Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

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October 4, 2022
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Problems overshadow Super Bowl week

As of today, at least to my knowledge, no technology exists that can prevent poor weather.

It happens.

Neither Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Highland Park, Grapevine, Mesquite, Denton, Richardson nor even Plano (east or west) could do anything about it.


It was a shame that the weather was miserable last week as North Texas was turned into a giant ice cube. Events were cancelled. Roads were closed. People were stranded. That isn’t how Super Bowl week is supposed to be spent. And it doesn’t happen often.

Odds are that next time the Super Bowl is in North Texas, no more than a sweatshirt and jeans should be needed when going out.

But first, they have to get that next Super Bowl.

Despite an entertaining game, there were plenty of gaffes involved — many having little to do with the weather conditions.

Much of what was overheard inside Cowboys Stadium on Sunday were complaints.

Fans were displeased with their experience at The Death Star.

It began way before more than 1,000 fans found out they were unable to sit in their designated seats.

Prior to entering the gates of Cowboys Stadium, people had to wait more than four hours in a line that looked five times the size of the line of Splash Mountain at Disney World. But these people weren’t waiting for a long, wet drop in a boat while listening to “Zippity Doo Dah.” They were in line to get patted down by a stranger and walk through a metal detector.

Luckily for thousands of media members, many of whom had no business being at the game (including me), were able to walk right by the line as if they had a fast pass to cut the line.

Once through security, it was almost impossible to know which way to proceed. This was due to the cluelessness of the event staff and their all-blue uniforms with the company’s “S.A.F.E.” logo on it.

The hundreds, if not thousands, of event staff that were hired for one 18-hour day knew their way around the stadium as well as anyone else who had never been there.

It wasn’t their fault for not knowing anything though. They were not prepared — or at least the few I spoke to had no clue about what they were supposed to do. I started feeling bad for them when fans were becoming furious.

Much of the frustration came from the fans whose seats were deemed unsafe.

“I spent $10,000 on this ticket and they don’t have a seat for me,” one woman donning a Green Bay jersey yelled.

“Detroit didn’t have any problems like this,” said a sweaty Pittsburgh fan, who attended Super Bowl XL, as he waited for an elevator as kick-off neared.

The fans that were left seatless were taken to a section on the field behind the Steelers’ bench but were unable to see the game from that area. The 400 of them were granted triple the face value of the ticket in addition to free merchandise and tickets to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis next year. The NFL should not have to do that.

There were also problems for the 5,000 fans who bought $200 tickets to watch the game on big screens outside of the stadium.

A caller on Dallas radio this morning said that he and his family left in the first quarter. The four screens all had views obstructed by trees. He also said that he failed to get a beer after waiting for 40 minutes and the four food vendors were unable to serve even a fraction of everyone who ended up watching the game while cold rain fell on them.

To make things even worse, there were other embarrassing moments that included Christina Aguilera’s butchering of the national anthem and The Black Eyed Peas’ unimpressive halftime performance during which the speakers did not appear to be working too well.

Things just did not go as planned.

North Texas tried. They failed.

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Problems overshadow Super Bowl week