Is Jerry World Everything that's Wrong with America?

Wednesday

Sep232009

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 1:46AM

Build2Sustain likes to cultivate a positive narrative when it comes to the design/build industry. As company in general, we don't like criticizing other projects. It's not our style. But sometimes when you're watching or experiencing something it just clubs you the head over and over and I felt the need to share my thoughts over the blog. I'm interested in what you all think about the subject.

I am a big football fan, I could watch any two pro teams slug it out on the gridiron but I'm an especially big fan of the NY Giants. They played the Sunday night game this week and were set to do battle with the dreaded/hated/loathed Dallas Cowboys. The star of the game wasn't Eli Manning (though is two minute drill at the end of the game was classic Eli, and won the Giants the game) or Romo (the usual mix of specatular and spectacularly bad) it was the new stadium where the game was being played. Officially called Cowboys Stadium, unofficially referred to as "Jerry-World" this stadium may represent everything that's wrong building in America. First a few facts:

The new stadium replaces the iconic original Cowboys Stadium with it's famous hole in the roof design.
It was expensive-clocking in at $1.1 Billion Dollars
Despite the name "Jerry World" nearly 1/3 of the cost of the structure was paid for by Texas tax-payers through bonds paid for by increased tax revenue.
It has hosted or will host 15 signed events, including a U2 concert and the NBA all-star game.
Tickets aren't cheap. From Time Magazine:

Team Marketing Report, a sports-business publisher, maintains a Fan Cost Index, which is the average cost for a family of four to purchase tickets, food and drink, programs, caps and parking. For the league as a whole, that number is $412.64 per game. For the Cowboys, it's a whopping $758.58, largely because the average ticket price, $159.65, is more than twice the league average.

Now for some facts on the building itself:

3 Million sq. feet
It's as long as the Empire State Building is Tall
The Screen, is the newest icon. The JumboTron weighs in at 600 Tons, it's over 7 stories all, and 160 ft. long

So what we have here is a 3 million square foot structure, that will be used with a $1.1 billion dollar price tag that will be used (generously) 30 times a year (in reality, less than 20). We have a structure deemed important enough to actually increase taxes on citizens to help pay for it (meanwhile, we INSIST no new taxes for something like, say, healthcare) and we have a screen so large, so overpowering, one wonders, why not just stay home and watch?

I will give Jerry Jones, NBC, and the rest of the media covering the opening of the stadium some credit. There wasn't even an attempt to green wash the new stadium. There was no discussion of the energy use restricition, or water consumption checks, there was no discussion about any of the "green" measures of the building. We should be fair here and point out that Cowboys had enlisted the new stadium to be part of a program called Performance Track. The trouble is that program no longer exists. That said the Cowboys have articulated some green goals.

team spokesman Brett Daniels said. Those goals include reducing solid waste by 25 percent, cutting energy use by 20 percent and saving 1 million gallons of water annually compared to what would be produced were green measures not in place. Related design elements include the stadium’s translucent retractable roof and green parking lots that facilitate stormwater runoff.

“Our commitment has not changed,” Daniels said.

The above statement means very little. A reduction is solid waste and energy use compared to doing NOTHING? That's like a 500lbs man cutting out cake, getting down to 450lbs and saying "see I did something."

However, if we were looking for anything but celebratory coverage of the new mega-stadium NBC wasn't the place. Instead we had the entire crew of broadcasters gushing about how amazing being in a really big building was. How amazing a really big screen is, and wondering when a punt would hit the bottom of it. Never mind it's a resource hog, it costs citizens tax dollars, and middle class americans can't afford to see a game there.

The bottom line, when it comes to stadium building, we like big. Never mind the Cowboys had a perfectly good stadium that was selling out regularly. Never mind that there really was no NEED for a new structure to worship a football team. Never mind the materials and energy footprint of a building his large is really quite unfathomable. I mean forget all that, as Chris Collinsworth said during the game breathlessly, "THE SCREEN WEIGHS A MILLION LBS!!!"

As you can tell as a company dedicated to make our existing building stock work better and more sustainably, the idea of building a mega-structure in honor of a football team doesn't make a whole a lot of sense. But then closing two baseball stadiums in New York for two new ones didn't either. Nor does the $1.6 billion stadium the Giants/Jets are building make a lot of sense either. Not when I watch the game and I'm peppered with ads telling me that I "do more with less" or "save money and live better" or I watch the Prius over and over tell me about it's fewer smog-forming emissions. The irony of watching a football game being played in a stadium with an enormous energy-sucking carbon-belching footprint being sponsored by a car that's supposed to make the air a little cleaner is astounding.

One last point, for those out there that would say that I'm somehow looking to restrict choice or that it's not my place to tell Jerry Jones how to spend his money I have two points:

1. It wasn't all his money.

2. He certainly can do whatever he pleases with his money.

The question I'd like us to ask ourselves though is why is he showered in accolades for building Jerry World? Why do we gush over the simple size and scope of a stadium instead of questioning in necessity? Why did the city and country rapidly OK a tax increase to build this thing, but fights raising taxes to pay for things like schools and healthcare?

This recession was supposed to teach us a lesson about using our resources, including money and time, more wisely. I guess when it comes to stadiums, it's a lesson we're not willing to learn.

James Bedell |

7 Comments |

tagged

Dallas Stadium,

Jerry Jones,

Stadium Building

Reader Comments (7)

I just cracked up when I heard the punt had hit the bottom of the scoreboard, but in the context of sustainable building it really is not funny.

You need to marry this post with the recent one about consumerism ... when you get the football crowd fully buying in to the sustainble design and construction model and its implications, you will have reached your goal.

On a final point, the truly best point in here was the loathing of the Cowboys while the weakest was pumping Eli ... but maybe that is geography talking!

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