Ms. Reeves Reviews

I am not a sports fan.  Nor am I a country music fan.  Yet this past weekend, I went to the opening event at the new Cowboys Stadium: a George Strait concert.  And I had fun, enjoyed the music and was impressed by the stadium.  The stadium still has some work to do to improve the experience, but for the opening event, they did well.

Getting There

Getting to the stadium is a nightmare.  Roads are still under construction all around the stadium.  Our hotel (Holiday Inn) was very close to the stadium, but across the interstate, so not really walkable.  We had to wind and weave our way around just to get to the stadium even though it was “right across the street” from the hotel.  Good thing I wasn’t driving.

The Parking

We paid $40 to park in Lot 13 and the walk really wasn’t too bad to get to the stadium.  We were prepared to tailgate (parking lots opened at 2 PM, stadium opened at 4 PM, concert started at 5:30 PM).  However, we were not nearly as prepared as others.  I had no idea that people tailgated for concerts, but these people had tents, umbrellas/stands, grills, etc.  This was a serious tailgating event.  I felt embarrassed by our little coolers and foldable chairs.  Next time, I will know.

Attire

Not being a county music fan (or a concert-goer, for that matter), I had no idea what the proper attire should be.  I wore a light-weight cotton dress and sandals, with a little cardigan in case I got chilly in the stadium.  This is what I feel comfortable wearing most days of the summer.  Well, apparently, cowboy boots and short skirts/shorts are mandatory, as is three inches of make-up.  I own cowboy boots, and I love them.  But it is freakin’ hot in Texas in June.  I was sweat-drenched by the time we got to our seats.  My make-up was all but completely gone and I was wishing for something even lighter than my light-weight cotton dress and sandals.  There is no way these girls were comfortable.  But they looked cute, and I know as a girl, we sacrifice comfort for style almost any day of the week.  But, it was really hot.

Finding Our Seats

The stadium event planners have some work to do when it comes to organizing the entrance.  There appeared to be only one gate for entrance of all 60,188 attendees!  It was a free-for-all mass movement to this one little gate.

Once inside the stadium, we were easily able to follow the signs and find our designated seats.  Our seats, however, were six rows from the ceiling.  Oh, my calves are hurting today from climbing those stairs all evening to get my $8 beers.

The Concert Experience

The opening act was Lee Ann Womack.  The sound was awful.  We could not understand a word the woman said or sang.  This did not bode well for the remainder of the very long evening.  But, again, it was the opening event, so we tried to cut them some slack.  I am not sure if the sound got better during the evening, or if we just got used to the poor quality, or if our $8 beers started setting in and numbed our quality meters.  By the time George Stait came on stage (9:30 PM), we didn’t think it sounded that bad.

I can’t really comment on the quality of the music beyond the sound quality because I was unfamiliar with 95% of the sounds that were performed.  Although I was quite taken by Blake Shelton.  He was precious and is now my new crush.  I have no idea if I like his music yet, but I sure do like watching him sing it on the world’s largest HD monitor.

As for amenities, I was impressed with the line movement in the ladies’ bathrooms.  The lines looked long, but moved quickly.  There was an attendant in the bathrooms that helped move traffic through by pointing out open stalls.  Bathrooms are a big deal for women at events like these.

The air conditioning worked really well.  However, I don’t know if that was because I was so close to the ceilings and therefore the vents or if the whole stadium was as chilled as I was.  I was actually freezing (which is much more preferable to sweltering).

The beer was too expensive ($8 each), but that didn’t keep us from buying it.  They weren’t quite ready for the crowds: we couldn’t find straws to go with our souvenier cups.  And, I didn’t eat any of the food, but everything that people were eating around me looked and smelled great.

The Technology

This stadium has been touted as the most technologically advanced stadium in the world.  A couple of facts I noted from the slide show that appeared between performers:

• 3 million square feet.
• Stadium can seat up to 100,000 fans.
• More than 300 suites.
• The roof takes 12 minutes to open or close.
• Home of the world’s largest HD monitor (whoa is HD scary if you are a woman over 30 years old: it shows everything!).
• The endzone doors take 6 minutes to open or close.

The stadium was definitely cool.  And they opened the roof for the first time, which was pretty darn cool, too.  The HD screen was impressive.  That is what I watched the entire concert (because the performers looked like ants from where I was sitting).  Again, the event planners have some work to do: there were cords strung all over in front of the HD screen.  They were obvious, ugly and detracted from the image displayed.

My absolute biggest complaint about this really cool, modern stadium was the cell phone coverage.  I was all set to tweet my thoughts about this event, but I could barely, and rarely at that, get a signal out (which of course drained my iPhone battery because it tried so hard to find one for me).  This stadium should be equipped with wireless and have a cell tower sitting on the top of it.  With a capacity of 100,000, you have to know that there will be some extreme cell phone use in this concentrated area: be prepared for it!  Damn, this was an oversight.  At one point, my phone did pick up a Cowboys Stadium wireless signal, but it was password protected.  We had a stadium of 60,188 people excited about this event and ready to be ambassadors for this new “product.”  Yet, they could not share real time information with all those that could not be there.  If I worked for the stadium, I would have had someone monitoring social media for real time feedback on things they liked/disliked, things that could be improved immediately, problems that could be solved with a return/reply message immediately, etc.  As the event planner, you don’t want to hear about these issues for the first time when they are reported on the local news shows.  I hope this is something that is improved before the next event with a young, technologically-savvy fan-base: the Jonas Brothers.

Conclusion

I had fun.  Of course, I was with a group of seven people and we were all excited about the experience for different reasons.  The stadium was impressive and I think once they work out the kinks, the experience will be awesome.  I don’t know that I will ever have an occasion to go back to Cowboys Stadium, but I definitely wouldn’t turn down an offer.