ASG sets basketball attendance mark
February 15, 2010
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)—Not only bigger in Texas. The biggest.
The NBA All-Star game at Cowboys Stadium set a record for the most-attendedbasketball game ever with a crowd of 108,713 people filling the stadium Sundaynight.
“It’s meant to be a party,” Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said. “Wesay we’re going to throw the biggest party like you’ve never seen before andthat’s exactly what it turned out to be.”
Cuban was joined at midcourt by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at the endof the third quarter to announce the record figure. The record was certified byGuinness Book of World Records, and there were already T-shirts celebrating themark.
Jones spearheaded the building of the $1.2 billion stadium that opened lastyear in Arlington, a city of more than 370,000 people located between Dallas andFort Worth.
The crowd for the second NBA All-Star game in the Dallas area was largerthan any of the NFL games played in the stadium.
“I’m pleased looking at it,” Jones said. “The atmosphere, if you had hada highly competitive situation where these teams were playing for the worldchampionship, imagine this 100,000 people being completely nuts.”
That could be the scene next February, when Cowboys Stadium hosts the SuperBowl. The 2014 NCAA men’s Final Four also will be played in the building.
The Cowboys drew 105,121 for their first regular-season game against the NewYork Giants last September to set an NFL regular-season attendance record. Fortheir playoff game last month against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Cowboys drewa crowd of 92,951. That was the most in NFL history for a playoff game otherthan the Super Bowl.
“Everybody’s had a great time. … You can just see people’s eyes justbugging out of their head,” Cuban said. “It’s crazy and I haven’t heard anegative comment yet.”
The only other time the NBA All-Star game was played in the area was in 1986before a crowd of 16,573 at Reunion Arena in downtown Dallas. That facility wasdemolished last year.