What kind of question is that? Of course I want to go. People that have never heard of football want to go to Cowboys Stadium. Let alone in a suite.
There were two caveats. One, I had to drive. Two, I had to wear a sport coat because the suite has a dress code. Again, not an issue. I would've ridden to the stadium on a kid's bike in a gorilla costume for the chance to see what a Cowboys' luxury suite looks like.
So I drive us (my grandfather and uncle are with me) to the game. We get there around 11am for the noon kickoff, but there's about 50 minutes of traffic around the stadium. No worries, my grandfather says, because our parking pass is right in front of the stadium.
And he was right. Our parking spot was literally ten feet from the wall of the stadium. We got out of the car, and we were immediately on the stadium sidewalk. It was insane. Of course, my poor Altima was surrounded by Bentleys, Mercedes, and other luxury cars. I'm sure they wondered why the Hell it was even there, and I'm glad it wasn't simply towed on principle.
So the car went through security. Then I went through security. Then I had to show my ticket to three different people to get through various gatekeepers before I arrived in the Owner's Club area. I'm sure the people inside this area were all multimillionaires. And I work a 8-5 job at JPMorgan, even if I was wearing a nice Jos. A Bank sport coat.
But the "welcoming area" is this gigantic dining area with all kinds of food. Prime rib. Chicken and Waffles. Ham. Bacon. Turkey. An omelette station. Meatballs. Little sandwiches. And some of the best damn macaroni and cheese I've ever had. Apparently it all switched after halftime, but I didn't know that so I didn't have any room for anything else.
Oh, and the suite had some food too. Just jumbo shrimp cocktail and some pretty awesome chips and queso. Just snacks, I guess. And then the suite had every kind of drink you could imagine. Beer. Wine. Soda. Water. Liquor. Everyone had a bloody mary or a glass of wine or a pepsi. And it seemed endless.
The suite itself wasn't any larger than a suite at the American Airlines Center. And the view was pretty solid. We were over to the side a bit, but you could see everything without relying on the scoreboard too much.
The game itself sucked. Nothing exciting, and both offenses really struggled with penalties and ineffectiveness. Of course, one of the big things about sitting in a suite is that it's hard to really cheer. You're usually sitting with older people who aren't the kind of rowdy fans that I'm used to sitting with. So something happens and you kinda clap like a good golf shot was just hit.
And the way we did it was a bit strange. Despite the close parking, we arrived about three minutes into the game (Tony had already thrown an interception). Then, we sat and watched a couple series before my grandfather wanted to go eat. And even though you can bring food back, we just sat and ate in the dining area. There were TVs and audio in the room, but it was a bit weird to watch a game on TV when I'm in the stadium. I also thought it was weird to watch football while eating prime rib.
In the 4th quarter, the Cowboys were lining up for a field goal to go up 16-7 with a couple minutes left. My grandfather decides it's time to leave and beat the traffic. I'm not going to disagree with anything he says on this trip so I allow it. We leave with two minutes (which ended up being pretty exciting from what I could hear on the radio) and beat traffic home. We did make good time, but it was very strange to leave a game early.
So we arrived late. Missed a touchdown because we were eating in a dining area. And left early. As far as football goes, it was pretty bad. But as far as the experience goes, it was pretty cool. Not something I would like to do on a regular basis, but I can definitely see the allure of buying one of these boxes if you have a crazy amount of money.
If only we could get some
