Huge crowd leaves fans questioning value of standing-room ‘party pass’ in new Cowboys Stadium

Cowboys fans split on value of standing-room plan

ARLINGTON, Texas — Joe Dogan had a standing-room-only ticket for the Dallas Cowboys home opener at their gleaming new $1.15 billion stadium. He headed for the exits at halftime, fed up with fighting the largest regular-season crowd in NFL history.

The 58-year-old truck driver from Fort Worth had some advice for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones about those $29 tickets: “Don’t sell as many the next time.”

The Cowboys probably will heed that advice after Sunday night’s game drew 105,121 people. The team sold some 30,000 of those tickets to fans willing to watch the game without a seat on spacious, three-level platforms above the end zones.

At times, fans stood a dozen or more deep on the lower platforms. Only a few could see the field, while the rest watched on huge TV screens hanging above the turf. There were good viewing areas along staircases and elsewhere, but those were taken minutes after the gates opened four hours before kickoff.

Ultimately, only a fraction of the “party passers” saw the field. Some were OK with that. Others weren’t.

“I didn’t get a chance to walk up to the field and take a picture,” said Charles Manhard of Dallas, a 38-year-old valet company owner. “What’s the purpose of this? I can do this at home. I’ve got a 64-inch TV.”

Team spokesman Brett Daniels said the Cowboys and Arlington city officials were discussing possible limits on the number of standing-room tickets, which was one of the buzz-generating features at the stadium and a rarity in the NFL.

Daniels said the team had sold about 8,000 standing-room tickets for the second game Monday night against Carolina. That’s a far cry from 30,000 — and that’s probably a good thing.

Authorities nearly lost control of Sunday’s crowd not long before the game started because they tried to restrict the flow of fans amid concerns that there were too many people on the end zone platforms. Once the barricades were removed and fans could come and go, tensions eased.

Jeff Parks, a 25-year-old Baylor law student, and his buddies were in good spirits when they grabbed their spot on a stairway landing. But the long wait and the stress of hanging on to their spot tested their resolve.

Parks had a view above the main platform, probably about the same vantage point as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban when he tweeted that “watching the sardine section” was fun. Parks said he saw one fan offer someone on the railing $100 for the spot.

“We were saying they were trying to make a collegiate-like atmosphere, and it just wasn’t really happening,” Parks said. “Because you had people standing around, milling about and drinking — heavily.”

Keith Evashevski came alone from Wyoming and was afraid he’d never get his spot back if he left for the restroom or anything else. The 38-year-old Cowboys fan held on for eight hours until Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes won the game with a 37-yard field goal as time expired.

“My legs and feet, I kind of forgot about them for a while and got into the game,” Evashevski said.

Whatever the number of party pass tickets are sold for the next game, it will be split equally between each end zone to help with crowd control — a fact the team struggled to communicate before the opener. Some groups were forced to separate once they were told their ticket gave them access to just one side of the stadium.

“I can understand it’s the first time, but it would have been nice for them to let us know,” said Patsy Alvarez, a 34-year-old from Fort Wayne, Ind., whose family was split up.

Because the cheaper seats costing $75 and $99 have sold out, single-game prices range from $129 to $239. That’s why the $29 party pass has won universal praise from fans.

“The tickets are stupid expensive, so it opens it up to a bigger fan base,” said Keith Murray, a regional manager for an electrical supplier who was in town on business from Tampa, Fla.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an e-mail the league had heard no complaints and called the party pass chatter a “Cowboys issue.” It was a prominent topic on radio talk shows, including one where the host referred to standing-room tickets as “peasant passes.”

“I’m probably just stating the obvious, but the best feature was simply the price,” said Evashevski, who works for the University of Wyoming. “To be involved in an NFL game in 2009 and spend just about or under $30, I think that’s pretty good.”

Assuming the crowd sizes go down, perhaps more thumbs will go up.