Other Venues, Dallas

Today, I went to the Cotton Bowl! Although the Aggies were outscored today, it was still a fun experience. Our tickets were in the end zone, row 7, but were good for an up close and personal view!

The stadium holds about 70,000 and the turf is natural grass.

Prices for all seats regular seats were $75 for the 2005 Cotton Bowl (sponsored by SBC Communications).

Equipment: Take some sunglasses and check the weather to see if you need a poncho! Also, remember to bring some cash, although there is an atm... it is a bit hard to locate. :)

The American Airlines Center is the marquee location to watch multiple different entertainment events, including the Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Stars, NCAA College Basketball, Music Concerts, the Circus, and many others.

If you attend an event in this center, you will quickly learn there are no bad seats in the house. The entire center has great sight lines, and if you are lucky enough to sit in the luxury suites, there is ample room to stretch out or still sit down in a game time seating configuration.

The AA Center has plenty of refreshment options, although they are a bit pricy, so I would recommend stopping by one of the many restaurants prior to entering the arena.

Parking is fairly easy, as there are lots all around the arena area. You can expect to pay $5-40 USD for parking depending on how close to the venue you get. One option is the platinum parking, which runs about $20 per event, but is right next to the entrance. Also, public transportation is easily available, as Victory Station is directly adjacent to the arena. In my opinion it is actually easier for someone from Ft. Worth to take the train to an event than it is for someone to drive for 10 miles away!

The sports centre is on the northwest corner of the Gerald J. Ford Stadium. The complex was completed in 2000 and has a combined size of 72,000sq ft and named after Paul B. Loyd, Jr. is an SMU alumnus. Loyd was also captain of the Mustangs football team in 1967 when they won the Cotton Bowl Classic.

Equipment: The centre has a sports medicine complex which includes 2 hydrotherapy tanks, numerous rehabilitation stations as well as complete taping and check-up quarters. There is also modern equipment rooms with a state of the art weight room.

The combined cost of the complex was $57 million.

Named obviously for Gerald J. Ford was a 1966 SMU graduate and a 1969 SMU Law graduate and donated $20 million towards the stadium. There are 32,000 seats in the stadium with the possibility of being expanded from a horse shoe shape to and oval, providing and additional 13,000 more seats. The design of the stadium looked long term so that it would also be able to hold a regulation soccer field in SMU's hope to host an NCAA Soccer Tournament, or if Dallas was successful, possibly matches in the 2012 Olympics. The stadium is home of the SMU Mustangs.

Formerly known as Arlington Ball Park , Ameriquest Field is the home of the Texas Rangers. This stadium cost $191 million and took 23 months to build, it has a capacity for 49,178 people. There is an infield tarp that is mounted on hydraulic lifts and stored below ground level. Outside the park there is the Rangers Walk of Fame where you can read about each team in franchise history on the brick path beneath them. Inside the park there is a 17,000sqft museum and children’s learning centre and a 4 story office building. The field itself is 22ft below street level so as to avoid summer winds.

This New Year's day bowl game is a Texas tradition. The stadium is an open air arena in Fair Park and the game features two college teams which are highly ranked. The Cotton bowl seats approximately 70,000 people and usually does quite well with selling those tickets.

College football is an exciting American tradition. The Cotton Bowl is one of many bowl games featured during the holiday season. Besides the January 1 game to start the New Year, there is also an exciting game held in October between the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooner. Because the Red River marks the border between Texas and Oklahoma, this game is known as the "Red River Shootout".