Sunday, January 30, 2011

Your Super Bowl Guide: Tickets; what to do; traffic alerts; more

Your Super Bowl Guide: Tickets; what to do; traffic alerts; more

Tickets

There are no tickets available to the general public. They can still be purchased on the secondary market through local brokers or national sites like Stub Hub or Ticket Exchange. But those tickets don't come cheap. A recent check of Stub Hub showed tickets ranging from $2,200 to $39,000. Don't expect to buy a ticket from a scalper outside of Cowboys Stadium . Ticket scalping is illegal in Arlington around the stadium — and you also run the risk of buying a counterfeit ticket.

Big events

Besides the Super Bowl, there will be hundreds of events held throughout North Texas during the week. Here are some of the biggest:

•The NFL Experience at the Dallas Convention Center expects to host 300,000 fans during its run at the Dallas Convention Center. It's closed today but reopens Tuesday. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for children 12 and under. For information or to purchase tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com , www.superbowl.com or call 1-866-849-4635.

•In Grand Prairie at the Verizon Theatre, Kid Rock headlines the kickoff of the Pepsi Super Bowl Fan Jam Concert Series at 7 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $45 and $60 through www.ticketmaster.com. VH1 will broadcast part of the show live. The series continues at 7 p.m. Friday with the NFL Pepsi Musica Super Bowl Fiesta. Tickets are $45 through TicketMaster.

•On Saturday in Fort Worth, the Taste of the NFL will be held at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Country singer Martina McBride is the entertainment for the charity gourmet food event with 32 chefs representing each NFL city. Tickets are $500 and $600. Visit www.tasteofthenfl.com.

Things to do

•Tours of Cowboys Stadium have turned the team's home into a year-round tourist attraction. The Cowboys and NFL worked out a deal to continue the tours even as the stadium was being transformed for the Super Bowl. The tours are $40, which is more than the usual Cowboys Stadium tours.

•At Dallas' Victory Plaza at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, DirecTV hosts its fifth annual Celebrity Beach Bowl flag football game. After the game, Maroon 5 will put on a free show.

•At River Ranch in the Fort Worth Stockyards at noon Saturday, ESPN The Magazine is hosting the Next Tailgate interactive event.

People watching

There are a number of places to gather autographs or spot players and celebrities.

•In Dallas, the NFL Experience features clinics and autograph sessions with players and former players throughout the week. Players and former players and celebrities pitching movies, TV shows and products will make their way to the Super Bowl Media Center at the Sheraton Dallas. Fans are kept in a roped-off area, but they can almost always get photos — and sometimes score autographs, too. Many of the high-profile parties will be held in Dallas, but autograph and celebrity-spotting are hit and miss at those events.

•In Fort Worth, former players will sign autographs at their team's food booth at the Taste of the NFL on Saturday night (tickets $500 and $600). Sundance Square, as the home of ESPN, will see its share of players and celebrities come through.

•Practices are closed to the public.

Street closures and traffic tie-ups

•In Dallas, the 400 block of North Olive Street between Live Oak and Bryan will be closed from noon today to 4 p.m. Feb. 7. There may be intermittent street closures on Lamar and Griffin streets around the Dallas Convention Center, but those should not last more than a few minutes.

•In Arlington, two feeder roads into the stadium — Cowboys and Legends Ways — are closed. Some lanes on other streets around the stadium have been closed. Collins Street and Randol Mill Road will have some lane closures. Randol Mill eastbound traffic will be directed north of the median, creating one lane of traffic in each direction through Feb. 8. Collins Street will have northbound and southbound traffic in the southbound lanes through Feb. 8. On game day, Collins will be one-way, with all traffic heading south.

•In Fort Worth, streets will close around Sundance Square and the Omni Hotel and Fort Worth Convention Center. Two blocks of Houston and Main Streets will be closed between Third and Fifth streets and Fourth Street will be closed between Commerce and Throckmorton. Houston Street will be closed between Ninth and 15th streets, and 12th and 14th streets will be closed between Throckmorton and Houston streets.

•Expect some traffic delays on freeways at intersections because of security concerns and the movement of teams and officials. Be aware that police may stop traffic to allow a team bus or NFL officials to move through intersections.

Public transportation

•Arlington has no public transportation, but the Trinity Railway Express will be in operation on Super Bowl Sunday, with shuttles provided from Centreport station in north Fort Worth to Cowboys Stadium. A four-day regional transit pass will be offered for $30. The pass must be purchased to get a ride on the TRE trains and shuttles on game day.

•In Dallas, DART has a light rail stop at The Dallas Convention Center, home of the NFL Experience. DART also has stops near most downtown hot spots.

•The Trinity Railway Express connects Fort Worth and Dallas. Extra cars will be added to the trains early in the week.

•In Fort Worth, the TRE runs near downtown 's Sundance Square, where ESPN broadcasts during the week. Fort Worth also has a trolley running from downtown to the Stockyards and the Fort Worth Stock Show.

Security

The Super Bowl carries a Level One threat level, making it a high priority for local, state and national security. Local and federal agencies won't go into too much detail about security, but there will be thousands of law enforcement officers working during the week and at the game. The NFL and Homeland Security Department require a 300-foot security perimeter that will close some Cowboys Stadium parking lots. At the game, everyone entering the stadium will go through a metal detector, be subject to a pat-down and have bags searched.

No comments:

Post a Comment