Cotton Bowl (stadium)

Cotton Bowl

Location	1300 Robert B. Cullum Boulevard Fair Park Dallas, Texas, USA
Owner	City of Dallas
Operator	City of Dallas
Capacity	76,000
Surface	Grass
Construction
Broke ground	1932
Opened	1932
Tenants
Cotton Bowl (NCAA) (1937-2009) Red River Rivalry (NCAA, Big 12) (1932-2015) Dallas Cowboys (NFL) (1960-1970) Dallas Texans (AFL) (1960-1962) Dallas Burn/FC Dallas (MLS) (1996-2002, 2004-2005) SMU Mustangs (NCAA) (1929-1986, 1995-2000) Dallas Texans (NFL) (1952) Dallas Tornado (NASL) (1967-1968) Dallas Independent School District), Playoffs (1974-current.

For the Cotton Bowl game, see Cotton Bowl (game).

The Cotton Bowl is a stadium which opened in 1932. Originally known as Fair Park Bowl, it is located in Fair Park, site of the State Fair in Dallas, Texas, USA. It has a natural grass surface and a capacity of 68,252 seats. Concerts or other events using a stage allow the playing field to be used for additional spectators to a capacity past 80,000. The Cotton Bowl is the home of the annual Cotton Bowl Classic college football bowl game, for which the stadium is named. However, the game will move to Arlington, Texas, and the Dallas Cowboys New Stadium on New Year's Day 2010.

The Cowboys hosted the Green Bay Packers for the 1966 NFL championship at the Cotton Bowl. Artificial turf was installed in 1970 and removed in 1993 in preparation for the Football World Cup tournament in 1994.

File:Red river shootout.jpg

2001 Red River Shootout in the Cotton Bowl.

The stadium has been home to many football teams over the years, including: SMU Mustangs (NCAA), Dallas Cowboys (NFL; 1960-1970), Dallas Texans (NFL) (1952), Kansas City Chiefs (as the Dallas Texans) (AFL; 1960-1962), and soccer teams, the Dallas Tornado (NASL; 1967-1968), and FC Dallas (the Dallas Burn before 2005) (Major League Soccer; 1996-2002, 2004-2005). It was also the site of some games in the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

The annual Oklahoma-Texas college football game, called the Red River Rivalry, is played at the Cotton Bowl during the State Fair of Texas, instead of a campus site. Ticket sales are equally divided between the two schools.The schools announced plans to discontinue playing the game at the Cotton Bowl after 2007, citing major problems with the aging facility, and to instead move the game to a traditional home-and-away series.

Cotton Bowl

However, both schools have recently approved a deal to continue playing "The Red River Rivalry" in Dallas until 2015. The 2008 game will be held at the traditional location of the Cotton Bowl stadium on October 11. The dates have also been set for 2009 through 2015: those games will also be played somewhere in the Dallas area, probably at the old stadium. [1]

As a result of this extension, the city of Dallas will allocate $30 million towards an estimated $50 million (at least part of the final total could possibly come from a sale of the naming rights for the stadium) renovation from an upcoming city bond proposal for several modifications and updates to the stadium. These proposed renovations include expanding the seating capacity of the stadium from 76,000 to 92,107, new media and VIP facilities, a new scoreboard, updated restrooms and concession areas, lighting, utility and sound upgrades and the replacement of the stadium's seats.

In addition to the Red River Shootout, Grambling State University and Prairie View A&M University play each other at the Cotton Bowl in the State Fair Classic. This game often occurs the weekend after the Texas-OU game. It is a neutral site for both teams; Grambling (nicknamed the "Tigers") is in northern Louisiana and Prairie View A&M is located about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Houston, Texas. The halftime "Battle of the Bands" is arguably more eagerly anticipated than the game itself. The State Fair Classic is heavlily marketed in the DFW Metroplex, with local hip hop stations encouraging a large turnout among the region's African-American community.

On the rare occasion, the stadium has also been the venue where a number of historic music concerts have taken place, most notably that which featured then 21-year-old Elvis Presley, which took place on October 11, 1956 and attracting, as it did, what was then the largest audience in Texas history for an outdoor concert, in excess of 27,000 teenagers.

Many consecutive summers of huge concerts featuring several bands began in July 1978 with the 1st annual Texxas Jam, which sold out with over 80,000 attendees. Over the years the Texxas Jam featured some of the top-billed headliner bands of the day, including Bruce Springsteen, Heart, Deep Purple, Boston, Journey, Ted Nugent, Scorpions, Loverboy, Cheap Trick, Van Halen, Blue Öyster Cult, Sammy Hagar, Nazareth, Styx, Foghat, Santana, Eagles, Triumph, and others. Each Texxas Jam had a unique lineup of major artists chosen by the promoter. The annual events came to an end in the summer of 1988, when Van Halen headlined the "Monsters Of Rock" tour. Since then, the stadium has continued to be used as a major concert venue; Eric Clapton notably held his first massive 3-day Crossroads Guitar Festival there in 2004.

Panoramic view of the 2008 Cotton Bowl between Missouri and Arkansas

In popular culture

The stadium was featured in a 1981 episode of Dallas where J.R. Ewing meets Dusty Farlow. The rock band Journey recorded 2 videos in the 1980`s in the Cotton Bowl that are still shown today. The rock band Aerosmith recorded their first live concert at the Cotton Bowl in the late 1970`s.

External links

• Cotton Bowl - City of Dallas
• Cotton Bowl stadium guide
• Satellite image at Google Maps

32°46′46.56″N 96°45′34.56″W