Dallas Cowboys from WFAA Sports
Country music superstars serenade new stadium 
12:10 PM CDT on Sunday, June 7, 2009
ARLINGTON — On Saturday night, the brightest stars in Texas weren't in the sky — they were in the new Cowboys Stadium.
Country music icons George Strait, Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton and Lee Ann Womack were on the stage and beaming down from giant high definition TV screens (along with team owner Jerry Jones) as tens of thousands of fans made history in Arlington.
"We're the luckiest people in the United States of America," Shelton told the crowd. "We get to watch the king and queen of country music in this place tonight. And it just so happens to be in the grand opening of the new Cowboys Stadium. I'll drink to that!"
Crowds started filing in to the $1.15 billion home of the Cowboys on Saturday afternoon for the debut event even as construction workers were leaving the massive edifice.
Julianne Hough, suffering from strep throat and at the advice of her doctor, bowed out of her role as an opening act for Strait and McEntire. Lee Ann Womack replaced Hough in the line-up and took the stage just before 6 p.m.
Fans were surprised, but not disappointed.
"It's just incredible," said Gene White, who was getting his first look at the stadium along with thousands of others.
Fans were able to get through traffic and into the parking lots, but the ordeal wasn't over yet; some waited two hours in the heat.
There were also complaints that the concession stands did not have enough items.
"The food was really expensive," said Abi White. "[I] waited in line for 45 minutes and only went up a couple of feet... so we just left."
Keys were lost to several suites and storage areas. There were also complaints about the climate control.
A cast of thousands — inside and outside the stadium — spent the week either preparing or bracing for the show. With about 60,000 fans arriving for the event, it's possibly the largest single event in Arlington history, and one of the largest local concerts in recent times.
"We're expecting to just be hemmed in," said Geraldine Trostel, whose home is just a few blocks from Cowboys Stadium.
She said she voted for the tax increases to help pay for the stadium, even though she knew it would make life difficult at times.
Cici's Pizza, located opposite the stadium, was offering parking for $60 (and throwing in a pizza). Other businesses were offering parking deals.
Some people bought fake passes to parking lot 15 on eBay. Unfortunately for them, the lot doesn't yet exist.
Police barricaded residential neighborhoods and put up signs which read "residential parking." Digital signs were up on highway and streets, directing motorists to parking lots.
Some neighborhoods near the stadium are closer than many parking lots and potentially save drivers the cost of a $38 parking pass through Ticketmaster. City Council members have discussed issuing parking passes to nearby residents to control access, but that system isn't in place yet.
Deputy City Manager Trey Yelverton said the access program for residential streets would essentially operate on the honor system for this first event. He said that police officers would be monitoring parking along those streets and watching for violators.
"Neighborhood integrity is still very important in this process," Yelverton said, adding that illegally parked cars blocking access to driveways and other cars would be towed.
Like the residential parking permits, the council has also discussed regulating entrepreneurial parking, but hasn't acted. The first vote on an ordinance is scheduled for Tuesday.
Yelverton said the city recommended that concertgoers park in the Cowboys or Rangers lots since there is no city permitting process yet for those independent lots. He said that some unethical operators could potentially take advantage of fans.
One example of that happened during the State Fair of Texas when at least 26 motorists were towed after scam artists charged customers to park on a lot illegally and then left with the cash.
Yelverton said he doesn't want to see drivers have a "cheaper parking experience but a more expensive get-my-car-back experience."
To help fans get to the parking lots, about 120 to 130 off-duty police officers were stationed along major roads to direct drivers. The Cowboys will be paying for their services.
There were more than 80 signs from electronic message boards that can be changed on the fly to temporary signs to let drivers know they are on the right routes, said Jud Heflin, Cowboys director of stadium development. The Cowboys have estimated that there are at least 14 major ways to approach the stadium.
Arlington's Traffic Management Center was up and running, monitoring roads with dozens of traffic and police cameras mounted everywhere from signal lights to the Six Flags Over Texas observation tower.
Signal times were also being extended at nine inbound intersections and at 18 outbound intersections.
Inside the stadium, slightly more than 2,000 workers finished last-minute details such as carpeting, baseboards and touch up paint. But the key word for the end of the week was cleaning.
"We've been working nonstop out here for three years and just generated a lot of trash and a lot of dust," said Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels. "It's time to start clearing that out of the building."
Daniels said he expects fans to only notice a few unfinished details at the stadium this weekend. Some concrete floors won't have their metallic silver epoxy finish yet, and there will not be as wide a variety of content on the 3,000 video screens throughout the stadium.
The suite belonging to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will be mostly completed, but a few of the field-level suites will be works in progress. Daniels said those suites are the ones behind the stage and would not have a good view.
"For the most part, they [fans] won't notice anything that is not complete," Daniels said. "If they come back for the Jonas Brothers concert or come back in preseason, I don't think they'll see a significant change."
The Dallas Morning News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
E-mail mdiaz@wfaa.com and jbetz@wfaa.com
