Stadium is a modern architectural miracle, a Dallas News article from April 2010 depicts the negotiations between Jerry Jones and the former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, his second-best option.[19] Jerry characterized their interaction as cordial and familiar but lacked seriousness when he claimed she had patted him on the knee when telling him to go elsewhere. She denied those claims. Craig Holcomb, executive director of Friends of Fair Park, where they intended to build, characterized Jones as a teenager who “really wanted to dance, but [wasn’t] willing to take the risk to walk across the gymnasium floor.” The truth is that Jerry is a shrewd businessman who is only completely honest about his intentions when pressed or when he gets what he wants. Things were coming together in both Arlington and Dallas in 2004 when Jerry was told one site would have cost tens of millions of dollars for environmental cleanup and the Fair Park site wasn’t a large enough “footprint.” Still, when asked in front of 700 people at the SMU Athletic Forum to describe the main deal breaker Jones mentioned Laura Miller’s knee pat and described the project as only a “$600 million project at the time, not $1.2 billion.” What is to Jerry Jones a mutual missed opportunity is in reality a complex power struggle between cities that are offering what is available to them. It was actually Jerry doing the knee patting, not Mayor Miller, but Jerry feels justified in describing it in such a way because it turned out to be a success in his eyes. Another factor that posed difficulties for Dallas was the ballot measure had to be on the ballot by November. The process wouldn’t have been as smooth in Dallas as it turned out to be in Arlington. What this article shows is that Jerry Jones wants mutual respect of those that he deals with but that he has an inflated ego and sees conflicts as essentially between two people rather than as human beings in the world. Jerry’s obsession with the image of the Cowboys transcending football in unprecedented visibility colors his relationships with others and how he sees the world.

When it came time to make the deal ahead of the November vote Mayor Cluck stressed the importance of setting a cap on their investment at $325 million. “Without a cap, we would have had limitless exposure. I couldn’t have supported bringing the Cowboys to town, and the voters would have rejected it.” From these words and others it should be assumed that Mayor Cluck and the City of Arlington knew that the $650 million number was a Jerry Jones lowball.[20] Limitless exposure in this case would’ve meant almost double the amount they “locked in” in 30-year bonds. After digging into Arlington’s economy post-AT&T Stadium looking for evidence of the benefit of the stadium I discovered their $641 million 30-year debt.[21] This was mentioned in an article in 2016 praising the City of Arlington for being on schedule to pay it off by 2024 saving $97.5 million and making it cheaper to borrow money for future projects. The Arlington voters in 2004 were given the $325 million number and in August the polls showed 65% of citizens would vote “No.”[22] Nowhere in the official Arlington.gov periodical is the actual debt or the amount of taxes mentioned. They mention a “majority” of the tax being for hotels or rental cars but that’s just a nice way of saying the tax percentage is much higher for those specific interests. The numbers of 5% car rental tax, 2% hotel tax, and .5% sales tax[23] are meant to gouge visitors instead of the people of Arlington. It taxes exactly those out-of-towners who want to come watch the Cowboys play. Even the Texas Rangers fans that come and stay in a hotel will be paying for AT&T Stadium. This is related to one of the two major factors that swung the vote from “No” to “Yes.” It took just 11 years for Arlington to pay off the debt for the Ballpark in Arlington and free up the .5% sales tax to be implemented for AT&T and giving the voters confidence that their city could surpass economic expectations. The other factor was Jones convincing Arlington that AT&T would be the site of Super Bowls, Final Fours, NBA All-Star Games, concerts, and national political conventions.[24] So far Jones has delivered on all accounts except a national political convention. His Dallas Cowboys have put forth $525 million for the stadium along with the NFL’s $150 million dollar investment. Arlington’s $325 million investment is actually worth $641 million over thirty years which is how the final cost is somewhere in the ballpark of $1.2 billion.[25]

Jerry Jones is known around the league as one of the most fun-loving and relaxed owners. He has a style and swagger that follows him around because he stays so true to his vision for the Cowboys. Unfortunately lately this hasn’t lead to any Super Bowls but instead enormous popularity and this is the real reason for the success of the stadium. Attendance has grown from 506,000 a year to 718,085 while average attendance is beating projections by 16,000 per game.[26] In a year of “sagging” league-wide attendance the Cowboys have seen great growth. Following in Jerry’s vision the Cowboys can be seen as a Disneyland version of an NFL team. Their iconic players have been assembled over one season as a result of a terrible year and were given an opportunity because of injury. The Mayor behind AT&T in Arlington was never supposed to be in politics in the first place. I’m sure that if Jerry Jones were addressed with all the things that had to go in his way for this modern architectural miracle he would simplify it to smoothness and cooperation. For all Jerry has done, how he talks about the things that happened with the stadium is supposed to help us understand it but instead confuses critical readers. Jerry’s words can be best explained by a philosopher who pondered the significance of Walt Disney and his impact on culture and on people.

Theodor Adorno’s critique of capitalism identifies cultural output as a “therapeutic tool to deliver consolation, insight, and social transformation” and “Walt Disney as the most dangerous man in America.”[27] For Adorno, the news is there to feed us with nonsense and scramble any possibility of understanding our own subjugation. Jerry unsurprisingly avoids commenting on the negative things that have happened at AT&T Stadium and extends his personal experiences to comprise his entire understanding. It may be destiny that a quarterback who has embraced his leadership role by “being comfortable having issues with teammates and resolving them and moving forward in a positive way” led to the defeat of his latest achievement.[28]

It didn’t take much research on the topic to find Jerry Jones saying something in one place and a completely different thing in another. After the stadium was built the Cowboys settled a suit with Danny Amendola’s father without commenting on their pylon-rigged runaway golf cart.[29] A man who fractured his skull during the icefall at the Super Bowl has a ringing in his ears that will never go away but the Cowboys refuse to comment on that situation either.[30] “The founder of Memphis Egypt was Ephaphus, the mocking son of Zeus. Glasgow was founded by the miracle-performing, robin-resuscitating Saint Mungo. The self-immolating Dido founded Carthage. The Holy and Right-Believing King Vakhtang the Wolf-Head established Tbilisi after his falcon chased a pheasant through the woods and into a boiling spring.”[31] These myths relating to the construction of cities represent the universal idea of a creator at the heart of architectural development.

Jerry’s steadfast belief in the image of the Cowboys and his mission to provide his fans with the vision of being in a type of Cowboy Mecca fall in line with the annals of history. As Erasmus said, “So they say of the cross of Our Lord, which is shown publicly and privately in so many places, that, if all the fragments were collected together, they would appear to form a fair cargo for a merchant ship.”[32] These wise words can be taken in several directions the most directly relatable one for this topic being: collect all the material wealth from its source and weigh it out to truly understand the impact of your creations so that you can justify them in the name of both your creator and your fellow man. For the City of Arlington their building is justified for the quick repayment of bonds, hosting the biggest events in the world, sales growth generating money for the operating budget and street maintenance, and the potential 15-20% property tax hike if Arlington didn’t have the sports-venue sales tax.[33] While the numbers haven’t been calculated, the general population says the stadium has been great and many are pushing for a new Ballpark in Arlington despite it being the same size as the current stadium. For Mayor Robert Cluck, AT&T Stadium was worth the investment on these grounds: $500,000 annually for the naming rights deal with AT&T and thousands of jobs combined with the expanding revenue from sales tax. His claim that his use of “eminent domain” was painful but necessary and fair is a self-centered mischaracterization.[34] However, despite all the lying and deceit and power mongering of politics, AT&T Stadium stands up as a modern architectural miracle. Many factors worked out for the Cowboys and Arlington as well as Jerry Jones. Most of America was waiting for a bigger stadium as the popularity of the NFL continued to grow so the demand had to be met. Just as the downturn helped Jerry secure cheaper materials, the NFL’s upturn coincided with the building of AT&T Stadium. As H.L. Menken famously said, “No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”[35] Menken’s words mean that a certain type of person will cling to a brand regardless of its success or internal growth. With their cultural and architectural masterpiece built Jerry Jones and the Owners of AT&T Stadium and the surrounding areas will be able to reap the benefits of their deal for a long time. And now we will be able to understand why Jerry still dreams of getting a pat on the knee from Mayor Laura Miller.

[1] http://www.arlington-tx.gov/citysecretary/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/06/Cowboys-Final-Scoreboard-Report-01-11.pdf

[2]IBID Pg. 5

[3] IBID Pg. 6

[4] IBID pg. 11

[5] http://www.dallasnews.com/news/arlington/2009/12/04/20091203-Gutter-keeps-2-workers-from-sliding-3818

[6] http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Cowboys-Stadium-Contractor-Cited-in-Workers-Fall-92131604.html

[7] http://www.dallasnews.com/news/arlington/2011/02/04/photographer-after-ice-from-roof-of-cowboys-stadium-falls-on-him-im-going-to-die-here

[8] http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d808d6d7e/article/electrician-dies-at-new-cowboys-stadium-construction-site

[9] http://www.arlington-tx.gov/ Pg. 16

[10] http://www.arlington-tx.gov/ Pg. 14

[11] https://www.bdcnetwork.com/dallas-cowboys-stadium

[12] http://www.arlington-tx.gov/ Pg. 16

[13] http://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=2695427

[14] https://www.bdcnetwork.com/dallas-cowboys-stadium

[15] http://www.arlington-tx.gov/ Pg. 14

[16] IBID Pg. 15

[17] IBID Pg. 16

[18] IBID Pg. 16

[19] http://www.dallasnews.com/news/arlington/2010/04/21/Jerry-Jones-blames-Laura-Miller-for-8253

[20] http://www.arlington-tx.gov/citysecretary/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2014/06/Cowboys-Final-Scoreboard-Report-01-11.pdf

[21] http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/arlington/article77646132.html

[22] http://www.arlington-tx.gov/ Pg. 8

[23] http://thesportseconomist.com/2010/07/11/cowboys-stadium-financing/

[24] http://www.arlington-tx.gov/ Pg.26

[25] http://www.stadiumsofprofootball.com/stadiums/att-stadium/

[26] http://thesportseconomist.com/2010/07/11/cowboys-stadium-financing/

[27] http://thephilosophersmail.com/perspective/the-great-philosophers-8-theodor-adorno/

[28] http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18495474/green-bay-packers-qb-aaron-rodgers-saved-packers-season

[29] http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000159245/article/danny-amendolas-father-sues-cowboys-stadium

[30] http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Cowboys-Stadium-Ice-Lawsuit-Heads-to-Court-246855341.html

[31] Darran Anderson Imaginary Cities pg.187

[32] Pietas Mariana Britannica pg. 489-490

[33] http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/arlington/article91269592.html

[34] http://billmoyers.com/groupthink/how-has-a-new-professional-sports-arena-affected-your-city/big-win-for-arlington-thanks-to-dallas-cowboys/

[35] http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2011/09/no-one-ever-went-broke-underestimating.html