Like most days, the 94-year-old Cotton Bowl was mostly empty and quiet this morning.

The exception was a group of reporters and their guides — three stadium architects with more than a century of combined experience — who took a break in the ground-floor concourse, the concrete underbelly of the 92,000-seat bowl.

Architects Bryan Trubey, John Hutchings and Chad Scheckel of Overland Partners did their best to show and explain how much better the Cotton Bowl fan experience will be a year from now, when $140 million in renovations are complete.

“You can see how much wider the concourse will be once these ramps are removed,” Hutchings said.

Actually, even personally, it’s hard to imagine. Fortunately, the renderings of the most extensive makeover in the stadium’s history are vividly detailed, previewing notable upgrades, logistically and aesthetically.

The sold-out crowd for Saturday’s game between No. 1 Texas and No. 18 Oklahoma will experience little or no difference, but those entering through the Cotton Bowl’s west gate may see earmarks that portend the stadium’s near future.

Just wait until October next year! It will be great!

As for this year, officials say the paused construction will not negatively impact fans’ ability to enter or exit the stadium.

“I think that’s going to be as good as it can be,” Trubey said, “given that we’re doing a major renovation.”

On the football side of things, Saturday marks the 120th overtime of the Red River Rivalry, sure, but also a beginning: It’s the first time Texas and Oklahoma meet as Southeastern Conference opponents.

For the venerable Cotton Bowl, it’s a taste of a new era, especially for the relative handful who get to experience renovated digs for the ABC TV crew, scoreboard operators, Longhorn and Sooner assistant coaches — and hospitality suites for the respective athletic directors.

It’s just a taste of the $140 million in stadium sweeteners — plus roughly $750,000 paid annually to each school — that enticed Texas and Oklahoma last December to extend their deal to keep the Red River Rivalry in the Cotton Bowl until at least 2036 .

The old contract would expire after the match in October next year. The renovation of the stadium began seven months ago and reached about the halfway mark before construction was halted for the start of the annual State Fair on September 27. Work will resume after the fair closes on October 20 and is on track to be completed before the 2025 fair.

“A lot of what has been done is underground; a big part of it is infrastructure,” said Trubey, senior director at Overland Partners and one of the world’s leading stadium designers.

Most of the upgrades will take place on the west side of the stadium, especially as it includes the iconic façade and multi-level press box, most of which will be converted into suites and other premium viewing and hospitality areas.

In the long term, there are plans to modernize the east side of the stadium starting in 2030, which also marks the centennial of the Cotton Bowl.

Funding the two phases of the project is a 2% hotel tax increase that Dallas voters approved in 2022. The city expects the taxes to generate $1.5 billion over 30 years, with $300 million earmarked for the Cotton Bowl and five other Fair Park locations; the remaining $1.2 billion for a new downtown convention center.

“What we’ve done so far is a significant achievement for the entire team,” Trubey said, citing Overland Partners, JE Dunn Construction, Dallas Parks and Recreation, the State Fair and venue management company Oak View Group 360.

“It’s significant because we haven’t improved this building that much in 60 years.”

Work in progress

There have, of course, been other expansions and renovations since the Cotton Bowl opened in 1930 as Fair Park Stadium, seating 45,507.

In 1948, the addition of a second deck on the west side increased capacity to 67,000. A year later, a second deck on the east side increased seating to 75,504. Another deck added in 2008, as part of a $50 million renovation, expanded capacity to 92,000.

The problem is that as the stadium grew, the facilities and fan comfort did not increase on the same scale.

Previous Cotton Bowl makeovers consisted of added appendages and facelifts. The current project is more like liposuction, knee and hip replacement and cosmetic surgery.

As fans enter the west gate on Saturday, many will notice signs of the paused construction, including:

— A concrete framework at the edge of the stadium will house fourteen new escalators. From next year, this will allow fans to access the mid-deck and upper floor concourses without having to enter the ground floor concourse;

— Two unfinished towers that will anchor not only the escalators, but also elevators and stairs;

– Two partially built, but not yet accessible terraces that open onto the upper concourses on the west side and offer views of downtown Dallas.

“When it’s done next year, it will be a lot easier to get in and out,” Trubey said. “Then once you get into the building and get to your lobby and your seats without having to go through the same space as everyone else, that’s a big improvement that everyone will feel.”

Adding the escalators, along with elevators and stairs, will eliminate the need for narrow sloping ramps on the west side that fans currently use to get from the ground floor to the mid-deck and upper deck seating areas.

By removing the ramps and essentially widening the western perimeter of the stadium, the concourses at all levels will be significantly wider. The hall at ground level will be twice as wide. The hall on the top floor, which is currently only 4.5 meters wide, will be three times wider.

Fans get much more than room to move in the upper concourse. The widening of the perimeter on the west side also provides space for additional restrooms and concession stands, some of which will be grab-and-go stands spread throughout all levels.

“So all the fans who for years had to come from the upper and middle decks to the main concourse can stay on their level to get to concessions and restrooms,” said Overland’s Hutchings, a senior executive who has led some of the ‘s world’s largest stadium projects – new and renovations.

Projects Hutchings and Trubey have collaborated on include Globe Life Field in Arlington; Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; and US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Trubey’s resume also includes AT&T Stadium in Arlington and SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles

Trubey grew up in Oak Cliff and graduated from Skyline High School and Texas A&M. Last year, when the $140 million Cotton Bowl project was announced, Trubey said The news that the Cotton Bowl rivals the famed Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, in terms of seat views and proximity to the field.

“Having worked in many locations across the country and abroad, I believe we have an opportunity to become one of the best outdoor locations in the country; maybe in the world because the Cotton Bowl is so unique,” ​​Trubey said.

“One of the things people don’t realize is that the seating area is so tight. That can be seen as a disadvantage, but it is one of the reasons why artists love that building to perform in. You actually have 90,000 people sitting twice as close to the stage as in these new buildings.”

The coup

As generations of Longhorn and Sooner fans can attest, the setting and view of a Red River Rivalry game is unlike any other.

There’s the background of the State Fair. There’s the seating arrangement, with the Cotton Bowl evenly spaced, on the 50-yard line, between Texas and Oklahoma fans. Burnt orange and white; and crimson and cream.

“An iconic stadium surrounded by the spectacle that is the State Fair of Texas,” UT athletics director Chris Del Conte said when the schools extended their Cotton Bowl agreement last December. OU colleague Joe Castiglione said, “Millions of fans have personally cheered for the Sooners or Longhorns over the years on what has become almost hallowed ground.”

Watching the game is one thing. Getting to and from those seats has become a different matter.

Next year’s Red River Rivalry game, as well as the State Fair Classic between Grambling State and Prairie View A&M, will not only have improved fan mobility but may also feature art deco artwork that pays tribute to the design of the Cotton Bowl of the 1930s.

During last month’s media tour of the Cotton Bowl, Overland architects saved the athletic directors’ hospitality suites as a coup de grâce.

The seventh floor of the press box, which used to house three suites with outdated furnishings, has been transformed into two suites – with new furnishings, seamless floor-to-ceiling glass for a better viewing experience and awning windows to let in people noise.

“This is as nice as anything Bryan and I have produced for US Bank (Stadium) or Globe Life Field or AT&T Stadium in terms of quality of workmanship,” Hutchings said.

One small minus. One suite can accommodate 16 people. The other suite, next to it and separated by transparent glass, can accommodate 17 people.

Maybe Castiglione and Del Conte toss a coin every year, or alternate. Thanks to the Cotton Bowl’s extreme makeover and the long Red River Rivalry contract, there are still plenty of years to iron that out.

Finally, and probably least importantly, what about sportswriters, who for decades have covered the game from the sixth floor of the press room, in bolt-on chairs?

“We’re getting them out of the press box, where they don’t need to be,” Hutchings said, apparently unaware that it was a sportswriter asking the question. “And providing other amenities within the press box: suites, clubs and other things.”

Starting next year, sportswriters will be moved to an area above the south end zone of the Cotton Bowl. The original plan was for the new press box to be built in time for this year’s game, but this is the only part of the overall project that is behind schedule.

Priorities, after all.

First look: See photos of the $140 million Cotton Bowl upgrade project

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