‘Las Vegas-style’ architecture coming to Cowboys & AT&T Stadium’s neighborhood
The city of Arlington recently approved spending $273 million, without voter approval, on future improvements to and around AT&T Stadium to ensure the venue remains relevant, and its primary tenant is not tempted to look elsewhere for a new home.
Arlington Mayor Jim Ross defends why the expense did not need to go to a ballot.
“I would argue that whoever was in office, they would have done the same thing,” Ross told the Star-Telegram in an interview Wednesday evening in Fort Worth. “We are doing within the confines of what the voters already approved [in the original vote, in 2004]; we are not writing a $273 million check. This is being paid out of future tax revenues, and the Cowboys are fronting all of that money.”
And, he also outlined exactly what this $273 million will “buy” in terms of visible improvements to the stadium itself, and specifically the area outside its walls.
New improvements to AT&T Stadium and its surrounding streets
AT&T Stadium opened in 2009, and the measure that was passed by the Arlington City Council on April 21 promises that the city will give the Dallas Cowboys $273 million over the next 20 years, and the team will invest “at least” $750 million for the “maintenance, operation, and improvement of the complex” through 2055.
What will all of this money buy? A video board bigger than Alaska?
“[Fans] will see some radically different things,” Ross said of the future changes to the stadium. “For instance, pedestrian safety is a critically important thing around AT&T Stadium, particularly around Collins [Street] and Randol Mill Road, and Division [Street] and Randol Mill.
“You can expect to see these magnificent, Las Vegas-style, big, wide decorative pedestrian crossovers that get people from the west side of Collins to the AT&T Stadium area that does it in a safe, protective way.”
The “Las Vegas” style crossovers are bridges that feature escalators that take pedestrians over six lanes of traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard in Sin City. This type of addition to a few intersections around AT&T Stadium would dramatically change, and improve, how fans can walk in and around the venue.
The intersection of Randol Mill Road and North Collins Street in Arlington is the corner of the northwest side of AT&T Stadium; on game days, it is often swamped with pedestrians, and traffic, as fans navigate entry to the venue.
“We will see decorative barriers that keep people from doing stuff like what happened in New Orleans, where a crazy person drove his truck into people,” Ross said.
Ross is referring to the tragedy on Jan. 1, 2025, when a driver drove his pickup truck into a crowd on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street; 14 people were killed, and more than 50 people were injured.
The streets around AT&T Stadium in Arlington really have no barriers on the sidewalks that surround the venue.
Ross promised other changes to AT&T Stadium, including those that the average fan may not see during a football game, or concert.
“You are going to see huge changes in the technological advances that take place when it comes to people-screening, packages-screening, and all of that kind of stuff that people may not see personally, but you have to stay up to date with technology,” Ross said. “We are putting a type of film on the windows that keeps projectiles from going through the glass. Those are the things that really matter.”
As far as some of that cash going toward the purchase of a curtain that could hang in the west end zone to block out the late afternoon sun that has become a maddening characteristic of Dallas Cowboys’ games that kickoff at 3:35 p.m.?
Ross was clear about this, too: “Ask Jerry Jones.”
