Texas Staduim implotion, April 11th, 7am

[MrsBrady]

http://www.ci.irving.tx.us/texas-stadium/index.html

Several of us in the area that graduated in Irving, TX will be going to have a party in the morning.
Coffee, donuts, school jackets, dust masks and earplugs.

I graduated High School in this stadium.
Since the city owns it, it used it for all three of it's high school graduations...easy way to do one right after the other, and no problem with parking.
Many a state football champion ships here.
It was a right of passage to take the "stadium tour" in elementary school and get a chance to be on the field.


Too bad we can't put Jerry Jones in the building that morning...I'm kidding, I'm kidding :evilgrin:

[sonias]

1. After 39 years, Texas Stadium ready for implosion

AAS 4/9/10
After 39 years, Texas Stadium ready for implosion

IRVING, Texas — The old stadium for America's team is about to become a pile of dust and rubble.

With the push of a button at 7 a.m. Sunday, more than a ton of dynamite will blow Texas Stadium into pieces.

In about one minute, down will go the building that was home to the Dallas Cowboys during all five of their Super Bowl championships and was the birthplace of those famous cheerleaders. It also hosted events ranging from a Billy Graham crusade to Von Erich brothers wrestling extravaganzas.

"They can blow it up, implode it, dynamite it — but they can't take away the memories created there," former Cowboys star receiver Drew Pearson said Friday. He plans to watch the demolition from a nearby building, "because I don't want anybody to see me tearing up."

For former running back Walt Garrison, it's just a building: "The memories are not about where you played, but who you played with," he said.

:nuke: it baby!

[white cloud]

2. I FED Xed

GWB and the Dick some 50yard line tickets.

[sonias]

3. ROFL

:spray: You think of everything! :rofl:

[tammywammy]

4. I'll be watching from home!

I heard the boy that's going to push the button on the radio the other day. Sounds like a sweet kid. :)

[johncoby2]

5. will it be on the internets?

Live?

[sonias]

6. I bet you can catch it on YouTube afterward

:toast:

[sonias]

8. Video

Texas Stadium implosion via KXAN on YouTube
It's a short video about 2:30.

The last wave!

[bamacrat]

7. Too damn early. They ought to do it around noon. ESPN is carrying it though.

I get that they may be trying to eliminate some traffic congestion but 7am.

[Xenotime]

9. Hopefully they will use the space for a park or recreational use.

[sonias]

10. How recreational is highway construction staging area?

At least that's the use for the next ten years. :(

AAS 4/12/10
Kaboom: Texas Stadium goes up in smoke
(snip)
The state already has a 10-year lease to use the property as a staging area for a highway construction project.

[Xenotime]

11. No very recreational...Oh well.

[ParkieDem]

15. It could be after a while ....

First, TXDOT is going to rebuild the interchange in the area, which is in desperate need of congestion relief. When the stadium was built in 1971 (and the DFW area had maybe 2 million people), it was not a great highway design, but it worked for the time.

Now that the area has over 6 million people, the interchange is terribly outdated.

Once reconstruction of the interchange is complete, DART will be building a rail station through the area and there is a good chance that it will involve some transit-oriented development, which will likely include parkland. I think the long-term future for the area is good.

[BrightKnight]

12. Blowing it up was pointless and wasteful.

The stadium was built with tax money and it has always been used for a lot more than just NFL games. There was nothing wrong with it. Re-routing all of the roads around it was expensive.

Somebody with connections wanted it gone.

[white cloud]

13. I smell a fish

Something is wrong when we spend moey to destory something useful. IMO
(Reunion and Texas Stadium)
Cotton Bowl Next??

[ParkieDem]

14. If I recall ...

Kraft sponsored the demolition, so it didn't cost the City of Irving anything. In addition, TXDOT is leasing the space from the City, so the City will end up making money (although Texas taxpayers will be paying).

But you talk about Reunion Arena, Texas Stadium and the like -- the problem is, these venues weren't going to be used for hardly anything. No one was using Reunion, and no one would have used Texas Stadium. High school and college games were already being moved to the new Cowboys' stadium, and Reunion was only hosting a couple of events per year. If the cities just let those facilities stay open, the would have faced a situation like Pontiac, Michigan did with the Silverdome -- a big building that's expensive to maintain, yet does not deliver much utility.

Bottom line, the new Cowboys Stadium and American Airlines Center can easily fill the gap left behind by Texas Stadium and Reunion Arena. I have no problems with them tearing these down and freeing up the land for better use.

[tammywammy]

16. Exactly

Those events that were being held at Texas Stadium have moved over to the new Cowboys Stadium.

[texastoast]

17. And, we "need" new venues?

We needed Reliant Center like we needed a hole in the head. The Astrodome, "old" as it was was a grand place to enjoy sports, rodeos, car shows, and any other event and accommodated them quite well. It now sits empty, though still very useful (witness Katrina).

These new venues are built for the highrollers. Even Houston's first light rail was built to facilitate (at taxpayer expense to a big extent) the use of the new stadium. Fat cats on the taxpayer nickel.

[white cloud]

18. Just like carpet baggars

socialism the cost on the taxpayers back
capitalize and privatize the profits


http://deadspin.com/5516297/slurring-jerry-jones-bad+mouths-bill-parcells-tim-tebow

[texastoast]

19. Not to mention the pure waste

Waste of energy, materials, and effort, all of which could be directed to many other needed projects.

[ParkieDem]

20. Well,

I won't disagree that public funding for stadiums is corporate welfare at its worst.

However, I don't think you can lump the new Cowboys stadium in with this, and I think the worm is finally turning in this regard.

In Dallas, you'll find that most people -- liberal and conservative alike -- fume at the notion that the stadium was built in Arlington, when it could have been built at Fair Park or the downtown Cedars location and provided desperately needed revitalization to one of those areas. Because the city wouldn't pony up the money, Jerry Jones went to Arlington.

Jones asked Arlington to split the cost of the $650 million stadium. Arlington said OK, but we're not responsible for any cost overruns -- you end up spending more, it's all your nickel. Turns out, the cost was $1.3 billion. But the Cowboys covered that excess. So, Arlington ends up with a $1.3 billion stadium that it only paid $325 million for. It has ownership of the stadium, plus it gets a crapload of sales tax revenue from each event, not to mention hotels, restaurants, etc. (although admittedly, several patrons do not use hotels and restaurants in the area, or use them in other cities). Nevertheless, because Arlington's investment was capped, they got a good deal out of it, in my opinion.

[white cloud]

21. Sounds like

City of Arlington got a whole lot better deal than COD at the AA center of Ross Perot

And thanks for your informtion

[ParkieDem]

22. No doubt

Arlington came out of the deal better than Dallas did on the AAC.

But I don't really know how much Dallas has benefited or been harmed by the AAC. I know Perot Jr. has taken a bath on the whole Victory development, and I'm not surprised -- there just isn't enough money in this area to support that much high-end development.

[blizzil31337]

23. sad day in dallas :(