FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Cowboys Stadium was built for the big boys, but lucky high school are also getting a chance to play under the dome

By Mickey Spagnola

Monday, November 23, 2009 - 1:00am

Build a $1.2 billion stadium.

Put a retractable roof on the three million square-foot structure.

Expand the seating from the old stadium to the new by 20,000.

Move from Irving, Texas, where you’ve been for 38 seasons, to Arlington, Texas, the new home of the Dallas Cowboys, oh, about 20 miles away.

But don’t leave your traditions behind.

When the retractable roof opens at Cowboys Stadium, home to Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 6, 2011, the opening emulates the iconic “hole in the roof” of Texas Stadium.

The Tom Landry Statue made the 20-mile trip from its resting place in front of Texas Stadium to the front of the north side of Cowboys Stadium.

Maybe the most recognizable Ring of Honor in the land was not left behind either, prominently displayed with its names in the identical order and sides of the field on one of the upper-level suite facades.

And they still are playing Texas high school football playoff games at Cowboys Stadium, a long-standing tradition at Texas Stadium that attracted more than 700 high school games there, giving thousands of young athletes the thrill of playing on the same field as the Dallas Cowboys and hundreds of thousands of fans the memory of watching friends, sons and grandsons play right where one NFL title game and five NFC championship games were played. This is why 28 high school playoff games were played at Texas Stadium alone in 2008, its final year of operation.

Well, this long-standing tradition first continued Nov. 12, 13 and 14 with eight first-round Texas High School Football Playoff games being played while the Cowboys were heading out of town that weekend to take on the Green Bay Packers. Another five were scheduled for the weekend before Thanksgiving.

And while Cowboys Stadium was booked for the weekend after Thanksgiving with the Baylor-Texas Tech football game Nov. 28 and then the Big 12 Championship game Dec. 5, officials say the stadium will be available that next weekend (Dec. 12 and 13) if any schools want to schedule a semifinal playoff game there.

“The Jones Family — Stephen and Jerry — they said they wanted to continue taking care of the young people,” said Bruce Hardy, senior advisor at Cowboys Stadium and the man who had been coordinating these high school games at Texas Stadium since 1984.

This rich football tradition in the North Texas area — high school, college and pro — was one of the huge selling points the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Committee delivered during its presentation to the NFL while bidding to play host to the 2011 Super Bowl and still is pushing to promote the event. And the Cowboys continuing to stage high school games in this brand spanking-new stadium proves promoting the tradition of high school football in the area was not just lip service.

For that first round of games, played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, more than 80,000 people filled Cowboys Stadium for eight games — a high of 35,000 for the four first-round games played on Saturday and roughly 15,000 on Thursday night and 21,000 on Friday night for each of the two-game sets.

“And a lot of those people were there for the whole day (on Saturday),” Hardy said, the game times stretching from 11 a.m. in the morning to 9 p.m. at night that Saturday, and the attendance significantly increasing from the 8,000 normally attending a first-round game at Texas Stadium.

Now the schools had to pay more rent than they did at Texas Stadium, but Hardy said these 5A schools did not hesitate to book Cowboys Stadium even for first-round games. The schools split gate receipts — tickets were $10 in advance, $12 at the window, the prices set by the schools — while the Cowboys collect revenue from parking ($10) and concessions. Prices at Texas Stadium were $8 for tickets and $5 for parking.

So the rabid fan on the opening Saturday quadrupleheader staying for all four games actually paid $3 a game.

“We always look at the financial aspects of it,” Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD athletic director Judy Mizell told The Dallas Morning News, “but they worked with us and it’s a situation that’s worth it to us for our kids to get to play there.”

While the operation costs of opening the stadium were more than Texas Stadium for the Cowboys, Hardy said the actual game-day operation was easier at Cowboys Stadium. First of all, the stadium was built with the idea of holding such events, so auxiliary locker rooms were built.

The stadium was able to utilize four locker rooms at once — two for the game being played and two for the following game — without using the Cowboys game-day locker room. Hardy said previously at Texas Stadium, with only three locker rooms available, including the one the Cowboys used, at least one team during those doubleheader days had to dress either in the Stadium Club or the Cowboys postgame interview room.

“The Arlington A.D. (I.C. Little) said he received more positive feedback from the school board members than he had in years,” Hardy said.

And the Cowboys didn’t cut any corners either. Monster Vision was up and running. That’s right, the 160x72-foot center-hung high-def video board was shining brightly during the games, and will continue being operational throughout the high school playoff games. Picture-taking parents probably just shot their sons bigger than life off the video boards.

And as Allen (Texas) High School quarterback Matt Brown said in anticipation of playing a playoff game at Cowboys Stadium, “That screen, I want to see how big that thing is. I hear it's like 80 yards long or something. I'm sure everybody's got something they want to see, it's like a theme park in there.”

Plus, the Cowboys crew still made nameplates to be placed over each player’s stall in the locker rooms.

“The whole thing was unbelievable,” Hardy said. “I’m just really excited (to continue the tradition). All the oohs and aahs, and to see those young people’s faces is still a thrill to me when they first see their names over the lockers.”

Further emphasizing how some traditions should never change — no matter what.