Dallas Can't Do Anything Right

First, let me say that I love Dallas. I've been all across the country, and there's no place I'd rather call home. It has great weather (at least for me), all my favorite teams, all my favorite people, and some of the most beautiful women on the planet. Plus, like all Texas, I have that ridiculous over-pride in my city and state.

That being said, the city is a mess. Let's first look at it from a purely sports-based angle. The city blew the chance to bring the Cowboys back to Dallas, opting instead to pump money into the aged Cotton Bowl. And let's not forget the decision to release the championship parade route after game two of the 2006 NBA Finals (a series the Mavs would eventually blow...and I believe in karma).

Outside of sports, the Dallas ISD is a ridiculous mess, and the police department has spent the last couple of years getting rid of a horde of corrupt cops. Then there's the Trinity River Project...a pipe dream that will never happen, and it led to the ridiculous Industrial Blvd re-naming controversy.

Then there was last night...the Big D NYE celebration at Victory Park. I went to the one last year; I had Stars' tickets, and I thought it would be fun to go to the inaugural one in case it got really big. I had my Stars' tickets again last night, and I thought it'd be fun to go again. I had three separate groups of people I planned on meeting there, and I was ready to bring in the new year in style.

So I went to the game, and the Stars won in regulation. That meant that we were right outside the stadium at 10pm with an hour before the NYC ball and two hours before our own. Plenty of time.

The previous year, we just walked outside the stadium right into the festivities, but during the game, they kept announcing that the plaza exit would be closed. So my friend Tim and I exited and walked around, making our way towards Victory Plaza. And, immediately, we ran into a gate. People were piled into the street, and no one was getting inside. Rumors spread that the fire marshall wasn't letting anyone else into the plaza.

There are two problems with this. First of all, we walked immediately from the game to the plaza. Of all the people who stayed for the entire game (one that was in doubt until 40 seconds remained), we were probably in the first couple hundred to get to the barricade.

That basically meant that about 15,000 people were automatically excluded from getting inside. Which is odd because I thought the hockey game was supposed to, you know, kick off the whole thing.

The second problem was this...a fire code violation? Isn't that something that should've been foreseen? I'm guessing neither the size of Victory Plaza nor the fire code changed in the last year, and I can't imagine that the celebration simply attracted more people than the city expected. I'd heard nothing in the news about "getting there early" and I'd definitely heard nothing about "either go to the hockey game or get inside."

And Tim kept thinking aloud about how stupid it was that they weren't letting people in because of a fire code violation, but they packed us in outside a gate. If a fire did happen, the people who were being "saved" by the fire code would've simply run into a swarm of people....and a gate. How is that safe?

Either way, Tim and I kept hearing about places where we might get in. We heard that people were getting in 5 at a time as long as 5 people were leaving, so we moved to the front corner of the plaza. There, I became very familiar with a few people in the city. We were so cramped up there that modesty simply wasn't an option, and claustrophobia would've easily killed anyone in attendance. If you were the kind of person who likes copping a feel, it was heaven...because it happened whether you liked it or not.

And that's where we watched the NYC ball drop....cramped in a corner of the plaza. I kept thinking that people (maybe parents with kids) would leave after 11pm, and since we were near the front of the entrance, we might be able to meet up with our friends who were already inside.

It's about that time that my sister announced that her group had shown up, and we learned that my roommate's group had decided to skip it altogether. So of the four groups, we were caught in the corner, one group was inside, one group stayed home, and one group was God Knows Where. And it seemed impossible to meet up with any of them.

One of the guys inside kept insisting that there was an entrance that wasn't being watched. Tim wanted to check it out, and we decided to go around 11:30. We got there and waited for a minute as seemingly-random people were allowed entrance. Some drunk people kept trying to get one of their girls to flash the guard to let us in (one was about to), but the guard finally announced that only people with a special wristband would be let in.

With that, Tim and I decided to try and find my sister. But, by that point, the entire street was packed, and we had to make our way through to get a spot in front of the plaza. We ended up finding an okay spot, and I think it ended up being pretty fun. By the time things calmed down, my sister's group had already left and our old college friends were already on the train back to Ft. Worth.

All in all, I think it was pretty fun, but I think the whole thing just reeked of poor planning. People that go to the Stars' game shouldn't be automatically excluded from attending the party inside (in fact, it might even should be the opposite), and there should've been significantly better crowd control. Of course, our groups should've planned better, but I don't think that's really the point.

It was only the second annual event, and I'm hoping the city learned from its mistakes. Victory Park is really cool, and that has a chance to be a really great celebration for Dallas. But the city seems to always find a way to screw things up, and I guess this isn't an exception.

My final question is this...why can't we get a real band to play? I don't have much against cover bands, but Dallas is a top five media market. Can we not get an actual professional band to play at our one big celebration of the year? There are a number of famous bands from around the area, and I'm sure one would've agreed to play there. Would it have cost money? Probably. But I'm sure the city can find a way to pay for it without charging admission (whether it be tax money or corporate sponsorship).

It just seems cheap to have some random guy singing Metallica in the second largest city in Texas. I'm not suggesting we'd have to get the Killers or something gigantic, but I'm sure some medium-sized band would've loved to have played at Victory last night.

So for those of you who want to go to Big D NYE next year, make sure to get there early if you want to get inside. And if you plan on meeting up with people or going to the Stars' game, good luck with that.

Happy New Year, everyone.