The Cowboys Sold 20,000 Too Many Party Passes

Yesterday at the end of my post on the circus that was the Sunday night opening to the new Cowboys Stadium, I mentioned the fact that the scene in the standing room only could get out of hand in a hurry and it was really only a matter of time. Evidently I was not alone in that feeling. In fact, it only took one game for the Cowboys and the cops to figure out 30,000 people with nowhere to go might not be a great idea.

Yes, 30,000 "party passes" were sold, but at no point did the Cowboys actually say all 30,000 of those fans would actually get in and watch the game. And really, who wouldn't want to put down $29 -- plus parking and plus concessions -- to watch a football game on a TV from a distance in sweltering heat. Oh, and did I mention you'd be smushed up against a bunch of strangers? What a deal! This made the crowd less-than-thrilled, according to the Dallas Morning News:

Many people with standing-room-only tickets quickly became hostile and threw plastic bottles and pounded on glass doors.

[Assistant Fire Chief Don] Crowson said a committee of police and fire officials and Cowboys staff decided to remove the gates between the decks and plazas to allow fans to move freely and reduce the chances of confrontation.

Ah yes, it's the same tactic I used when I once ran an asylum. Those nutty inmates got too loud banging against the doors, so I just opened up the doors and walked away. I never looked back and I went on to Sporting News. (Not to make it sound like a riot broke out, because it didn't. There were 37 arrests, 30 of which were for public intox according to the report.)

The DMN has more in its story about season ticket holders who had to worry about the riff-raff trying to sit in their seats when they were empty, or in the case of one person, a man and a friend who bought party passes but were actually turned away because they were at capacity.

Fret not though, because the Cowboys appear to have come to their senses. They'll be limiting the party passes to 10,000 in the future, something that will burn old Double J up to know he won't be able to crack six digits again. Now that the Cowboys have come to their senses, I wonder if the fans will do the same and just pass on this. Maybe save up the money until they can get a ticket that comes with a seat and everything rather than wasting their cash on a glorified sports bar experience.

(H/T to SportsBusiness Daily -- Subscription Link)

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.