3afan
06-12-2008, 10:51 AM
New Dallas Cowboys stadium to have world's largest video displays
10:39 AM CDT on Thursday, June 12, 2008
By ANDREW D. SMITH / The Dallas Morning News
asmith@dallasnews.com
Rather than just reading over the massive numbers, try – for just a moment – to envision the product they describe.
Imagine four city buses parked in a line. Now imagine another layer of buses stacked on top of them. Add five more layers and hang the 28-bus cluster over a mental football field.
Having trouble? You're not alone. Even the folks behind the new Cowboys stadium can't really fathom how the world's largest video displays will change the game for fans.
"We have no reference point. It's completely different than anything else in football," said Jack Hill, director of stadium construction.
The same holds true for other stadium innovations, which should improve everything from the traffic to the food to the seats.
"We're trying a lot of new things. We think it will be a lot of years until any other new stadium tops us," Mr. Hill said.
In theory, the new stadium was designed by Dallas-based HKS Architects and is being built by Manhattan Construction. In practice, both firms got help from an eager amateur, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Unlike typical patrons, who often order architects to cut costs by cutting technological frills, Mr. Jones repeatedly asked his team to think bigger and create a "modern-day Colosseum of Rome."
The comparison may sound odd at first, but it beautifully illustrates the unusual relationship between arenas and technology.
In some ways, sporting venues have hardly changed since the Colosseum was built 2,000 years ago. Tiered seating surrounds a playing field. Concourses with vendors and toilets surround the stands.
In other ways, however, arena builders have always used the latest technology to impress spectators. The Romans could pump water into their arena and stage naval battles between large ships.
Plans for the new stadium lack that feature, but they do call for some 3,000 video monitors of all sizes.
Mega-monitors
The two mega-monitors come from Mitsubishi Electric, which is also supplying a smaller set for the new Yankee Stadium. The cost of buying and installing them will slightly exceed the $35 million it cost to build Texas Stadium in 1971.
Before a recent tour of the stadium, Mr. Jones said he'd use the screens on the field to give fans a look at the action behind the scenes. They might show a player going in for X-rays after an injury.
"We can tell the whole story for them right there," he said.
Mr. Jones also expects the massive screens to command both constant attention from fans and substantial premiums from advertisers.
"They can't turn away, so you can hammer them with your message," Mr. Jones said.
The mega-monitors will certainly be the most visible technology at the new stadium, but fans will see other innovations everywhere they look.
The translucent fabric of the retractable dome, for example, will act more like a parasol than a roof.
It will block the rain. It will filter the brutal August sun. But even under the dome, fans will feel like they're outside, particularly when the Cowboys open the massive gates behind both end zones.
Indeed, with the sophisticated computerized coordination among roof, gates, fans and climate control, the stadium interior should usually feel like a shady porch on a breezy day.
When extreme heat or cold makes such illusions impossible, the team will seal off the outside and manufacture a pleasant climate.
Other features
The seats at the new stadium won't look as revolutionary as the roof, but thanks to ergonomic studies and computer designing tools, they should be more comfortable than the seats at Texas Stadium.
The new seats will also be easier to fix or replace because they will hang off rails rather than being bolted into the concrete floor.
Up in the concourses, hungry fans will notice a seemingly trivial change at the concession stands: The menus will appear on monitors rather than printed signs.
With the flexibility provided by electronic menus, vendors can learn what customers like by changing their offerings from game to game. They can direct customers from crowded stands to open ones. They can even offer specials to move unsold food late in games.
The switch from signs to monitors will also help fans avoid traffic when they're driving to the new stadium.
A combination of sensors and parking attendants will gauge congestion at different lots and use monitors to direct fans away from crowds.
These game-day efforts will supplement the work traffic engineers did long before construction began.
Using information about where season-ticket holders live, engineers predicted how many fans would come from each direction on game day and used those numbers to design the roads and the parking lots around the stadium.
As with most of the innovations built into the new stadium, it's hard to predict how well it will work.
Arena builders have been introducing "incredible improvements" for 2,000 years, but some aspects of stadium design seem to be going backward.
It apparently took less than 15 minutes to clear 50,000 spectators from the Colosseum.
No modern venue, including the new Cowboys stadium, can match that number, but at least folks here will have plenty of monitors to watch while they're waiting to leave.
10:39 AM CDT on Thursday, June 12, 2008
By ANDREW D. SMITH / The Dallas Morning News
asmith@dallasnews.com
Rather than just reading over the massive numbers, try – for just a moment – to envision the product they describe.
Imagine four city buses parked in a line. Now imagine another layer of buses stacked on top of them. Add five more layers and hang the 28-bus cluster over a mental football field.
Having trouble? You're not alone. Even the folks behind the new Cowboys stadium can't really fathom how the world's largest video displays will change the game for fans.
"We have no reference point. It's completely different than anything else in football," said Jack Hill, director of stadium construction.
The same holds true for other stadium innovations, which should improve everything from the traffic to the food to the seats.
"We're trying a lot of new things. We think it will be a lot of years until any other new stadium tops us," Mr. Hill said.
In theory, the new stadium was designed by Dallas-based HKS Architects and is being built by Manhattan Construction. In practice, both firms got help from an eager amateur, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Unlike typical patrons, who often order architects to cut costs by cutting technological frills, Mr. Jones repeatedly asked his team to think bigger and create a "modern-day Colosseum of Rome."
The comparison may sound odd at first, but it beautifully illustrates the unusual relationship between arenas and technology.
In some ways, sporting venues have hardly changed since the Colosseum was built 2,000 years ago. Tiered seating surrounds a playing field. Concourses with vendors and toilets surround the stands.
In other ways, however, arena builders have always used the latest technology to impress spectators. The Romans could pump water into their arena and stage naval battles between large ships.
Plans for the new stadium lack that feature, but they do call for some 3,000 video monitors of all sizes.
Mega-monitors
The two mega-monitors come from Mitsubishi Electric, which is also supplying a smaller set for the new Yankee Stadium. The cost of buying and installing them will slightly exceed the $35 million it cost to build Texas Stadium in 1971.
Before a recent tour of the stadium, Mr. Jones said he'd use the screens on the field to give fans a look at the action behind the scenes. They might show a player going in for X-rays after an injury.
"We can tell the whole story for them right there," he said.
Mr. Jones also expects the massive screens to command both constant attention from fans and substantial premiums from advertisers.
"They can't turn away, so you can hammer them with your message," Mr. Jones said.
The mega-monitors will certainly be the most visible technology at the new stadium, but fans will see other innovations everywhere they look.
The translucent fabric of the retractable dome, for example, will act more like a parasol than a roof.
It will block the rain. It will filter the brutal August sun. But even under the dome, fans will feel like they're outside, particularly when the Cowboys open the massive gates behind both end zones.
Indeed, with the sophisticated computerized coordination among roof, gates, fans and climate control, the stadium interior should usually feel like a shady porch on a breezy day.
When extreme heat or cold makes such illusions impossible, the team will seal off the outside and manufacture a pleasant climate.
Other features
The seats at the new stadium won't look as revolutionary as the roof, but thanks to ergonomic studies and computer designing tools, they should be more comfortable than the seats at Texas Stadium.
The new seats will also be easier to fix or replace because they will hang off rails rather than being bolted into the concrete floor.
Up in the concourses, hungry fans will notice a seemingly trivial change at the concession stands: The menus will appear on monitors rather than printed signs.
With the flexibility provided by electronic menus, vendors can learn what customers like by changing their offerings from game to game. They can direct customers from crowded stands to open ones. They can even offer specials to move unsold food late in games.
The switch from signs to monitors will also help fans avoid traffic when they're driving to the new stadium.
A combination of sensors and parking attendants will gauge congestion at different lots and use monitors to direct fans away from crowds.
These game-day efforts will supplement the work traffic engineers did long before construction began.
Using information about where season-ticket holders live, engineers predicted how many fans would come from each direction on game day and used those numbers to design the roads and the parking lots around the stadium.
As with most of the innovations built into the new stadium, it's hard to predict how well it will work.
Arena builders have been introducing "incredible improvements" for 2,000 years, but some aspects of stadium design seem to be going backward.
It apparently took less than 15 minutes to clear 50,000 spectators from the Colosseum.
No modern venue, including the new Cowboys stadium, can match that number, but at least folks here will have plenty of monitors to watch while they're waiting to leave.