$1.2 Billion stadium but they forgot about the football

In a previous thread, there are complaints about a data entry error the Spectator made, however, compared to this story about the new Billion dollar plus stadium in Dallas, the Spectator has nothing to worry about.... :lol:

Seems like the punters are hitting the new video board which hangs over the field :lol: :twisted:

Oooops :rockin:

[url=http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-farmer-nfl23-2009aug23,0,3883808.story]http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-far ... 3808.story[/url]

[b]Dallas Cowboys' video board at new stadium is in punters' line of fire

[/b]

In the stadium's football debut, an exhibition game punt hits the underside of the huge screen and the ball is ruled dead. Jerry Jones doesn't see a problem. Titans Coach Jeff Fisher begs to differ.
By Sam Farmer

August 22, 2009

The Dallas Cowboys were hoping to raise the roof Friday when they unveiled their new stadium.

Turns out, they might have to raise the video board, which is in the line of fire for punts. Or the league could be forced to examine its rules.

"It's something we're going to have to look at in the next week," Mike Pereira, the NFL's director of officiating, told The Times on Saturday. "We need to see if there's anything further we can do to make sure there's equity involved if it happens again."

The problem: In the third quarter of Friday night's exhibition game against Tennessee -- the first football game in Dallas' $1.2-billion palace -- a punt by the Titans' A.J. Trapasso struck the underside of the gigantic video screen, hanging 90 feet above the field and stretching from one 20-yard line to the other.

The ball bounced straight down and was ruled dead, meaning the down had to be replayed. And the plunking wasn't surprising, seeing as second-stringer Trapasso hit the video board at least three times during warmups, and starter Craig Hentrich nailed it a dozen more.

Afterward, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he does not plan to move the board higher from the stadium floor (although reportedly it is being temporarily raised by 25 feet in October to accommodate the stage for a U2 concert).

"That's not the point," Jones told the Dallas Morning News after the game. "How high is high if somebody just wants to sit there and kick the ball straight up?"

But Titans Coach Jeff Fisher, co-chairman of the competition committee, said he considers it a problem, one complicated by the fact coaches will have to keep their red challenge flags at the ready because officials are watching for illegal blocks and not the arc of the ball.

"It's an issue, yeah," Fisher told reporters. "I'm sure the Cowboys or the league will tell you, I shouldn't have to throw the flag out there because [officials] didn't see the ball hit the scoreboard. Now, it's not necessarily their responsibility. Once a fair catch signal is given, then there are no eyes on the ball anymore. So they don't see it. So something has to get worked out. It can become a problem."

Pereira said it's entirely possible that a team trying to protect a lead could run time off the clock by intentionally punting the ball into the video board and getting a do-over. He said there is no rule for putting time back on the clock in that situation.

"We haven't talked at all about time being put on the clock," he said. "The only thing we've talked about really is the do-over of the play. We've never talked about resetting the clock back to where it was. That's obviously something we're going to have to talk about. And that may be what we arrive at.

"I would say that it's a big enough issue that we're going to have to address it with the competition committee here probably sometime this week to figure out what direction we want to go."

LOL!! Gee, couldn't see this coming.
Pretty funny.

I guess in the back of my mind I had faith in the brains of the engineers running the place that they'd position the thing out of the range of a punter. Should've know better.

Guess that's all you get for $1.2b.

"That's not the point," Jones told the Dallas Morning News after the game. "How high is high if somebody just wants to sit there and kick the ball straight up?"

This is a strange statement. He should know that a kicker doesn't just kick the ball straight up for the heck of it. It's usually done as part of a strategy. Why should a scoreboard take away your choice to do that or not? That's like saying a slugger in baseball can only hit a home-run if the ball only goes 5 rows up in the stands.......but you can't hit it any further than that.

Like in baseball, golf and basketball, there should be no limits when it comes to anything vertical considering normal human capabilities. Sure, technically, the actual roof of a dome is a limitation, but I think we'd all agree that it would be impossible for a punter to hit it. But a low hanging scoreboard that goes from one 20 yard line to the other 20 yard line?.........yeah, the designers and/or engineers should have studied this factor and researched how high punters in the NFL can kick the ball. That kick was not a one in a million shot.......it happened in the first ever game so that tells me this is a huge problem. And to avoid doing it, kickers would have to purposely take something off their punts.......and that's not a good thing.

The Punters and Kickers Before Game where taking Bids on who could hit the Score Board.
I was Watching the Game on NFL Network and they Troy Ackman was talking about it
Then Durring the Game Bang right into the Score Board ..

That would not have Happened at the Cotton Bowl lol

I'm quite surprised the engineers didn't spot this very obvious mistake.
The 90 foot height makes this scoreboard very reachable by kickers.

I think that in time, (likely a short time) the NFl will make them change it.

I suspect the engineers probably did notice this problem, and were over-ruled by Jones or some other stuffed shirt who was more concerned about aesthetics and/or marketing. Or it may be that the scoreboard (or its current dimensions) weren’t part of the original building plans. If it doesn’t interfere with safety or structural integrity, the people signing the cheques are usually allowed to push through bad decisions like this one.

"At the 1976 Pro Bowl, Ray Guy became the first punter to hit the Louisiana Superdome video screen. Officials raised the screen from 90 feet to 200 feet."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Guy

So...there's been at least 33 years of knowledge about kickers with hangtime, overhead screens in domes, and the ability of kickers to hit said screens. Props to the engineers for being asleep on the switch. :wink:

Oski Wee 5.0 Second Hangtime,

Slight oversight I guess but then it wasn't that expensive of a stadium anyways. :lol:

Well not exactly true. What happens when a baseball hits the catwalk or speakers in Tampa Bay? Or a puck hits the scoreboard at centre during a hockey game?

The situation is not completely uncommon. Plus, Jones’s scoreboard is above the NFL’s required 90 ft. I do agree it is kind of a stupid idea to put it as low as he did but at the end of the day he followed the guidelines in place.

It’s the SIZE of it that makes this a big issue for the Competition Committee. Unlike the Superdome video screen situation, the current on-field “huddle view” cams, or other airborne obstacles, this sucker has such a massive surface area that can be hit that it will be have to be raised at some point, IMHO.

From ggower.com at http://ggower.blogspot.com/2008/08/whos … allas.html

"The Dallas Cowboys will have the largest video scoreboard of any sports facility when their new stadium opens in 2009. The scoreboard, pictured above, features two “sideline displays” measuring 159 feet x 71 feet, and two “endzone displays” measuring 50 feet by 28 feet. There will be also more than 3,600 linear feet of ribbon board LED displays. Mitsubishi is supplying the LED screens, and recently revealed these specs:

Center-Hung – Sideline Displays (2)
Width: 159’ 7-1/16?
Height: 71’ 4-3/4?
Total LEDs: 10,584,064
Pixel-Pitch: 20mm
Screen Area: 11,393 square feet
Power Consumption: 635 Kilowatts
Screen Weight: Approx. 170,000 lbs
Video Source: 1080p HDTV
Resolution: 2,176 x 4,864
Installation start date: October, 2008
Installation completion date: June 1, 2009

Center-Hung – End Zone Displays (2)
Width: 50’ 4-3/4?
Height: 28’ 6-3/4?
Total LEDs: 2,088,960
Pixel-Pitch: 16mm
Screen Area: 1,439 square feet
Power Consumption: 80 Kilowatts
Screen Weight: Approx. 25,000 lbs
Video Source: 1080p HDTV
Resolution: 1,080 x 1,920
Installation start date: October, 2008
Installation completion date: June 1, 2009

Sportline.com attempts to give an idea of how massive this scoreboard will be: “Imagine four city buses parked in a line. Now imagine another layer of buses stacked on top of them. Add five more layers and hang the 28-bus cluster over a mental football field.”

Sportsline also reports that the cost of the massive screens will be more than $35 million, the amount that the original stadium in Dallas cost to build in 1971."

Quite the spectacle!

Oski Wee Wee,

Russ

That one big HDTV :lol:

I hate the cowboys but it’s not like the NFL CC didn’t know the size before it was built.

My point isn’t whether they knew or didn’t know – or when. What I’m addressing is that the size of the GINORMATRON means that there is plenty of it to hit and it’s not like they can hold a Super Bowl there and have re-kick after re-kick. They are going to have to raise it, I would think.

Oski Wee Wee,

Russ of The Ray Guy For Canton Association :wink:

You build a 1.2 bil stadium but don't comission a $1,000,000 study to find out the ideal height from the ground.

This is almost like the problem they have in New York with new Yankee Stadiums. The didn't comission a $2,000,000 study on the wind and now a bunt can go for a home run in right field.

It just seems that the most obvious details are getting left out and they are just too funny. Billions get spent and huge parts of the projects get missed.

question

is this Video board used for replay only and scores or is it also showing the actual play as it happens?

if it is showing the actual play,why buy a ticket to watch a big T.V.?? :roll: :lol:

It is used for both.

Well, good question. :wink:

Oski Wee Wee,

Russ

The NFL Competition Committee has weighed in.

From tsn.ca:

"New York, NY (Sports Network) - The NFL has issued a series of rules changes relating to the video board that hangs over the playing field at the new Cowboys Stadium.

After a punt by Tennessee’s A.J. Trapasso hit the massive overhead screen during last Friday’s preseason game at the new $1.15 billion stadium, the NFL’s competition committee convened this week to determine how to address the situation.

The league’s new ruling states that any ball in play that hits the video board, guide wires, sky cam or any other object will be declared dead and the down will be replayed from the previous spot.

Coaches will also have the opportunity to challenge a play if a team believes interference occurred and it was not ruled as such on the field. The replay official can also initiate a booth review, before or after the two-minute warning.

If the down is replayed in such an occurrence, the game clock will be reset to the time remaining when the snap took place and all penalties will be disregarded, except for personal fouls.

“We will continue to address the particular circumstances in Dallas, giving full consideration to the competitive, safety and fan experiences involved,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in a release by the league. “The Cowboys have been fully cooperative as we have addressed the subject and we will continue to work closely with the club on a longer term solution.”

The league stated that the ruling issued Friday is only applicable to the 2009 season and postseason, and will be further addressed after the conclusion of the campaign."

http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=289087

Eventually they will have raise that Titanic, methinks. :wink:

Oski Wee Wee,

Russ

In the meantime, it appears that the Cowboys have to move the scoreboard higher up anyway to make way for musical rock band U2's performance in October. Maybe by that time, they can leave the scoreboard where it was moved up to after the U2 concert and find a way to make everything work while the NFL and everyone keeps their fingers crossed that nothing hits the scoreboard between now and Bono's Dallas date.

[url=http://views.washingtonpost.com/theleague/panelists/2009/08/jerry-jones-roger-goodell-scoreboard-punt-silver.html]http://views.washingtonpost.com/theleag ... ilver.html[/url]

I have read this point elsewhere as well, so hopefully the post-U2 perch will be sufficient to keep Godzillatron from getting hit.

Oski Wee Wee,

Russ

By the way, apparantly they did bring the Dallas punter in to do some testing beforehand..........he was cranking them 100' vertical...........so, the decision was made to put it at 90'

brilliant...... :roll: