A New Day for Mean Green Football

Last fall, I was among those in the alumni marching band who bid farewell to the University of North Texas' Fouts Field after 58 seasons. Across I-35E, we could see the skeleton of what has since been christened Apogee Stadium rising in the distance, and we knew that things would never be the same for Mean Green football once this season began. And today, a not-quite-sellout crowd got to experience it in person.



The fact that the new stadium is across the freeway from the main campus certainly makes it a different game day experience from the outset. Parking on the stadium side is reserved for Mean Green Club members and season ticket holders, or one can park at Fouts Field (which is still there and sits forlornly in the distance, visible from many parts of the stadium) for ten dollars. Or you can do what I did, which is to park in another part of campus just east of Fouts for free; needless to say, the free lots were quite packed even by the time I got there, which was three hours before kickoff. It's quite a long walk from there, but everything is set up well for pedestrian flow, with a lane of the North Texas Blvd. bridge dedicated to walkers.

The tailgating experience is different as well, as several options are now available: The hill east of the stadium (which was built on the site of the university's former golf course) is open to those who wish to set up shop without the actual vehicles present, and a dirt lot across the street from the west side of the stadium is used for those who wish to drive in and park (though a pre-bought pass is required for that lot). Looking at the towering structure from across the street caused many of us to just stand there and bask in the different-ness of things for a while.

As for the stadium itself? I found it to be wonderful. Granted, my experience was atypical, as I managed to score an upgraded ticket to a club member whose wife was out of town. I had enjoyed being a guest in the Hospitality Deck at Fouts on many occasions in the past, and that was one of the things that several of us said we'd miss about the old setup, but the new club experience really provides the best of both worlds. (I'll write another Note after a game where I have a more Joe Average Fan experience, but this was really a great way to enjoy Opening Day.)

The club is entered through a special entrance and reached via elevator. The pregame buffet was tasty and plentiful, and the club room offered a spectacular view from all directions. During the game, club members can sit in their assigned seats (which are just below the press box level), stand on a center deck. or sit at tables or stand on one of two covered patio areas located in the area of each end zone.

During the game, one of the first things I noticed was that it was so much easier to hear everything in this stadium, as it's a lot more of an enclosed box than Fouts (indeed, the knock on Fouts has always been that the field and the seats are separated by a running track, which keeps even the front-row fans way too far away from the action). The PA announcer was heard more clearly, the Green Brigade marching band sounded great (and louder than before) both during the halftime show and in the stands, and the increased intimacy made this fan feel a lot more engaged with the game.

Although the Mean Green did score the first points in the stadium on a first-quarter touchdown, Houston would prevail in the end. Coach Dan McCarney has made some very positive changes in the team in his short time in Denton (one of the things that impressed a lot of people in our seating area was the fact that the team never quit, even when falling behind by over 30 points in the fourth quarter, thanks to nearly 500 passing yards from the Houston offense), but there is still work to be done. But that being said, the team has a spectacular new facility in which to play, a greatly enhanced game day experience for the fans, and they're finally free of the shackles of the white elephant across the freeway, which had to be a negative in terms of recruiting (what blue-chip player would want to come to Denton when his high school facility was undoubtedly nicer than Fouts?). I'm willing to bet that most of the fans came away from today's game with a similar sense of optimism, and their numbers should certainly grow throughout the season.


Several of us alums commented tonight that we couldn't believe that this was the same place where we had gone to school. UNT has undergone many positive changes in the past several years, and this beautiful new stadium is a great addition to not only the physical plant of the campus, but its fall weekend culture as well. I'll be back in two weeks for the next home game.

More Than Just a Place to Lay Your Head

I've been hinting ever since the first full day of TMEA that I would say a few words about the new hotel where I got to stay this time. (And yes, "new" is relative, because it has been a hotel for almost two years now, and the building itself is 80 years old!) I was quite pleased with virtually every aspect of the Drury Plaza Hotel Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio.

The edifice in which it's housed has a storied history, starting in 1929 as the Alamo National Bank Building, and housing a succession of other banks later on. A few years ago, the city issued bonds to redevelop the building into a hotel, and Drury added a special element to the proceedings: The company paid several million dollars to extend the facility to the Riverwalk, completing its circle in the process:

While the River Walk's eight million visitors a year don't seem to mind its horseshoe shape, the design forces them to double back at both ends, adding to the congestion problems there. To ease the traffic, Drury Southwest, Inc., a development company based in San Antonio, TX and Cape Girardeau, Mo., has designed and paid for a $3 million tunnel project at the River Channel area which will add 850 feet of walkway to connect the two ends of the River Walk and create a full circle. A gift to the City of San Antonio, the walkway completion will, not surprisingly, run right in front of the new Drury Plaza Hotel. (Source: San Antonio Business Journal)

Anyone who's into architecture can look at some elevations of the renovation project here, and a more detailed history of the renovation may be found here.

During the renovation, great pains were taken to retain the grandeur of the building's history as a bank. Looking out over the lobby, it's not hard to imagine that former incarnation:



Notice the cool 1930 Ford in the right-hand corner; if car models back then came out a few months before the calendar year like they do now, the car and the building are almost exactly the same age.

Even the check-in area has been made to look a lot like the old bank-teller windows. And in the basement, which now leads to the Riverwalk, there are plenty of old photographs on the wall that chronicle the building's bank days; among the most amusing are those of the "drive-up teller" who actually walked out to your car and the IBM computer that printed out the bank's annual reports (it's as big as a refrigerator and probably had less storage space as an iPod nano). But the biggest nod of all to the building's history has to be this:



That's right--they've retained the old bank vault door, which now leads to....an employee break room. Heh.

Drury has added some other great amenities to the hotel; not only is there an observation deck on the 22nd floor (from which this picture was taken), but there's a swimming pool up there as well, and the famous spire atop the building (which signaled weather conditions back in the day) lights up once again.

As far as the hotel part goes, I couldn't have been happier; my room was in a corner, which meant that it had six (!) windows (whose curtains I had to remember to close every night to avoid an overabundance of morning sunlight) and almost an L-shaped layout; after coming in the room, it was necessary to make a big right turn to get past the closet/bathroom portion to the sleeping area; this gave the room an additional grandness of scale that's not usually found in places where I stay. The beds were extremely comfortable, the flat-screen plasma TV was great, and the breakfast--like at all Drury hotels--was abundant and free (but this one was served in a giant mezzanine area looking down on the lobby). The hotel staff was professional and courteous--some of the best I've run across; they even tended to smile more, as if to say that this is as great of a place to work as it is to stay.

You might be thinking, "C'mon, Kev, surely there has to be something that wasn't ideal!" Well, OK; the walk down Commerce Street was a little dicey at times, though it's been that way--at least west of Losoya--for a while now. (The Market Street side was a bit friendlier, what with all the new hotels such as the Westin, Hotel Contessa, and Homewood Suites on that street.) But with the Riverwalk extension in place, there's now a good alternative to the streets; the river is well-patrolled and much freer of questionable characters, and it's great exercise to take the long way to the Convention Center.

I got a convention rate for this hotel, so it's probably more expensive to Joe Average Traveler, but it compares favorably to other nearby properties. If I were going to TMEA on my own dime, I would definitely consider this as a prime option.

Farewell to the Hole in the Roof

After 38 seasons, the Dallas Cowboys will play their final game at Texas Stadium tonight, and there's a whole lotta reminiscin' goin' on. I'll add briefly to the collection here.

The building is best known, of course, for what isn't there: the famous hole in the roof. Architecture critic David Dillon puts it best when he says, "It's odd to think of negative space as iconic, but that's what the hole in the roof has become – absence as presence." And he also adds,

That probably wasn't what Cowboys owner Clint Murchison Jr. had in mind in 1969, when he chose a half-dome design for his new stadium in Irving. More likely he was calculating all the money he'd save on heating and air conditioning, which even in the days of $15-a-barrel oil was a bunch. Plus this was football, gladiatorial combat; fans were entitled to a bit of shelter, but players belonged out in the elements, regardless of consequences.

It's interesting to see how things have changed in the intervening decades; in the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, the roof will probably close at the slightest hint of snow.

The Dallas Morning News has put together a special section of Texas Stadium stories, the Web version of which is here. Among other things, the section features reminiscences by the original architect and the longtime general manager of the stadium, as well as lists of some of the top pro, college and high school games played there (it was a highlight of many high schoolers' careers to play under the famous open roof). And one of the best articles in the collection is this one, told from the perspective of the stadium itself, "as told to" writer Brad Townsend.

As for my own memories? I marched there a few times as a member of the UNT Green Brigade marching band (among the things that surprised me the first time I was there: The field is set up in a convex pattern, presumably to aid in drainage during rainy conditions, so it feels like you're marching uphill as you approach the midfield; also, the stars along the sideline are of different sizes, depending on where you are on the field, though they look identical on TV), saw a number of Cowboys games there, including the one that would end up being Tom Landry's final game as head coach, though we didn't know it at the time), and a number of concerts, most notably Pink Floyd (it was weird to see the famous inflatable pig used on the cover of Animals floating in the air juxtaposed against the Ring of Honor in the background). And I also remember the concert I didn't get to see: Billy Joel and Elton John. We made it all the way to the box office, only to find out that the tickets were "cash only," and my friend who drove us only had plastic. D'oh.

It's been said that the two things most people do when they take a stadium tour are look up through the hole in the roof and stand on the star. I don't know if I did that on that first college game day or not, but I'll make it a point to try that at the new place, whatever circumstances might bring me on the field.

I've watched the new stadium go up in Arlington during the past year, and it certainly looks impressive, and in due time, a lot of memories will be made there as well. But for now, it's time to pause and remember a local icon that brought so much enjoyment to so many. With any luck, the "Boys will win the game and send the building out in fine fashion.

UPDATE: Oops. That didn't work so well, did it?

Blowing out the candles: Happy Birthday Dad! As has been the case recently, I don't get to see him on the actual day, but we'll all meet up for Christmas.

A Great Time-Waster (No Fooling!)

Host James Lileks is on a few days' vacation from buzz.mn, and in the post announcing the hiatus, he instructed the buzzerati (as the readers are often known) to come up with their own topics. One of the ones that came up was "interesting websites," and a commenter suggested notfoolinganybody.com, a site dedicated to buildings that formerly housed chain fast-food restaurants but have been converted to something else...with little effort to hide the former identity of the buildings. (The three most popular former tenants appear to be KFC, PIzza Hut and Taco Bell.)

It's a fascinating site (and a great way to kill half an hour), so I would recommend a visit when you have the time. Among my favorite pictures:

• A used-car dealership that used to be an IHOP.


• The chiropractor's office that used to be a KFC (and he kept the bucket on the sign!)


• And the ice cream store that moved into an old Baskin-Robbins and called itself "Basket Rabbit"

I've seen a few bad conversions in my time, so I'll have to take the camera out there and submit some photos of my own; I'll update this post when I do.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my former roomie James.

The Cowboys Won at Lambeau Field for the First Time in History Last Night...

...and after next year's roadtrips, they'll be coming home to this:



Having only the phone-cam in my possession yesterday afternoon, I couldn't quite take a picture (from the upper deck of Rangers Ballpark) that really does justice to the massiveness of the Cowboys' future stadium (nobody knows what it's going to be called yet, but the common local nickname is "Jerry World" because it's the brainchild of owner Jerry Jones), but trust me, this thing is going to be big. And with no individual game tickets for sale, I wonder how long it will be before I actually get to visit (besides on a tour).

Still, with the way the team played last night, it certainly should be exciting next year when this thing opens up.