By Bill Brown, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-861159.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Nothing about the new Dallas Cowboys stadium or the games to be played there is cheap. Fans who've bought tickets to the first regular season home game between the Cowboys and Giants know that. And if you eat, park and take home a souvenir your game tab Sunday could rival a mini-vacation. It's the kind of wallet-emptying event that gave one Arlington shopping mall an idea. KERA's Bill Brown has more on a deal that may have fans flocking there before the big game.
The canned music floats out over the parking lot at Lincoln Square Mall in Arlington, just south of I-30 and Collins Street. Looming over the stores' rooftops is the massive dome of the Cowboys new stadium.
For the big game Sunday, you can shell out 75 dollars to park in one of the team's lots or you can save and park in one of the city's lots for 25 bucks, but then you have to hike about a mile and a half to the game or you can park for free kind of.
Spend 40 dollars shopping at Lincoln Square and park for nothing, then stroll about 5 to 10 minutes to the stadium. It's all the brainstorm of Pam Dawson, the mall manager.
Dawson: We're being flooded with emails, The web site hits are up, the phone calls are up everyone wants to do it.
In the deal at the mall, you can spend $5.00 dollars in a store, drop maybe $20.00 in a cafe, then 15 dollars someplace else, just as long as it totals $40.00. You then put all your receipts on the dashboard of your car as proof, and head to the game.
Mylinda Dodson-Hoard runs a salon and spa at Lincoln Square. She says the game parking will bring in new business.
Dodson-Hoard: I absolutely believe that it is a win-win for both parties, for the fans and for the businesses in Lincoln Square.
They've already had a trial run with the new parking gig. For concerts and college football games at the stadium, fans shopped and parked. Pam Dawson says it was a big hit.
Dawson: They told me, We will be back,' and I'm even getting some emails now that say, How early do we need to get there to get a spot?'
On Sunday, with all of the traffic, the congestion and maybe about a hundred-thousand fans looking for a parking place, nobody really knows just how it will go, but Pam Dawson is sure her lot at Lincoln Square will be full.