Jerry World
As Saturday draws near and another Red River Rivalry game is played, another season fades away for the games’ Cotton Bowl contract. In 2015, the Red River Rivalry will have the opportunity to do a plethora of things.
One of most obvious actions would be to move the game to Jerry World — the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium. But at what cost to the fans?
Some of us know very well that to attend a game in Cowboys Stadium is very expensive. The parking itself is often the same price as a ticket to an OU home game, so the price of the OU-Texas ticket could very easily soar.
The stadium can hold a maximum of 110,000, which includes that standing-room-only party section. The Cotton Bowl, on the other hand, caps out at 92,000; and who doesn’t want an additional 9,000 crimson and cream fans?
With a move to Cowboys Stadium, opportunity for advertisement also would greatly increase. By 2015 the Red River Rivalry will be the top rivalry in the country, with Michigan-Ohio State becoming a cross-division matchup in the newly organized Big “Ten.”
These factors will definitely come into play when the OU-Texas rivalry committee sits down to decide on the next plan of action.
I believe the committee should strongly consider moving the game to a home-and-home scenario. The money Norman and Austin could generate would be vast. However, the lack of “rivalry” at the games would shoot this idea down.
The committee will really have to break down its options to see what will soothe the mind of the fan.
With that said, the rivalry could easily convey a more luxurious atmosphere in Arlington, Texas, versus the Texas State Fair. However, many will miss being able to walk right out of the game and celebrate a Sooner victory with a beer and funnel cake.
— Jordan Marks, public relations senior
Cotton Bowl
I would like to defend the funnel cakes.
In the minds of almost everyone — fans, coaches, players, administrators, ESPN commentators — the OU-Texas rivalry game is synonymous with the Cotton Bowl around Texas State Fair time. Why go and change that just to make a few people’s pockets a little fuller?
What does Jerry Jones have to do with college football? Sure, his stadium is at the spaceship level of awesome, but it lacks everything that makes college football stadiums great.
Retractable dome? A high-definition screen almost as long as the field? Pizza that almost costs more than my car? These things have no place in college football, especially not a game like OU-Texas.
OU-Texas is about going to a place that has housed every Red River Rivalry since 1937, when our great-grandparents were our age. The history is ocean-deep at the Cotton Bowl; you can see it, you can feel it, you know it.
College football isn’t about modernization or radical, unnecessary change. Tearing down Yankees Stadium — the house of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio — to build a new one, knowingly throwing away decades of history, is not the way it works outside of the pros. It’s all about renovation.
The Cotton Bowl, built in 1930, has been renovated and expanded four times, most recently in 2008. It’s not a dump. It is more than adequate to house the game.
Fortunately, the atmosphere of the rivalry has not been completely dictated by the stadium, or Jerry World would surely be the new destination. The thing the Cotton Bowl has that Cowboys Stadium doesn’t is the Texas State Fair.
It’s hard to argue against the fair. I mean, come on — there’s going to be fried beer this year. Tell me that isn’t awesome.
The problem is the powers in charge seem to only care about money. They don’t care about the fan experience, the atmosphere, the history or the tradition. So, sadly, the game might leave the Cotton Bowl in a few years for “greener pastures.” However, since the spirit of the rivalry resides in the Cotton Bowl, the Cowboys Stadium version would be a soulless shadow of what once was.
— James Corley, journalism senior
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
TheJR 1 year, 8 months ago
As someone who attended the BYU game, I can wholeheartedly say Jerry World is a great stadium - for a pro team. The atmosphere was not at all that of a college game. The band could barely be heard from where I was sitting, and I was only one section away. It is an impressive facility, but it completely kills the "college" game atmosphere. The Cotton Bowl isn't perfect, but if the venue changed I would be sorely disappointed.