The Blue and Silver Dallas Cowboys are going Green? That's right. The Cowboys won't be changing the color of the uniforms, but the Dallas Cowboys NFL football team is going green with water efficient irrigation from Weathermatic at their incredible new stadium. Cowboys Stadium owners and the City of Arlington wanted a system that would ensure maximum water conservation while keeping the landscape green and healthy during the hot Texas summers.   The Weathermatic SmartLine system is designed to do just that. According to Brodie Bruner, Weathermatic Vice President of Sales and Marketing, the Weathermatic SmartLine system was the perfect answer. “The system utilizes SmartLine SL4800 controllers with SLW20 weather stations,” he notes, “to monitor evapotranspiration and set correct zone watering times 365 days per year. Additionally, the system utilizes B Series brass nozzle for maximum precipitation uniformity, T3 and CT70 rotors in the larger open areas, and 11000 series valves for long-life dependability.”   The Cowboys Stadium landscape was designed by Newman, Jackson, Beiberstein, Inc. (NJB), landscape architects. The Weathermatic SmartLine irrigation system was designed by Irri-Tech, irrigation design consultants. ValleyCrest Landscape Development was responsible for the landscape and irrigation installation and landscape and irrigation materials were supplied by John Deere Landscapes.   The irrigation system is just as massive as the much publicized hi-def video screen that stretches from one 20-yard line to the other 20-yard line. There are nearly 9,000 LX series sprayheads and B Series brass nozzles, and over 1,400 T3 and CT70 commercial rotors at the stadium. They are being operated by a dozen SmartLine SL4800 controllers and SLW20 weather stations precisely controlling the 400 zones of 11000 series valves. "We studied the greatest stadiums, arenas, museums, and buildings around the world to see what people really wanted.  This represents the best of the best.  I believe it will be the epicenter of great events for decades."  Jerry Jones, Owner and President, Dallas Cowboys. Weathermatic is proud to be associated with all of the landscape professionals involved in this incredible project.   Take a tour of the new stadium. Architecture Facts Site: The Cowboys Stadium site covers 73 total acres; the overall site encompasses 140 total acres The stadium is 3 million square feet containing 104 cubic feet of volume Stadium length – 900 feet from one end zone retractable wall to the opposite end zone retractable wall Exterior Façade: Canted 800-foot glass wall exterior slopes at 14-degree angle 86-foot-high glazing (glass) system Lens (clerestory) 33 feet at highest point with overall length of 904 feet Arches soar 292 feet above playing field Each boxed arch is 17 feet wide and 35 feet deep Each arch weighs 3,255 tons Each arch spans quarter-mile in length Top of steel at the highpoint of the main arched trusses is 292 feet above the playing field. Retractable end zone doors The 180-foot-wide by 120-foot-high operable glass doors, located at each end of the stadium, are the largest operable glass doors in the world Five 38-foot panels take 18 minutes to open or close Roof and Roof Structure At 660,800 square feet, the stadium’s roof is one of the largest domed sports structures in the world Soaring 292 feet above the playing field, the two monumental arches support the retractable roof – the world’s longest single-span roof structure Encompasses 104 million cubic feet of volume Opening 410 feet long by 256 feet wide encompassing 105,000 square feet Each panel weighs 1.68 million pounds The travel distance of each panel is 215 feet Consists of 14,100 tons of structural steel (which is equivalent to the weight of 92 Boeing 777s) Opens or closes in 12 minutes Materials: non-operable pieces - steel with PVC membrane operable pieces – Teflon coated fiberglass fabric The arch truss is fabricated from special high-strength grade 65 steel imported from Luxembourg The structural steel’s wide flange sizes are up to W14x730 (14 inches in depth and 730 lbs. per foot)- the heaviest shape rolled in the world Number of bolts in arch spans: 50,000 Total length of welding in arch spans: 165,000 feet Gallons of primer paint: 2,000 Gallons of finish paint: 2,000 The final keystone piece of the arch truss planar section is 56 feet long and weighs 110,000 pounds Center-Hung Video Board Fact Sheet Produced by Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision™, each of the four sides of thecenter-hung LED display is the world’s largest: 72’ high by 160’ wide equaling11,520 square feet per side or 23,040 square feet of sideline displays. It would take 4,920 52” flat panel TVs to equal the size. Each side consists of the first true 1080 HD display in an NFL stadium- 1080 true pixels in height at 20mm spacing and capable of displaying HDTV at 1920 x 1080[16:9] resolution. Each display contains over 10.5 million Light Emitting Diodes’ (LED’s) using Mitsubishi’s 10mm quad pixel pattern technology. The LED’s are containedwithin 5,168 individual lighting units or panels per side or 10,336 total. The video board uses 30 million light bulbs. The video board weighs 1.2 million pounds and the video screens span 25,670 square feet. The overall weight of the video board structure is more than 3.5 percent of the total roof weight. To hold the video board in place, a 72-foot tall steel structure was created that contains a 10-level network of catwalks. Three-inch diameter steel cables grip each end of the video board and are tethered to the stadium’s large steel box trussarches. The center-hung structure is also designed to support a 90,000 poundbasketball arena style scoreboard hung from below when needed for other events. The only access to the video board is via one of two motorized platforms. The motorized platforms stop at Levels 1 through 9. Level 10 is the top of the scoreboard and holds the backlit Cowboys star. These platforms move at a rate of 30 feet per minute. They are operated from the field when there is nobody in the board. They are also operable from within the cages themselves when getting down from the board. Mitsubishi Diamond Vision™ also supplied four, 280 square-foot screens on the lower concourse; an upper level fascia (ribbon) display measuring four feet high by nearly 2,000 linear feet; and two Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor displays totaling more than 2,900 square feet. In addition, Mitsubishi provided a fully integrated scoring system, content management and playback system, game timers, delay of game clocks, locker room clocks and ticket window displays.   About Cowboys Stadium Cowboys Stadium is the largest, most technologically advanced entertainment venue in the world. Designed by HKS and built by Manhattan Construction, the $1.1 billion stadium features two monumental arches, the world’s largest HDTV video board, an expansive retractable roof and the largest retractable end zone doors in the world. Features of the stadium include seating for 80,000 and expandable to 100,000, 300 luxury suites, club seating on multiple levels and the Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fameand Pro Shop, open to the public year round. In addition to being the new home of the Dallas Cowboys, the stadium will host the 2011 Super Bowl, the 2010 NBA All-StarGame and the 2014 NCAA men’s basketball Final Four as well as high school and college football, concerts and special events.