Standing-room Party Pass fans show up hours early to stake out prime spots for Cowboys-Giants

Standing-room crowd stakes out prime Cowboys spots

ARLINGTON, Texas — Patsy Alvarez stretched her arms and legs as far she could, trying to save prime standing-room space in the new Cowboys Stadium.

The 34-year-old Cowboys fan from Fort Wayne, Ind., succeeded in making enough room for family members trailing a few minutes behind her. Alvarez was among Party Pass buyers who showed up 10 hours before Dallas played the New York Giants on Sunday in the first regular season game at Jerry Jones’ new $1.15 billion showplace.

Alvarez got inside four hours early and cut a quick path to the middle of the lowest standing-room railing above one of the end zones. She was exactly what Jones had in mind when he announced fans could pay $29 and see their team live, albeit without a seat.

“That’s all it took,” Alvarez said. “I’m going.”

She was smart to show up early. By game time, the standing-room plazas were brimming with approximately 30,000 Party Pass fans, all part of the largest crowd to see an NFL regular-season game — 105,121.

The Cowboys put on quite a pre-game show for them. Fans were mesmerized by the nearly 60-yard long video board hanging over the middle of the field. If fans didn’t see themselves, they saw former President George W. Bush make the long walk to midfield for the coin toss. They also saw Bush and former first lady Laura Bush sitting next to the famous former broadcasting pair of Pat Summerall and John Madden.

Giants fan T.J. Churchill made several trips from his home in Bergen County, N.J., to games at old Texas Stadium in Irving. He had a ticket for a seat and was hanging around the outdoor plaza that Jones wants to turn into a party zone for every Cowboys home game.

Churchill said the plan was working as he watched live games on one of several big-screen TVs and listened to live music.

“This is an incredible scene,” Churchill said. “We compare (Jones) to George Steinbrenner because we’re Yankee fans. You get the money, you spend it. He can sure throw a party.”

Jones is bankrolling his palace through the likes of Scott Lapoff, an accountant from New Jersey who became a Cowboys fan when he saw a calendar of their cheerleaders as a kid. Now, he’s absorbing a $75,000 increase in the cost of two season tickets in the stadium’s lower bowl. He became a season ticket-holder two years ago in anticipation of the new stadium.

Lapoff wore a caricatured oversized cowboy hat, painted his face and dressed in a Marion Barber jersey with a Cowboys flag for a cape that had a derogatory Giants sign attached to it.

“This place is one in a million,” Lapoff said. “We’ve been to a lot of different stadiums, and nothing can compare to this stadium.”

Not all Party Passers were like Alvarez, the city worker from Indiana.

Jeff Majors, a 25-year-old oil field worker, hung around the outdoor plaza long after all the best spots were taken. He was sitting in a tall-backed cushion chair like one might see in a fancy bar. He was planning to find a spot somewhere inside the stadium, but said he might just head back out to the plaza and watch the game on TV.

“I’m just kind of waiting around,” said Majors, who lives in Carthage, about 170 miles east of Dallas.

Plenty of people did that for hours Sunday, with plenty of anticipation.