As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the Cowboys open their Ours-Is-Bigger new stadium for real on Sunday, against the Giants. With its giant, punt-swallowing scoreboard and its $60 pizzas, it’s being called the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” even though by our count that only makes it the second “Eighth Wonder of the World” in the state. But though it’s the first game in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium — hell, even though it’s any football game anywhere in Texas — the team hasn’t sold out Sunday’s opener yet, meaning it technically risks a television blackout in Dallas.
Now, neither the Cowboys nor the NFL think this will actually happen, but has the club learned nothing from its partners in hospitality, the Yankees? You can build all the giant scoreboards you want, but if you get too greedy, you’ll eventually price out your fans, even when the interest is there. Case in point: The Cowboys have sold more than 20,000 standing-room tickets to fans who want to be at the game so badly they don’t particularly care if they can actually see the game. To sell the remaining seats, the Cowboys had to release 1,200 tickets for reserved seats to the general public, which didn’t sit well with fans who shelled out thousands of dollars for personal seat licenses for the right to buy comparable tickets. All of which isn’t smart at all, because while pricing out your broke fans is bad, pissing off the rich ones is worse.