Who would have thought we would ever live to see the day Texas Stadium, the famed home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Irving Texas and renowned for it's famous "hole in the roof," would be demolished and left behind?
Opening day at Texas Stadium was October 24, 1971. Texas Stadium was one of the NFL’s most unique stadiums upon opening. The stadium was partially domed. A hole is in the center of the roof allowed fans to stay dry but the field was left open to the elements outside. Over 65,000 blue seats in two tiers extend around the gridiron. Two DiamondVision scoreboard/video-boards were located inside Texas Stadium. The stadium had many amenities that included 381 luxury suites, a stadium club where fans gathered for parties and banquets, and The Corral, which provided food, beverages, entertainment and large screen televisions for fans before, during and after all Cowboys games. Flags commemorating the Cowboys five Super Bowl championships were hung from the roof. Funding for a new stadium for the team was passed in November 2004 and the Cowboys move into a new stadium May 27, 2009. The new Dallas Cowboys Stadium is the largest domed stadium in the world.
Texas Stadium - Stadium History
Stadium Information:
Name: Texas Stadium
Inauguration: 24 October 1974
Cost: $35 million
Capacity: 65,600 seats
Address: 2401 East Airport Freeway, Irving, TX 75062
Texas 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 "Texas Stadium has a hole in its roof so God can watch his favorite team play", often paraphrased as the "hole" in the stadium's roof was there "so that God can watch His team."
Texas Stadium is to be demolished and redeveloped by the city of Irving in early 2010.
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