New stadium is too much - $66 for 12 pack beer, $90 pizza

[The Straight Story]

Steven M. Sipple: New stadium is too much


DALLAS — Nobody asked, but I’m adamantly opposed to making Jerry Jones’ new $1.2 billion playpen the permanent home of the Big 12 football championship game.

That said, I would understand if the conference’s board of directors are a teensy-weensy tempted to do so. After all, human frailty dictates that we occasionally can be swayed by opulence, which is what I saw Tuesday during a tour of the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium in Arlington, Texas.

I saw the definition of American excess, and it was simultaneously magnificent and borderline disgusting in its lavishness.

Located in Arlington, Texas, it’s the new home for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

The new stadium is already reserved for the 2009 and 2010 Big 12 Championship games, 2011 Super Bowl, 2010 NBA All-Star Game, 2014 NCAA Final Four and a handful of college football games. It’s also the new home of the Cotton Bowl.

If you’re looking for Memorial Stadium-style character and old-school charm, you won’t find it at Cowboys Stadium.

....

“But they haven’t seen this.”

You almost have to see it to believe it. There are carpeted hallways throughout the arena. Padded leather seats in sections other than suites. An 18,000-square-foot gift shop. Cowboyrita drinks for 14 bucks a pop. A total of 3,000 Sony high-definition televisions throughout the arena, with plans to add 2,000 more before the 2011 Super Bowl.

Tuesday’s tour took our group into a suite that can be leased for $800,000 a year — which doesn’t include the price of game or event tickets but does offer a large pizza for $90 (no toppings), 12-packs of domestic beer for $66 apiece and a four-pack of Red Bull for $22, among other ridiculously priced items.

http://huskerextra.com/articles/2009/07/30/football/doc4a70d724e835b234473867.txt

And they rich complain they pay too much in taxes....

[zbdent]

1. well, you know that if you take off the tax on the beer,

it's likely to cost only $60 a 12-pack ... a real savings!

[rfranklin]

2. Until fans boycott the stadium(s) the prices will go up and up...

They are already subsidizing professional sports with loans and municipal bonds, etc. To pay the outrageous salaries of the players and the profits of the owners, the ticket prices go up and the concessions are milked like cash cows.
But, it's supply and demand.

[VWolf]

6. Prices at the new Yankee stadium were slashed

after Steinbrenner realized nobody was buying them.

Still nowhere cheap enough for me, so I keep out.

Supply and demand, indeed.

[Uzybone]

9. its that simple

the rest is all whining.

[BeyondGeography]

3. R U an anti-Amercun football-hating librul?

(We have the same problem in NY; the new Yankee Stadium is a depressing ripoff.)

[Captain Hilts]

4. Dallas crassly introduced luxury suites to the world so this fits that pattern. nt

[ashling]

7. The first ones I remember were when the Harris County Domed Stadium,

(Astrodome) opened in Houston in 1965. I think they were called Corporate Skyboxes or something.

[redqueen]

13. No, that was the Astrodome. (nt)

[DrDan]

5. North will never let it become the permanant home of the Big-12 Championship game

Share it with Arrowhead in KCMo

[ChickMagic]

8. I understand that parking is $40

They recently slashed it for a kids' concert - Jonas something -
to $30. We will never go to an event or game at that monstrosity.

[Kievan Rus]

10. Ouch

[david13]

11. Who cares? Not I! You won't see me paying that, but I am

not a football, baseball or other watch somebody else from the tv couch kinda guy.
My sports involve actually doing things. For instance, bicycling. With me on the bicycle.
So if you don't like your stadium prices, don't go. Don't pay. But probably it will be full of others who will pay. So ...
They charge what the market will bear, and that market has deep pockets, believe it or not.
dc

[redqueen]

12. I got the impression that this isn't new... that other stadiums charge similar prices.

:shrug:

I don't see the point in going to football games, so I don't really care.

[Ron Green]

14. Roman Empire, anyone?

Corporate sports: It makes people think they belong to something important.

[Blue_Tires]

15. no such thing as a recession in the world of sports...