Berry Tramel, Sports columnist
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ new house a tempting treat
Jerry’s World It will be hard to resist moving OU-Texas to Cowboys’ palace
Berry Tramel
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Published: July 29, 2009
ARLINGTON, Texas — Sam Bradford hopes OU-Texas never leaves the Cotton Bowl. The state fair. The bus ride through all the crazies screaming and cheering. He’s like a bunch of people on both sides of the Red, loves the smell of mustard in the morning.
A group of media members sit in the club level as they take a tour of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
Multimedia
But will Sooner fans feel the same way when they walk out of
Jerry Jones World the night of Sept. 5?
That’s when
Oklahoma plays
Brigham Young in the first real football game to be staged in the $1.4 billion coliseum that trumps all other sporting venues so far constructed by man.
The biggest names and events are headed to
Tarrant County.
George Strait already has played
Cowboys Stadium.
Paul McCartney will in August. The NBA All-Star Game arrives in 2010, the Super Bowl in 2011 and the Final Four in 2014.
Can OU-Texas be far behind?
College football’s greatest spectacle has called the Cotton Bowl home since 1929. But despite expansions and upgrades and enough atmosphere to tingle the toughest skin, the old stadium in Fair Park is a relic. Long ago deserted by the Cowboys and SMU; newly deserted by the Cotton Bowl game itself.
Can OU-Texas resist the temptation to leave an early 20th century motif for a marvel that seems like a space station for the Starship Enterprise?
Before you say yes, ask yourself how often you sit out on the porch on hot summer nights, swatting bugs and drinking sweet tea.
Times change. Traditions pass.
And when fans are exposed to comforts like Jerry Jones World, traditions pass faster.
Big 12 media toured the stadium Tuesday, and it will drop your jaw. For you veterans of OU’s two recent Fiesta Bowls, it looks like a spiffier version of Arizona’s
University of Phoenix Stadium. Nicer floors, more televisions, that kind of thing.
Until you see the video monster. The board hangs from the stadium ceiling, 160 feet by 72 feet, 7 1/2 stories tall, 90 feet above the playing field. A picture so clear, guides still talk about the huge white zit that appeared on
Lee Ann Womack’s face during a concert a few weeks ago.
The Cowboys ran highlights on the video screen Tuesday, and from any point in the stadium, you felt like
Marion Barber was running right up your bifocals.
The seats are wide, the bathrooms abundant, the amenities beyond the imagination of an OU-Texas regular. The darned place
smells new, which might be its biggest edge on its ancient predecessor one county over.
If the concessions match the taste of corny dogs and turkey legs, it’s a clean sweep.
Sooner fans will grumble going into Jerry Jones World — $38 parking, no Ferris Wheel, a Walmart across the street instead of Big Tex — but there won’t be much grumbling coming out, unless the scoreboard malfunctions and BYU ends up with more points.
Will the majority that night say, "Why aren’t we coming back in October?”
"I don’t know that they will,” said
Bob Stoops. "You know how our people are, so tight with tradition. Our people do like tradition and history, and they’ve had great experiences” at the Cotton Bowl.
Earlier Tuesday, Bradford voted heartily for keeping the game where it is. "You take it out of the Cotton Bowl, it loses a lot for the players,” he said.
Maybe so. Of course, playing in a palace, where the Super Bowl will be staged, is not exactly anti-player itself.
Sooner
Gerald McCoy said he suspects the game will move, though "put it out on the practice field and it still will be the same game.”
I don’t know what OU fans will say the night of Sept. 5.
But they are more likely than ever to say so long to swatting bugs on the front porch.
Berry Tramel: 405-760-8080; Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.
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You don't have a clue, the old Cotton Bowl seats 92K while Jerry's Palace seats 80K. Where are those extra 30K people going to sit, maybe, outside in those $40 parking places.