Dallas Cowboys from WFAA Sports
At Cowboys Stadium, countdown till next event has already begun
06:00 PM CDT on Monday, June 8, 2009
The celebration at Cowboys Stadium is over for the moment as the countdown to the Jonas Brothers concert has started ticking for the city and the team.
From concession crews to police officers, many involved with managing Saturday's debut concert headlined by George Strait will return to work today to figure out what did and didn't go well for the 60,188 fans. They have less than two weeks before the next big concert and a new set of challenges.
"Everyone was definitely taking notes all day," Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said Sunday. "Today is more of a day to catch our breath and get a little sleep."
Daniels said Cowboys staff will be hard at work this week, looking at stadium operations and how to reduce the long lines and shortages that left some fans frustrated.
Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said that police, fire and other city officials will also meet today to start analyzing traffic and public safety plans, which he said worked smoothly over the weekend.
"We executed it, not perfectly, but close to perfectly," Cluck said.
Cowboys Stadium as much of a draw as the stars
Performers woo the crowd at inaugural concert
Inaugural stadiumgoers are awed, even if there are a few snags
Planning for traffic pays off for crowd, Arlington officials
Stadium's real stars wear hard hats
Live chat: Tell us what you liked about the stadium and concert at 11:30 a.m., Monday
Blog: Relive last night's action
Replay: Minute-by-minute updates
Photos:
• Saturday's concert
• Stadium tour
• Stadium design
• Share your photos
Video:
• Opening night
• From the ground up
• More Dallas Cowboys video
But the work needed to switch from twang to tweens was well under way before the last pair of boots scooted out of the stadium early Sunday morning. Staff had the 10,000 seats on the floor packed in little more than 30 minutes after Strait left the stage.
Daniels said that when he arrived at the stadium about 9 a.m. Sunday, the stage had already been disassembled, trash was cleared and workers were moving the lighting grid to the middle of the floor. The Jonas Brothers show June 20 will be held in the round, unlike Saturday's inaugural event.
All of Saturday's glitches should be solved by the next show, Daniels said. Shortages of items from hamburger buns to drinking straws and the hourlong concession lines were blamed on the last-minute transition from construction site to entertainment venue.
Daniels said the concession stands weren't able to be fully stocked Saturday night but would be for the Jonas Brothers. Also, some concession workers hadn't been able to train on the equipment in their work areas because of the construction.
Some minor construction work continues, Daniels said, but it's not expected to interfere with planning for the stadium's second concert.
"We'll spend the next two weeks trying to iron that out," he said. "There might have been a few minor problems, but being a part of history overshadows some of the little things."
For Arlington officials, "more tweaks needed than substantive changes" will be needed, said Trey Yelverton, a deputy city manager. By all accounts, roads in and out of Arlington's entertainment district were less congested than anyone expected.
Arlington police spokeswoman Tiara Ellis Richard said there were no major backups thanks to the city's detailed traffic plans and fans who arrived early. The official parking lots opened before 2 p.m., but the night's first performer, Lee Ann Womack, didn't take the stage until about 5:30. A relatively small but substantial number of fans were lined up before 2 to be among the first to get to the stadium.
The bigger concern leading up to the show was what would happen when Strait finished and most of the crowd left at once.
Richard said that traffic was "free-flowing" by 12:45 a.m. The Interstate 30 HOV lane was scheduled to stay open between Grand Prairie and Dallas until 2 a.m., but few cars were on the road an hour before it was to be shut down.
Arlington officials said there appeared to be a larger number of carpoolers than expected. The Cowboys had planned for an average of 2.5 people per car, but the actual number might have been higher.
Yelverton said he often saw four to six people emerging from larger vehicles in the parking lot. He estimated that the Texas Rangers lots were only 30 percent to 50 percent full.
Cowboys Stadium has only 11,000 parking spaces, so it has to rely heavily on additional parking provided by the Rangers, Six Flags Over Texas and nearby entrepreneurial lots.
The city also had an usually large number of ambulance calls to the stadium – about 75 to 80, a number equal to about 75 percent of what the entire city would receive in an average day.
At least 13 people were taken to hospitals, mostly with heat-related problems, although at least one person had suffered a broken bone.
It shouldn't be a surprise that some concession stands ran out of beer and other items. The crowd was in a celebratory mood, and that gave police a little extra work.
Authorities made at least 21 arrests, nearly all connected to alcohol. One person was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated, 19 on suspicion of public intoxication and one on an assault charge.
Richard said that most of the public-intoxication arrests happened later during the concert – some inside the stadium and some outside.
One change that city officials said they already know is needed is the addition of more controlled pedestrian crossings on Collins Street. Cluck said he saw many fans crossing the busy road and weaving through traffic trying to get to the stadium from businesses and parking lots on the west side of Collins.
In the coming weeks, other suggestions will be made and some implemented. Richard said this concert was the first practical test of how to manage what goes on outside the stadium.
"Every time you do one of these events, you get ideas about how to do it better," she said.
However, Richard said that each event will be slightly different depending on the type and time. She said police are expecting a lot more drop-offs at the Jonas Brothers concert, which will attract a large crowd of children and teenagers.
Because of the demographics, there will be less drinking and, potentially, fewer arrests. And weeknight events will present different traffic problems.
Police officials also had a test of how flexible their traffic plan was when a drunken-driving suspect – not from the concert – crashed into a utility pole on Abram Street about 10:30 p.m., less than an hour before Strait completed his set.
Richard said that officers directed some traffic away from Abram and toward other routes farther to the south.
"It worked smoothly," she said.
There were no reports of mass towings by the city or private property owners. Richard said the number of people parked illegally in nearby neighborhoods was small.
City officials plan to talk to those residents soon and fine-tune plans for their streets.
Still, it will take years to fully nail down plans for managing events at the stadium.
"We sit here with the [Rangers] Ballpark 14 years later, and we're still making modifications," said Yelverton, the deputy city manager. "Things are always changing."
Cluck said he wants to see improvement in how the stadium's location is identified. The announcer at the beginning of the concert welcomed the crowd to "Texas Stadium," which is the Cowboys' old home in Irving.
The performers mentioned Dallas several times, and even live video feeds of the Strait concert on screens throughout had a caption saying, "Dallas."
"Hopefully, everyone will learn," Cluck said.




