Cotton Bowl (stadium)

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Cotton Bowl
Location	1300 Robert B. Cullum Boulevard Fair Park Dallas, Texas, USA
Broke ground	1932
Opened	1932
Owner	City of Dallas
Operator	City of Dallas
Surface	Grass
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-present)
Capacity	76,000

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.

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.

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] ^[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. ^[2]

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.

[edit] 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 1980s 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 1970s.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Cotton Bowl - City of Dallas
• Cotton Bowl stadium guide
• Satellite image at Google Maps
• World Class Memories: VIRTUAL WCCW TOUR - COTTON BOWL

Preceded by first stadium	Home of the Dallas Cowboys 1960 – October 11, 1971	Succeeded by Texas Stadium
Preceded by first stadium	Home of the Dallas Texans 1960 – 1962	Succeeded by Municipal Stadium
Preceded by first stadium Dragon Stadium	Home of the Dallas Burn 1996 – 2002 2004 – 2005	Succeeded by Dragon Stadium Pizza Hut Park
Preceded by first stadium	Home of the Cotton Bowl 1937 – 2009	Succeeded by Dallas Cowboys New Stadium
Preceded by Rich Stadium	Host of the Drum Corps International World Championship 1991	Succeeded by Camp Randall Stadium

v • d • e Current NCAA Division I FBS college football bowl game stadiums Alamodome (Alamo) • Aloha Stadium (Hawaiʻi, Hula) • Amon G. Carter Stadium (Armed Forces) • AT&T Park (Emerald) • Bank of America Stadium (Meineke) • Bronco Stadium (MPC Computers) • Cotton Bowl (Cotton) • Dolphin Stadium (Orange, BCS Nat'l Champ.) • Florida Citrus Bowl (Champs Sports, Capital One) • Ford Field (Motor City) • Galena Park ISD Stadium (North-South Classic) • Georgia Dome (Chick-fil-A) • Independence Stadium (Independence) • Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (Gator) • LP Field (Music City) • Ladd Peebles Stadium (GMAC, Senior) • Legion Field (Papajohns.com) • Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (Liberty) • Louisiana Superdome (New Orleans, Sugar) • Qualcomm Stadium (Poinsettia, Holiday) • Raymond James Stadium (Outback) • Reliant Stadium (Texas, East-West Shrine) • Rogers Centre (International) • Rose Bowl (Rose) • Sam Boyd Stadium (Las Vegas, All-American) • Sun Bowl Stadium (Sun, Texas v. Nation) • Sun Devil Stadium (Insight) • Tropicana Field (St. Petersburg) • University Stadium (New Mexico) • University of Phoenix Stadium (Fiesta)

v • d • e College football venues in Texas Division I FBS Big 12 Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (Texas) • Floyd Casey Stadium (Baylor) Jones AT&T Stadium (Texas Tech) • Kyle Field (Texas A&M) Conference USA Gerald J. Ford Stadium (SMU) • Rice Stadium (Rice) • Robertson Stadium (Houston) • Sun Bowl Stadium (UTEP) Mountain West Amon G. Carter Stadium (TCU) Sun Belt Fouts Field (North Texas) Division I FCS Southland Bowers Stadium (Sam Houston State) • Homer Bryce Stadium (Stephen F. Austin) • Bobcat Stadium (Texas State) SWAC Alexander Durley Sports Complex (Texas Southern) • Blackshear Stadium (Prairie View A&M) Division II Lone Star Javelina Stadium (Texas A&M-Kingsville) • Kimbrough Memorial Stadium (West Texas A&M) • Memorial Stadium (Commerce) (Texas A&M-Commerce) • Memorial Stadium (Stephenville) (Tarleton State) • Memorial Stadium (Wichita Falls) (Midwestern State) • San Angelo Stadium (Angelo State) • Shotwell Stadium (Abilene Christian) Division III American Southwest Gordon Wood Stadium (Howard Payne) • Jackson Field (Sul Ross State) • Matador Stadium (Texas Lutheran) • Ornelas Stadium (East Texas Baptist) • Shelton Stadium (Hardin-Simmons) • Tiger Field (Mary Hardin-Baylor) • Wilford Moore Stadium (McMurry) SCAC E.M. Stevens Football Stadium (Trinity) • Jerry Apple Stadium (Austin) NAIA CSFL Rose Stadium (Texas College) Independent Lumpkins Stadium (Southwestern Assemblies) Alamodome • Cotton Bowl • Dallas Cowboys New Stadium • Galena Park ISD Stadium • Reliant Stadium

v • d • e Venues of the 1994 FIFA World Cup USA Citrus Bowl (Orlando) • Cotton Bowl (Dallas) • Foxboro Stadium (Massachusetts) • Giants Stadium (New York/New Jersey) • Pontiac Silverdome (Detroit) • RFK Stadium (Washington, D.C.) • Rose Bowl (Southern California) • Soldier Field (Chicago) • Stanford Stadium (Northern California)

v • d • e Football stadiums of the Big 12 Conference North Division Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium (Kansas State) • Faurot Field (Missouri) • Folsom Field (Colorado) • Jack Trice Stadium (Iowa State) • Memorial Stadium (Kansas) • Memorial Stadium (Nebraska) South Division Boone Pickens Stadium (Oklahoma State) • Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (Texas) • Floyd Casey Stadium (Baylor) • Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (Oklahoma) • Jones AT&T Stadium (Texas Tech) • Kyle Field (Texas A&M)

v • d • e Drum Corps International World Championship host venues Warhawk Stadium (1972-73) • Schoellkopf Field (1974) • Franklin Field (1975-76) • Mile High Stadium (1977-78) • Legion Field (1979-80) • Olympic Stadium (Montreal) (1981-82) • Miami Orange Bowl (1983) • Grant Field (1984) • Camp Randall Stadium (1985-87,1992,1999,2002,2006) • Arrowhead Stadium (1988-1989) • Ralph Wilson Stadium (1990,1995,2001) • Cotton Bowl Stadium (1991) • Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium (1993) • Foxboro Stadium (1994) • Citrus Bowl (1996-98,2003) • Byrd Stadium (2000) • Invesco Field at Mile High (2004) • Gillette Stadium (2005) • Rose Bowl Stadium (2007) • Memorial Stadium, Bloomington (2008) • Lucas Oil Stadium (2009-13, 2015–18)

32°46′46.56″N, 96°45′34.56″WCoordinates: 32°46′46.56″N, 96°45′34.56″W