The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. They compete in the NFL’s National Football Conference East Division and are headquartered in Frisco, Texas. They currently play their home games at AT&T Stadium and have been since its opening in 2009.
The Cowboys first joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1960 and quickly marked themselves as a superstar franchise as the team boasted an impressive NFL record of consecutive sell-out events. The record of 190 consecutive sold-out regular and post-season games (both home and away) began in 2002. To date, the team has made it to the Super Bowl an impressive eight times, which has them tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos as the second most Super Bowl appearances in the NFL. They also hold the honors of the most NFC conference championships, tying them with their NFC rivals, the San Francisco 49ers. Finally, the Cowboys are the only NFL team to record 20 straight winning seasons (1966-85) in which they only missed the playoffs twice (1974 and 1984 respectively).
This success and record of fan support also made them the first sports team to ever be valued at $4 billion making it the most valuable sports team in the world, according to Forbes. In addition, the team generated $620 million in revenue in 2014, which is a record for a U.S. based sports team. Finally, in 2018, they became the first NFL franchise to be valued at $5 billion as well as being named most valued NFL team for 12 straight years according to Forbes.
About AT&T Stadium
AT&T Stadium, once known as Cowboys Stadium, is an incredible retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas. It is the current home for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) and was first completed on May 27, 2009. Since then it has also served as the home of the Cotton Bowl Classic and the BIg 12 Championship Game. It was built to replace Texas Stadium which was the Cowboys’ former home from 1971 to the 2008 season.
The venue is owned by the city of Arlington and has also been used for a variety of other events, including concerts, basketball games, soccer, college and highschool football contests, rodeos, motocross, Spartan Races, professional wrestling, and of course, the Summer Truckin Nationals.
Despite its name, several fans refer to the venue as “Jerry World” after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who originally saw the venue as a large entertainment venue. Which likely explains how it’s used for so many purposes.
It can provide seating for 80,000 spectators for most events, but can be configured to seat up to 100,000 spectators, which gives it the distinction of being the largest stadium in the NFL by seating capacity.
This extra space is made possible by the Party Pass sections behind the seats in the end zones, which are positioned on a series of elevated platforms connected by stairways.
To date, the venue’s record attendance for an NFL regular season game was in 2009, when 105,121 visitors came to watch the game.
Other Events Hosted at AT&T Stadium
As you can imagine, the venue has been home to a variety of other events. And here’s a short list of some of these highlight events.
Basketball
- December 19, 2009: The Texas Longhorns defeated the North Carolina TAr Heels In the first college basketball game at the stadium, before a crowd of 38,052
- March 2013: 2013 NCAA Tournament South Regional featuring 3 games with the winner of the third going to the NCAA Men’s Final Four
Soccer
- July 19, 2009 – Cowboys Stadium hosted two matches in the quarterfinal round of the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
- July 17, 2010 – On July 17, 2010, two of the top professional soccer clubs in Mexico – Club America and San Luis F.C. – met in a friendly at Cowboys Stadium
- June 5, 2011 – Cowboys Stadium hosted the opening matches of the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Boxing
The stadium hosted multiple world championship fights and brought in many of Boxing’s biggest stars to headline their championship bouts at the arena. This includes Manny Pacquiao and Canelo Álvarez
WrestleMania
AT&T Stadium hosted WWE’s WrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016, which was the third WrestleMania event to ever be hosted in Texas.
Notable Rivalries
It should come as no surprise that a team with a record like Dallas would generate such hotly contested rivalries as the ones listed below. This is a partial discussion of the most intense rivalry to ever come out of the Cowboys.
Vs. Washington Commanders
The rivalry between these two teams is what Sports Illustrated called the top NFL Rivalry of all time and “One of the greatest in sports.” Some sources trace the rivalry to existing before the Cowboys were even formed, due to a longstanding disagreement between Washington owner George Preston Marshall and Cowboys founder Cling Murchison, Jr. over the creation of a new football team in the south. According to this rumor, Marshall had a TV monopoly in that region that the creation of the team threatened.
The storied rivalry dates back to 1960 when the clubs played against each other for the first time resulting in a 26-14 Washington victory. Since then, the team has squared off in 116 regular-season contests and two NFC Championships.
Currently Dallas leads the series at 75-47-2 and Washington leads the all-time playoff series 2-0. Additionally, Dallas currently has a 14-7 advantage over Washington at their home stadium, FedEx Field.