100 Foot Referees Come To Dallas: New Stadium, Giant Screen
Posted on | January 11, 2010 | No Comments
Football is an industry that has generated billions of dollars in secondary revenue. Besides ticket sales and even television broadcasting rights, the business of football has flooded certain markets with money. Football has had a positive fiscal influence on everything from sports cards and football cards, to white towels, tailgate accessories, beer sales, auto sales and the post halftime careers of overexposed celebrities. Footballs influence is mammoth in terms of the sheer quantity of dollars spent and generated directly and indirectly. Consider the construction of just one stadium at the cost of 1.3 billion, that’s billion with a b. The Cowboy Stadium is the worlds most expensive stadium to date and has spread the wealth of design and construction fees across the world.
Consider for a moment one aspect of the stadium; the giant t.v. screen. All stadiums have display screens so the fans can feel right at home and watch the game the way they usually do at home, only they have to be dressed. In the Arlington stadium used by the Dallas Cowboys the high definition video screen is the largest in the world. How large is it? Let’s begin with a little perspective; realtors in the United States refer to anything over 8,000 square feet to be a mansion. At 11,520 square feet the gigantic display is larger then most homes. It stretches nearly 60 yards covering the area between the twenty yard lines. The display is made up of 10,584,064 LED lights creating crystal clear resolution. It is the biggest High-definition screen in the world. It has four screens; two facing the end zones and the other two facing the sidelines. It is 60 tons of deadweight and is center hung 90 feet above the playing field in the Cowboy Stadium. The smaller screens are still a huge 29 feet high and 51 feet wide. As well as the giant center hung screens there are nearly 3,000 smaller displays placed throughout the stadium. Fans can go sit anywhere in the stadium and get an excellent view of the game without ever having to look down at the field and watch real people playing football. The cost for this screen is a mere 40 million dollars.
The stadium itself is an amazing design and has altered the way stadiums will be built in the future, providing the capital is there to do it. One of the persistent issues with most stadiums are the columns that keep the stadium up. This stadium is supported by two massive arches giving the fans unhindered views of the field and display screens from any seat. This supplies support for the retractable roof and the strength to hang the 60 ton video screen. It is a high tech wonder with real time concession sales reporting, wifi access, and lots of fiber optic cables to support future gadgets not yet invented.
The Dallas Stadium is the costliest stadium ever constructed. While it was designed with many elaborate luxury boxes, the stated goal of the project was to provide the average fan with the best a stadium can offer. Thousands of people have put food on the table for their families while earning a living creating this stadium.
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