Home Sweet Dome? What Jerry Jones Wants Sunday at AT&T Stadium
The trendy "upset alert" pick in the NFL Playoffs this weekend is none other than the San Francisco 49ers over the Dallas Cowboys. The cutesy consensus narrative:
"It's a bad matchup for Dallas."
While the 49ers will try to bully the Cowboys on the field, the team's coach and owner are asking fans for help in the stands.
Speaking on his weekly 105.3 The Fan radio show, Jerry Jones said Tuesday he wants to see attendance Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium reach a rare threshold.
Said Jones, "I’d like to push that 100,000 this week. It'll be roaring.”
Coach Mike McCarthy is also pleading for maximum effort from America's Team's fan base.
"I just don’t want to see a lot of the other fans,” McCarthy said Monday. "Our crowd has been great, just the energy. I know that’ll be there. I love the white towels; that’s always a good thing. AT&T’s been rocking, and frankly, we have a big responsibility in that ourselves. We need to get out there and get going fast and get the crowd into the game. This is going to be a great afternoon.”
In their upset rally over the Rams last weekend, 49ers fans swamped Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium and turned it into a deafening sea of red. Admitted Rams' quarterback Matthew Stafford of the atmosphere inside his own stadium:
"It was a tough environment for us to communicate in.”
Added Rams coach Sean McVay, "It did catch us off-guard.”
The Cowboys are 3-1 in playoff games in Arlington. They drew 94,327 for the 2018 Wild Card win over the Seahawks, and this season led the NFL in attendance by 15,000, averaging more than 93.000 per game.
But they haven't topped 100,000 for a game since the stadium opened against the Giants on Sept. 20, 2009. That crowd - 105,121 - is the record for football, but the 2010 NBA All-Star Game holds AT&T's record attendance at 108,713. Other events to top 100,000 there: WrestleMania 32 in 2016 (101,763), George Strait's final tour in 2014 (104,793) and a Taylor Swift concert in 2018 (105,002).
The Cowboys were only 5-3 at home (7-2 on the road), including a recent loss to an Arizona Cardinals team that swept the 49es in the NFC West.
With ticket prices for Sunday’s game more than tripling on re-sale sites such as SeatGeek and NFL Ticket Exchange, it could signal a potential "Red Sea" headed from northern California to north Texas. In the 2014 season opener, 49ers fans filled AT&T Stadium in support of a team that was coming off consecutive appearances in the Super Bowl and NFC Championship.
“When you have the stadium the size that we have - which is easily the highest-attended stadium in the NFL - you’re going to have opposing jerseys in there, opposing fans, opposing colors,” Jones said. “I welcome it. I think it’s a great atmosphere.”
The Cowboys are only 61-47 (56 percent win percentage) all-time in Arlington. With a high temperature expected in the 50s Sunday, AT&T Stadium's doors and roof will likely be closed. Playing in that "dome" configuration since 2009, the Cowboys are 40-28.
