Texas Stadium

Texas Stadium is the home field of the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys. It is located in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas and opened on October 24, 1971 at a cost of $35 million. The stadium will seat 65,675.

Related Topics:
National Football League - Dallas Cowboys - Irving, Texas - Dallas - October 24 - 1971

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Built to replace the aging Cotton Bowl, the stadium was to have originally been a domed stadium, but the stadium could not support the weight of the entire roof, and public funding ran out before the roof support structure could be modified. This resulted in most of the stands being enclosed but not the playing field itself. This unusual arrangement - more commonly seen in European soccer stadiums - prompted Cowboys linebacker D.D. Lewis to make his now-famous quip that the "hole" in the stadium's roof was there "so that God can watch his team."

Related Topics:
Cotton Bowl - Soccer

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The stadium hosts neutral site college football games and in November and December is a major site of Texas High School Football. It is not uncommon for there to be high school football triple-headers at the stadium. In addition to football, the stadium has hosted concert events, wrestling spectaculars, and religious gatherings such as Promise Keepers and Billy Graham crusades (a Graham crusade was the first event held at Texas Stadium).

Related Topics:
Promise Keepers - Billy Graham

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The playing surface installed in 1971 was officially labelled Texas Turf, and was a form of AstroTurf; it was replaced by a somewhat softer surface called RealGrass in 2002.

Related Topics:
1971 - AstroTurf - 2002

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The Cowboys will be abandoning Texas Stadium in 2008 or 2009 for a new as of yet un-named stadium that will be constructed at taxpayer expense in Arlington, Texas. In November of 2004, Arlington voters approved a half-cent (.005 per US Dollar) sales tax to fund the $650,000,000 stadium by a margin of 55-45. Jerry Jones, the Cowboys' owner, spent over $5 million to win the election.

Related Topics:
Arlington, Texas - Jerry Jones

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The fate of Texas Stadium after the Cowboys departure remains uncertain. However, the City of Irving recently announced that the famed roof would be repainted for the first time since Texas Stadium opened.

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