Cowboys go to silent count because of opponent crowd noise ... in Dallas

[bbgun]

You'll find Cowboys fans in every corner of the country, in Alaska and Key West, Maine and San Diego. You'll find them loud and proud despite the team's definition-of-mediocrity last two decades. One place you won't find them, however, is Dallas' own AT&T Stadium.

Dallas was playing in-state rival Houston on Sunday in one of many outstanding games this weekend. Unfortunately for Dallas, Houston's fans made the trip:

https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/518869428642283521

Other reports indicated that Cowboys head coach Jason Witten was not amused by the Texans' fans. A crowd loud enough to force a team into a silent snap count is a crowd loud enough to affect the outcome of the game, since so much of a gameplan can be shifted at the quarterback's whim in the final seconds before a snap. The fact that the Cowboys had their own game altered by a visiting crowd is stunning.

It's the second time in recent weeks that opposing fans are doing to Dallas what Cowboys fans generally do to opposing stadiums. Earlier in the season, 49ers fans descended on Jerry Jones' palace to an embarrassing degree.

While you could certainly blame Cowboys fans for not showing up, it's worth looking a few tax brackets up the ladder. Jerry Jones may not have expressly intended to price loyal Cowboys fans out of AT&T Stadium, but that's exactly what happened. Team Marketing Inc.'s Fan Cost Index ranks Dallas as the most expensive stadium to watch a game, as of September 2013, with a family of four spending more than $630 for tickets, souvenirs, drinks and parking. The NFL average is $460, and the Cleveland Browns cost only about $344 for the same services.

The shame of it is, Dallas finally has a team really worth cheering; they're balanced, effective, and sitting atop the NFC. Too bad those Blue Star-wearing hordes won't, or can't, show up.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

 

[bbgun]

The article blames it on prices. So how come Texans fans can afford tickets but not Dallas fans?

 

[UVAwahoos]

Jerry could not give two fucks about which exact fans are showing up so cheers to Cowboy fans for not homering out and blindly filling Jerry's pockets.

Apparently CZ blowhards are too broke to actually afford game tix. You know this kills them.

 

[dbair1967]

Jones was warned this could be a potential problem when they announced they would have such a large seat capacity. I think at the time the suggestion was Jones make a certain amount of the seats "not available" for preseason and regular season games, and only open it to the max for postseason games and other special events. I think they were saying we could have covered a large number of seats (I believe they were saying to knock it down to 75k or so)

Instead, he wanted his $$$$ and didn't think about what impact it could have on his own team.

 

[Sheik]

Well, has the devil himself been asked yet today?

 

[dbair1967]

I'm sure Jerry didn't notice the number of Texan fans or their decibel level when we were on offense

 

[cmd34]

The article blames it on prices.

From what I understand, the PSL's were very expensive and rather than average Joe's buying them, they went to corporations and ticket brokers, who sell them to the highest bidders each week.

 

[Rynie]

The home crowd was loud too. So.....

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

The home crowd was loud too. So.....

Yeah, these reports are surprising to me because I had to listen to the first half on the radio and the home crowd seemed extremely loud. In fact it was hard to even hear Sham when we made any kind of a decent play. And while I could hear that the Texans had a lot of fans there, they didn't seem that loud.

Did it sound like that on TV or was the radio doing something weird with the sound? Maybe even trying to make our crowd sound louder than they really were?

 

[bbgun]

Did it sound like that on TV or was the radio doing something weird with the sound?

I was watching online and was shocked at how loud it was on our first drive, deep in our own territory. You'd think we were at Reliant.

 

[Sheik]

It could also be the home crowd is too fucking dumb to STFU when Dallas had the ball.

 

[dbair1967]

Did it sound like that on TV or was the radio doing something weird with the sound? Maybe even trying to make our crowd sound louder than they really were?

It was loud both ways, but there were a ton of Texans fans there. The stadium had a lot of red in the crowd.