Jerry Jones' Bad Karma Raising An Arlington Super Bowl Stench

7th Haven is a bar on 7th Avenue in Fort Worth, located near Montgomery Plaza. 7th Haven is known for putting clever messages on its sign.

The clever message currently is..

"HOW DID YOU NOT INSTALL

PRE SOLD SEATS ON TIME

BAD WEATHER     LAWSUITS

SMELL THE BAD KARMA JERRY"

I believe the BAD KARMA being referred to, regarding Jerry Jones, is the bad karma generated by the way Jerry Jones came to have his new stadium in Arlington where the Super Bowl was recently played.

To very bad reviews for a lot of reasons.

The Bad Karma arose when Jerry Jones, in collusion with the City of Arlington, colluded to bring about what many believe to be the Worst Case of Eminent Domain Abuse in American history. Dozens of homes and apartment complexes and businesses were taken, for a private business. Thousands of Americans were displaced, forced to move.

Back in 2007, when it was announced that the Dallas Cowboy Stadium had won Super Bowl XLV I opined that despite all the breathless local puffery about this supposed coup, that it was likely not going to turn out the way some of the locals dreamed it would. I said it would not be pretty when the national media gets a look at that giant futuristic spaceship of a stadium, plopped down in a rundown American neighborhood with industrial/urban blight on 2 sides.

As it turned out, the national media was even less pretty than I thought it would be.

Way back when I saw the level of destruction going on in Arlington, with giant piles of rubble, I started webpaging the ongoing Dallas Cowboy Stadium project. I think I started doing this in 2004. I recollect flying to Seattle in 2004 and the flight path taking me directly above the destruction zone, affording me a good picture of the moonscape where previously homes had been.

Over the years the webpage that I came to call The Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal, has generated a lot of comments.

Reading those comments is a good example of the Bad Karma Jerry Jones generated, with some who believe in such things, thinking that Bad Karma is what caused Super Bowl XLV to be so Blunderful, with Arlington about as likely to get another Super Bowl as Atlanta is likely to get another Olympics.

Below is a small sampling of the comments I've gotten about the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal that give you an idea of the Smell of Jerry Jones' Bad Karma.

I am one of the victims of the Cowboy greed and insensitivity. Thank you so much for putting such a clear voice to the pain so many of us have suffered. Many of us felt so abandoned by the community, there seemed to be no one speaking up for us and what was being done to us. I am still not back to feeling settled and secure. I feel like I'm the victim of a crime, like I have been burglarized, vandalized and raped, with everyone ignoring the crime with the criminals using the corrupt Texas legal system to declare WAR on people's lives and homes. What if it were the homes of the football players and owners that were destroyed? How would they feel about that? The law is supposed to protect the weakest among us, that is what it is supposed to do, not allow the strongest and richest among us to bring destruction to those with no resources to fight back.

Anonymous out of Fear, Mansfield, Texas

So. I read in the NY Times this morning that Dallas is going to make a bid for the 2011 Super Bowl. To atone for this most despicable abuse of eminent domain I've ever read about will the Cowboys be giving free game tickets to the victims of this atrocity? Will former homeowners be able to park for free on the site of their former driveways? Will there be a historical marker on the spot where the home was located of the elderly lady who died of a broken heart in her condemned home?

Seth M., Jersey City, New Jersey

This destruction in Texas is the worst abuse of eminent domain I have ever read about. Such a thing could never happen in my state.

Del S., Portland, Oregon

It shocks me that this can happen in America. It reminds me of the type of disregard for human rights that my former nation of East Germany practiced.

Gunther H., Berlin, Germany

There you have it. The Smell of Jerry Jones' Bad Karma.

A Visit To The Dallas Cowboys Stadium The Day Before The Super Bowl Along With Thousands Of Other Visitors Finds People On The Stadium Roof

I headed to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium around 3 this afternoon.

I figured with our sudden thaw and return to semi-pleasant temperatures, that there would be a few people out and about.

Well, it was more than a few. Really bad traffic all around the stadium. Throngs of people. No event taking place besides tomorrow's Super Bowl. Near as I could find out.

I quickly realized how bad the traffic was and bailed on getting stuck going west on Randol Mill by the Stadium Wal-Mart. Later I was to see how lucky I was to avoid that traffic jam. The Ballpark in Arlington parking lots were open to the public. Free. I thought that was a nice touch for Arlington to do. If it was Arlington that did it.

Eventually I parked. I soon asked a couple of people if there was some event happening. They said they'd just come to check out the Super Bowl. Eventually I asked a cop the same question. He told me nothing was going on, that it was just people, like me, coming to check out the Super Bowl scene the day before the Super Bowl.

The first picture, at the top is interesting. I have no idea why there were people on the edge of the roof of the stadium. It looks like a helicopter is heading towards them. Being on that roof seemed a bit dicey, what with the fact that yesterday ice and snow was falling off it, hurting people. You could see there was still snow/ice on edge of the roof.

The Cowboys Stadium Wal-Mart Supercenter, across the street from the stadium, has taken some mocking heat in the national press covering the Super Bowl.

I've long thought it looked ridiculous. Somewhere on this computer I have a picture of the Wal-Mart, taken from the perspective of the stadium. It would take me way too long to find that picture.

Today the Stadium Wal-Mart was looking especially tacky due to the addition of porta-potties.

I assume the porta-potties were installed for the convenience of all the cops who appeared to be guarding the parking lot. I asked one of those cops about the huge crowd and he said it had been like this all day. And would be worse tomorrow. And he was glad he would not be on duty.

This particular Wal-Mart is very strict about anyone using their parking lot to park in to attend any event in the  stadium across the street.

The Wal-Mart is already prepared for tomorrow's parking problems, with the sticking of a sign on the sidewalk that runs along Randol Mill Road that separates the Wal-Mart from Cowboys Stadium.

The sign says, "This parking lot is for Walmart customer parking only. If you park your vehicle to attend games or events, your vehicle may be towed at your expense. Thank you."

Doesn't Arlington have any city code type thing that prohibits sticking a sign like this on a public sidewalk?

One more exciting thing. As I walked across the pedestrian/golf cart bridge that crosses Johnson Creek to the parking lots on the east side of the creek, a golf cart passed by with 4 people on board, one of whom had people pointing and saying that is Jimmy Johnson on board.

I also recognized him. From watching him on Survivor.

Prior to seeing him on Survivor I knew nothing of him coaching the Dallas Cowboys back, long ago, when they actually won games and got to play in Super Bowls.

Is Johnson Creek named for Jimmy Johnson, I just this second found myself wondering?

A Visit To The Dallas Cowboy Stadium A Week Before The Super Bowl

With a week to go til Sunday's Super Bowl game I figured today would be a good day to check out what's been done to the Dallas Cowboy Stadium zone.

I figured Sunday morning there would be few people, no traffic, easy to find a place to park.

As I am way too often, I was wrong on all counts.

The first bit of Super Bowl signage that you see here is not on the Dallas Cowboy Stadium, it is on the Ballpark in Arlington, facing the Cowboy Stadium.

Last week I'd read a letter to the editor in either the Fort Worth Star-Telegram or Dallas Morning News where the letter writer opined that he was appalled at the effort Arlington had gone to to spruce up the town in anticipation of visitors coming for the Super Bowl, and then to find that effort negated by all the tackiness that the NFL has sprung up around the Cowboy Stadium.

Texas does a good job of tacky at times. I had to see it for myself.

I don't know that I would call what I saw today tacky. But I can say that what is going on around the Cowboy Stadium may be the strangest thing I've seen since I've been in Texas.

And that covers an awful lot of strange things.

That letter writer mentioned the big fence/wall that has been erected on the east end of the stadium. I have no idea what that wall is stopping us from seeing. I thought maybe it was surrounding the $200 a ticket Party Pass Plaza zone, but it was not located directly outside the east end zone, which is where you get to pay $200 to stand out in the cold for 4 or 5 hours.

Speaking of cold. The National Weather Service has just issued a Severe Weather Warning. We are scheduled to get as low as 12 degrees by Wednesday. Five days before the Super Bowl.

See that long line of white? It is stretching across the former parking lot on the east end of the stadium. I had no clue what this was.

And then I met this nice gentleman named Ludlow Ruckmaker (name and gender changed at the gentleman's request).

Ludlow told me that this long white tent line is how Super Bowlers will enter the stadium. It is where they will go through security.

Ludlow told  me he'd been following the progress of the stadium all the way back to the initial destruction of dozens of homes and apartment complexes, with the displacement of 1000s, in what many consider to be the Worst Case of Eminent Domain Abuse in American History.

When I told Ludlow I'd also been following the Dallas Cowboy Stadium progress, eventually he remembered meeting me before. On my website.

I had wondered why the Party Pass Plaza was only at the east end zone, when there are Party Plazas outside both end zones. Today I saw the reason. On the west side of the stadium the parking lots have been covered by the biggest temporary buildings I have ever seen.

HUGE things that look as if they must have multiple levels. In the picture above you can see what looks like a glass barrel roof between two white temporary structures.

Above I am standing across from the stadium, on Collins Street, looking east at those temporary buildings I just showed you. The pictures do not do justice to how big these are.

Now, what I'm thinking is North Texas tends to have rather dramatic weather. I have been involved with 2 balloon festivals that were destroyed by windstorms.

The Dallas Cowboy Stadium sits in the Buckle of the Bible Belt. There are a lot of people who think that the way the land was taken to build this stadium was all sorts of wrong.

I'm not one who believes there is a vengeance seeking God looking to right wrongs and punish evildoers.

But.

If I were, I would be a bit nervous that a weather disaster might make mayhem of all the temporary stuff that has been erected to worship at this particular temple, next Sunday.

God may likely already be a bit cranky with the Super Bowl, due to the fact that one of the churches near the stadium has cancelled next Sunday's services and is, I believe, selling parking spaces.

That football that you see above, with the Dallas Cowboy Stadium behind it, is in the Stadium Wal-Mart Supercenter's parking lot. That Wal-Mart has a lot of footballs and baseballs stuck on it.

A Mexican TV Station was broadcasting from the Wal-Mart parking lot. The broadcast truck that was powering the equipment had Mexican plates. The guy on the left was interviewing the guy on the right. I figured this might be a Univision show.

Some of the locals seemed quite familiar with the guy who was on the right, taking turns having their picture taken with him. I figure he must be a Mexican TV celebrity. Not til I got the picture off the camera did I realize one of the guys in the picture was wearing a cheese hat.

See the elaborate graphics that have been added to the stadium? Again my pictures do not do justice to how big this is. The end zone graphic is equally impressive.

The parking lots on the east end are covered with a lot of media vehicles, sort of like a combination of an RV and a train boxcar. An elevated catwalk has been built for the media, in this area to the east of the Party Pass Plaza. I guess so pictures can be taken of the people freezing, while standing outside the stadium during the Super Bowl.

The north bound lanes on Collins, by the stadium have been closed off. As have the eastbound lanes on Randoll Mill. This is making for some slow traffic. I've no idea if this is a temporary thing while all the stuff on the parking lots is getting worked on. Or what. The road that you can usually drive on at the east end of the stadium is completely blocked off.

Is this all normal for a Super Bowl? Or has Texas gone and done the Everything is Bigger in Texas thing for this particular Super Bowl?

And what takes place in all those temporary buildings on the west parking lots?

It is all very perplexing. And I've still not been invited to any of the dozens upon dozens of Super Bowl Parties.

If you live in the D/FW zone, trust me, it is worth it to venture into the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Zone to see what happens when a Super Bowl comes to a Texas town.

Last Sunday Of First Month Of 2011 Visiting Dallas Cowboy Stadium Week Before Super Bowl & Monitoring Egypt Via Twitter Tweets

The last Sunday of the first month of 2011 dawned with a temperature of 61. Yesterday we got into the 70s.

I'm thinking I will be a pool boy this morning.

After that I think I'll go check out the Dallas Cowboy Stadium zone this morning. It is a week to go before Super Bowl Sunday.

I read a letter to the editor a few days ago from a man in Arlington complaining about the irony of the fact that the City of Arlington has spruced itself up for the Super Bowl, and then the NFL came to town and totally tackified the area surrounding the stadium.

I am a big fan of all things tacky, so I figure it's worth a look.

Yesterday, in various cities around the country, there were protests in support of those protesting in Egypt. I don't know if there were any support rallies in the D/FW zone. I know several west coast cities had rallies, including Seattle.

When the Egypt type events occur, like when Iran went into upset mode, is about the only time I somewhat get the utility of Twitter. Reading the Twitter Egypt Tweets is sort of like instant news. Within minutes thousands of Tweets show up.

Like right now apparently the Egyptian Air Force is buzzing protesters with jets.

Below is an example of the Tweet flood from a minute ago...

@emptywheel Audible on AJE: Two jet fighters just flew overhead #Egypt

@Di438 #Egypt Protesters shouting over noise of Jets flying overhead @AlJazeera #Freedom

@KristoferKeane Egypt deploying fighter jets against protestors? What outcome do they even expect from that? Are they planning to bomb them?

@TheNewsBlotter #egypt protesters in #Tahrir Square writing “Down w Mubarak” in Arabic in big white letters 

@jhagel RT @nolanjazeera: Aljazeera Cairo bureau has been shut down. Just visited by plain clothes govt security, TV uplink is now closed #Egypt

@JodyField Egypt protests: U.S. advises all Americans to leave and 30,000 Brits are stranded

That's enough Egypt Tweeting. Time to go swimming now. Talk to you later.

If You Qualify You Have Til Thursday To Pay $200 So You Can Stand Outside the Dallas Cowboy Stadium During The Super Bowl

That's the Rose Bowl you're looking at. In Pasadena. A long time ago, with UCLA playing Wisconsin. The top Pac-10 team against the top Big-10 team.

In my younger years the Rose Bowl seemed like a big deal. Nowadays, not so much, even though Fort Worth recently became the Envy of the Nation because a Fort Worth school won the most recent Rose Bowl.

Yesterday brought more weird local football news.

Jerry Jones desperately, for who knows what demented reason, wants to break the NFL Super Bowl attendance record, which is currently 103,985, a record set in the Rose Bowl in 1980 when Los Angeles won Super Bowl XIV.

Jerry Jones has been working on getting the NFL to agree that people buying tickets to stand outside the Dallas Cowboy Stadium during the upcoming Super Bowl should be counted as having attended the game.

Even though these attendees will not be in the stadium and will not be watching the football game in live action mode, instead viewing the game on TV screens. While standing.

The new Dallas Cowboy Stadium has around 93,000 legitimate seats. Jerry Jones will need to sell around 12,000 Party Pass tickets to beat the Rose Bowl record.

Well.

Yesterday NFL Spokesman Brian McCarthy announced that the NFL will count Outdoor Party Pass tickets, purchased by season ticket club seat holders, as part of the official attendance.

I can't help but wonder how many palms got the Jerry Jones grease treatment to cause this ultra-goofy decision to come about.

There are no plans to sell the $200 Party Pass tickets to the general public. Only the 15,000, or so, club seat ticket holders can buy up to 4 Party Pass tickets. Club seat owners have til Thursday to buy Party Pass tickets.

If you are a club seat personal seat license holder in the Dallas Cowboy Stadium, paying anywhere from $16,000 to $100,000 for your seat, you are not guaranteed a chance to buy your seat for the Super Bowl.

Hence the ability to buy 4 Party Passes so you can stand outside while Jerry Jones sells your seat to someone else.

For the Super Bowl the outdoor Party Plaza will be at the east end zone plaza where you get to watch the game on a big TV screen for your $200.

In addition to getting to stand outside the stadium, in your Package of 4 Party Passes, you get one free parking pass, 4 commemorative programs, 4 commemorative scarves (to keep you warm in the likely cold temperatures?). And you will have the privilege of being able to buy overpriced food and beverages. And on top of all that the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders will put in an appearance to try and warm you up.

I do not know what the restroom situation is for the Party Passers. Do you get to go inside the stadium and use modern facilities. Or, for your $200, do you get to use one of those really cool custom-made Dallas Cowboy Outhouses?

Methinks if mine was one of the houses taken to build this stadium, I would be really annoyed to not be allowed to stand, for free, on my former property, outside the stadium, during a football game.

I can't be the only one who thinks this is all nuts, charging $200 per person to stand outside a stadium during a Super Bowl and then counting those standees as having attended the game.

Up Way Before The Sun On An Icy Cold Wednesday In North Texas

I am up a bit early on this frosty Wednesday morning in North Texas. Looking out my computer room window it looks very cold and dark out there, with the view somewhat restricted by a somewhat frosty window.

21 degrees this morning before the sun arrives.

I believe after today we are scheduled to warm up slightly. I am ready for more than a slight warm up.

I heard from someone last night, calling himself Don, who told me those sunglasses I found yesterday on the Tandy Hills are his. Don was able to correctly articulate the serial number on the sunglasses, thus establishing himself as their rightful owner. I will attempt to return the sunglasses to Don today. Apparently without them Don is virtually blind in the bright sun.

This morning in the Dallas Morning News there was an article, the theme of which was, what the 8 teams in the NFL playoffs have going for them that the Dallas Cowboys don't have going for them.

For Seattle, apparently, it is the noisy 12th man, as in very loud fans.

I thought what the article writer, Tim Cowlishaw had to say about the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium was amusing, but I doubt that ancient artifact who built that stadium, Jerry Jones, will find it amusing.....

"As for Cowboys Stadium, well, Jerry Jones figured out how to pack 100,000 people in there. But he also created a cavernous building in which half the fans stare at the big screen hoping to see themselves. A 2-6 home record in 2010 speaks loudly. Like Seattle.--Tim Cowlishaw"

A Rainy Sunday In Texas Musing About America's Team: The Seattle Seahawks

Saturday night when the sun set on North Texas the sky was blue. By Sunday morning's arrival of the sun the sky had filled with clouds and was dripping with extreme prejudice.

In other words, it is raining. Cold and raining. 36 degrees out there right now, with the temperature dropping and snow scheduled to arrive as Sunday progresses towards Monday.

I had planned to return to the Tandy Hills today to search for missing sunglasses. Not mine. Sunglasses belonging to one of those Manly Men who was hiking the Tandy Hills yesterday. I suspect, due to the rain, the lost sunglasses will remain safe until hiking conditions return to normal.

Yesterday, in yet one more clear indicator that I do not pay much attention to NFL football I said something like I did not know if the Seattle Seahawks are out of Super Bowl contention or not.

By Saturday night I was watching the Seahawks play the New Orleans Saints in what I was to learn was a Wild Card game in which the Seahawks had themselves an upset win over the reigning Super  Bowl champs.

Back when the Kingdome was still alive it was known as the loudest stadium in both the NFL and whatever you call the league baseball is played in. I did not know, til reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about yesterday's Seahawk upset, that the new Qwest Field is also known as the NFL's loudest stadium.

How can Qwest Field be louder than the new Cowboy Stadium? Qwest Field is open on the north end with a view of downtown Seattle. Qwest Field has no roof to reflect back noise, Qwest Field holds only something like 70,000 screamers while the Dallas Cowboy Stadium can hold around 100,000.

Has it yet to rain on a Seahawk game in Qwest Field? I read a couple years ago the lack of rainy games was wreaking havoc with Lesser Seattle's ongoing campaign to always portray Seattle as perpetually dripping.

Apparently Qwest Field is ruled out for a Super Bowl game. Partly because of the weather. The Super Bowl likes a warmer climate. So, why is it being played this year in Arlington? We are currently scheduled for snow followed by a DEEP FREEZE. Come Super Bowl Sunday we could easily be under a 4 inch coating of ice courtesy of an Ice Storm.

Seattle does not get Ice Storms. At least not in my experience. Holding a Super Bowl in Seattle you are right in the downtown of one of the world's trendiest towns, with Qwest Field served by multiple mass transit options. Arlington, where the Dallas Cowboy Stadium sits, has no mass transit.

Qwest Field sits surrounded by all sorts of touristy attractions, including a waterfront. The Dallas Cowboy Stadium is near Six Flags Over Texas and the Ballpark in Arlington, but other than that it sits surrounded by an awful lot of embarrassing urban blight. There is no urban blight surrounding Qwest Field.

I have no idea how many steps remain for the Seattle Seahawks to hurdle to get to the Super Bowl again. I strongly suspect the Seahawks will likely fail to get over one of those hurdles.

I really think, since the Dallas Cowboys don't even play in Dallas, as in the town could not manage to figure out how to erect a new football stadium in the town the team is named after, that this really should be the last nail in the coffin killing Dallas' ridiculous referring to itself as America's Team, which apparently dates from decades ago when Dallas actually had a winning football team.

I think Seattle should be the new America's Team. Seattle has been in a Super Bowl more recently than Dallas. Seattle apparently plays in America's loudest stadium. The team's stadium is actually in its namesake town. Qwest Field is in, by far, a more scenic setting than the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Plus Seattle always shows up near the top of any of those Best of type lists, while Arlington rarely shows up on such lists.

Okay, that is enough locally politically incorrect verbiage from me this rainy Sunday morning....

Rent Your Home For The Super Bowl For Up To $10,000 Per Day & Other Mysteries

The Super Bowl takes place February 6, avid football fan that I am, I know these things.

The Super Bowl takes place in Arlington's Dallas Cowboy Stadium. The Dallas Cowboys will not be playing in the Super Bowl. Not this year. And not into anyone's foreseeable future.

Arlington has no mass transportation. Not even buses. Well, there are these trolley bus-like devices that run a circuit around Arlington's Entertainment District, but no bus transit system, and no rail mass transit.

Unless you count Amtrak, which I assume runs through Arlington.

It seems like it would have been so much better to have built the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, at Fair Park, now served by a DART train line. Dallas has a bus system. And a light rail network that covers a lot of miles.

There are a lot of motels and hotels in the D/FW Metroplex zone. Some of them are quite enormous.

And yet I am seeing signs at all the freeway exits that I have exited from, of late, like today at the Beach Street exit from I-30, offering up to $10,000, per day, to rent out your home for the Super Bowl.

Who would want to rent out their home to some incoming strangers? And why would anyone in their right mind want to pay up to $10,000 a day to stay in some stranger's home when you could spend way less and stay in a very nice hotel?

Are there actually any takers on this bizarre proposal on either end? Someone with a nice home willing to rent it out? And someone willing to pay a lot to stay in it so they can pay $75 to park somewhere near the Dallas Cowboy Stadium and pay who knows how much to actually get inside the stadium?

I have only seen one NFL game in person. Years ago in the Kingdome, watching the Seahawks. Play who? I don't remember. What I do remember was it was so incredibly boring. Much worse than watching it on TV. I don't remember if giant Jumbotrons had been invented at that point in time. I suspect not, because what so struck me was how, unlike watching on TV, the players and plays were so far away, like miniatures.

In the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium you can watch the game on the world's biggest TV screens, hung above the field. Why one would want to do that rather than just watch it at home is a mystery to me.

Avid football fan that I am.