Ford Center serves the Cowboys well for training camp

Count Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett among those who couldn’t have been more pleased with how training camp went for the first time in North Texas.

The Cowboys had six practices open to the public at Ford Center, and drew a total of 44,321 fans. The best attended practice came on Monday with 9,240 showing up to the 12,000-seat venue.

Admission and parking was free for the practices.

“It’s been great, got tremendous fans,” Garrett said. “We have an unbelievable facility [in Frisco] for us to be able to go in there every day and practice. Practice in front of our fans in such a spirited environment. It certainly helped our team a great deal. I think our team responded the right way.”

The Cowboys drew 55,432 over 15 camp practices in Oxnard, California, averaging about 3,700 a day. Frisco had a better attendance average with roughly 7,400.

This year’s camp featured only one set of weekend practices, July 29 and 30 in Oxnard. Those were the best attended practices in California with 7,407 showing up Saturday and 7,671 on Sunday.　

The Cowboys will split training camp between Oxnard and Frisco in 2018, as well. They have an option to continue training in Oxnard in 2019 and 2020.

The Cowboys seem to like the idea of getting away for the early portion of camp in the cooler temperatures of California, and finishing it at their home facility.

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Ford Center serves the Cowboys well for training camp."