Cowboys Stadium Kick-Off

Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was unveiled with a bang June 6, reportedly drawing a crowd of 60,188 to the venue’s grand-opening affair that featured George Strait, Reba McEntire, Lee Ann Womack and Blake Shelton.

While crews were still putting the finishing touches on the building in the hours before the Live Nation-promoted concert, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones declared the stadium’s long-awaited opening a success.

“After almost 10 years of working toward this day, it has been a joy to see the reaction of everyone coming through the doors,” he told the Dallas Morning News. “The crowd has just been electric and we are all feeding off that energy.”

But it wasn’t just years of work that went into the building. The Cowboys paid about $1.15 billion for the high-tech stadium in the end – nearly double the initial projection of $650 million.

Driving up the cost of the arena were its video displays – the world’s largest, center-hung HD video boards – which measure 160 feet wide by 72 feet tall. There’s also a retractable roof and ground-to-ceiling glass doors behind the end zones that open and shut.

The building includes 300 luxury suites and seating for 80,000 but can apparently be expanded to accommodate 100,000, which should come in handy for upcoming events on the books including Jonas Brothers, U2, the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, 2011 Super Bowl and the 2014 NCAA men’s basketball Final Four.

Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels told the Morning News that following the first event, stadium operations are being analyzed in order to reduce lines and shortages that may have occurred during the concert.

Minor construction also continues in parts of the building.

“We’ll spend the next two weeks trying to iron that out,” Daniels told the paper. “There might have been a few minor problems, but being a part of history overshadows some of those things.”

While there were reportedly few problems with traffic on opening night, police did make a number of arrests – 19 for public intoxication, one for assault and one arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence.

That person was Jack Hill, current GM of operations for the stadium, whose SUV was struck by a tractor-trailer in front of the stadium several hours after the show, according to the Morning News. A spokesman for the team said the organization was aware of the situation but there would be no further comment.