jsmith6919
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Mark Cuban On The Dallas Cowboys Lack Of Home Field Advantage
by Steven Mullenax
It is no secret that the Dallas Cowboys are very popular when they play on the road. In fact, the Cowboys’ fan base sometimes represents a good portion of the crowd during away games. But as of late, it’s been AT&T Stadium that has fell victim to large amounts of opposing fan bases. In fact, Houston Texans’ fans were so loud during this weekend’s overtime win that Cowboys’ starting quarterback Tony Romo was forced to use a silent count…during a home game!
In attendance for that game was the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. During a radio interview with ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd on Tuesday, the Mav’s owner shared his thoughts on the Cowboys playing road games at home.
“There’s always a transition teams go through when they’ve struggled for a long time. Fans don’t trust. And so because of the pricing…look, it costs more for parking at a Cowboys game then a good ticket at a Mavs game cost. It’s expensive. And when fans didn’t have high expectations of the team, and they were wrong obviously, they sold their tickets to get their money back. Because their still fans from other cities that are willing to pay to experience AT&T Stadium and to come to Dallas to watch their team play.”
Cuban would certainly know about opposing fans bases during hard times. Before he bought the Mavericks in 2000, the struggling NBA franchise had won just 40% of their games in their entire twenty year history up to that point.
“When I first bought the Mavs, we used to have Lakers fans, we’d have Spurs fans that would come to the games. And there would be more of those, more Lakers fans then Mavs fans because the Mavs were horrible then. And it killed me. It just made me work harder and put in different programs…After we won the championship (2011), we actually reduced prices for tickets. Last year, we reduced prices on thousands of tickets. Because I don’t look at this as only a place to make money. I really look at the Mavs as I want to have as many people be Mavs fans, I want people to experience it. And I want to win! And to me, winning is more important than the money.”
According to TiqIQ.com, the Dallas Cowboys have the seventh highest initial average ticket price among NFL team in 2014 at $322.28 per stub. But the secondary market offers big money to those season-ticket holders willing to stay home to watch the game. One Dallas fan allegedly received $6,000 for his six $100+ seats for the Week One matchup against the San Francisco 49ers at AT&T Stadium.
As for lowering ticket prices, the Cowboys already offer a relatively inexpensive party pass for $29 that allows massive amounts of fans to stand inside the stadium to watch the game. And that low attendance price could be the very reason opposing fans have such a large presence in Dallas’ home stadium.
But Cuban did offer this one caveat when it came to the Cowboys possibly following in his footsteps.
“But on the flip side, I didn’t spend $1.2 billion to build a stadium either. And so, I don’t have those obligations like Jerry (Jones) does.”
You can hear Cuban’s entire interview from Tuesday here: http://www.espnradio1280.com/common/page.php?pt=herd&id=58
by Steven Mullenax
It is no secret that the Dallas Cowboys are very popular when they play on the road. In fact, the Cowboys’ fan base sometimes represents a good portion of the crowd during away games. But as of late, it’s been AT&T Stadium that has fell victim to large amounts of opposing fan bases. In fact, Houston Texans’ fans were so loud during this weekend’s overtime win that Cowboys’ starting quarterback Tony Romo was forced to use a silent count…during a home game!
In attendance for that game was the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. During a radio interview with ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd on Tuesday, the Mav’s owner shared his thoughts on the Cowboys playing road games at home.
“There’s always a transition teams go through when they’ve struggled for a long time. Fans don’t trust. And so because of the pricing…look, it costs more for parking at a Cowboys game then a good ticket at a Mavs game cost. It’s expensive. And when fans didn’t have high expectations of the team, and they were wrong obviously, they sold their tickets to get their money back. Because their still fans from other cities that are willing to pay to experience AT&T Stadium and to come to Dallas to watch their team play.”
Cuban would certainly know about opposing fans bases during hard times. Before he bought the Mavericks in 2000, the struggling NBA franchise had won just 40% of their games in their entire twenty year history up to that point.
“When I first bought the Mavs, we used to have Lakers fans, we’d have Spurs fans that would come to the games. And there would be more of those, more Lakers fans then Mavs fans because the Mavs were horrible then. And it killed me. It just made me work harder and put in different programs…After we won the championship (2011), we actually reduced prices for tickets. Last year, we reduced prices on thousands of tickets. Because I don’t look at this as only a place to make money. I really look at the Mavs as I want to have as many people be Mavs fans, I want people to experience it. And I want to win! And to me, winning is more important than the money.”
According to TiqIQ.com, the Dallas Cowboys have the seventh highest initial average ticket price among NFL team in 2014 at $322.28 per stub. But the secondary market offers big money to those season-ticket holders willing to stay home to watch the game. One Dallas fan allegedly received $6,000 for his six $100+ seats for the Week One matchup against the San Francisco 49ers at AT&T Stadium.
As for lowering ticket prices, the Cowboys already offer a relatively inexpensive party pass for $29 that allows massive amounts of fans to stand inside the stadium to watch the game. And that low attendance price could be the very reason opposing fans have such a large presence in Dallas’ home stadium.
But Cuban did offer this one caveat when it came to the Cowboys possibly following in his footsteps.
“But on the flip side, I didn’t spend $1.2 billion to build a stadium either. And so, I don’t have those obligations like Jerry (Jones) does.”
You can hear Cuban’s entire interview from Tuesday here: http://www.espnradio1280.com/common/page.php?pt=herd&id=58
