ARLINGTON, Texas — George Strait and Reba McEntire are two of the biggest names in country music. Yet in their first gig together “since we were opening shows for Conway Twitty many, many moons ago,” they still played second fiddle to the real star of the show: the venue, the $1.15 billion Cowboys Stadium.

“Whoo! I am so honored to be here, I can’t even tell you how much,” Strait told a crowd of 60,188. “I mean, I can say I’ve done a lot of things in my career and had a lot of fun. This is right up there at the top of anything I’ve ever done before because I’m such a big Dallas Cowboys fan. ...
“What a night.”
It was special enough that former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson came — and sat right next to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
While the friends-turned-adversaries have patched up their differences, they rarely pal around. When they were shown on TV screens during the intermission between McEntire and Strait, it took about 30 seconds for people to notice and realize what they were seeing. Once it clicked, cheers followed.
The biggest cheers came about a half-hour into Strait’s act.
“Isn’t this roof supposed to open?” he said. “We want it open, don’t we?”
He then asked the crowd to chant, “Jerry, open the roof!” With thousands of camera flashes going off, the retractable roof peeled back for the first time as Strait played, “(If It Wasn’t For) Texas.” He got in two more songs by the time the 12-minute retraction was finished.
It’s not a complete open-air top. Instead, it evokes the “hole in the roof” of Texas Stadium, the team’s previous home.
This was the first official event at a building so spectacular that it’s already lured a Super Bowl, a Final Four, the NBA All-Star game and other major sports and entertainment events — in addition, of course, to its main tenant, the Cowboys.
One step inside and it’s easy to see why so many events want to be held here, and why the price nearly doubled the initial projection of $650 million.
The most stunning feature is the center-hung, overhead video board. It’s the world largest high-definition TV screen and there are actually two, one for each side, plus smaller boards on the ends. There’s also the retractable roof and ground-to-ceiling glass doors behind both end zones that open and shut almost like sliding patio doors.
The wide, polished main concourse feels more like a fancy club, with gleaming floors and fancy glass. Some bars had the ambiance of a night club.
There were long lines for souvenirs, food and drink, despite prices such as $30 T-shirts, $13 barbecue Kobe beef burgers and $5 bottles of water. (No wonder the next-longest lines were at the ATM machines.)
The stadium is located next to the Texas Rangers’ home field. Arlington taxpayers paid $325 million and Jones picked up the rest of the tab. For football, it can hold up to 100,000.
Julianne Hough was supposed to have the opening-act honors, but she was sick. Lee Ann Womack took her place. Blake Shelton was next, and he walked on stage holding up a can of beer.
“We’re the luckiest people in the United States of America,” Shelton said. “We get to watch the king and queen of country music in this place tonight. And it just so happens to be in the grand opening of the new Cowboys Stadium. I’ll drink to that.”
Jones wanted a big-time headliner and Strait certainly fit the bill; only Elvis Presley and The Beatles have sold more albums, and neither of them were available. McEntire was billed as a “special guest,” and she’s special to Jones because she was the first performer in their now-annual Thanksgiving halftime concert benefiting the Salvation Army.
There were a few glitches, of course. The first words spoken were “Welcome to Texas Stadium!” And Strait and McEntire each hollered, “Hello, Dallas!” a cringe-worthy line for Arlington leaders (and taxpayers). Shelton took a dig at the traffic and parking.
“I didn’t know if we were going to make it here on time or not,” he said.
Still, it was one heck of a kickoff.
“This has been an incredible night,” Jones said. “It is everything we dreamed and more. After almost 10 years of working toward this day, it has been a joy to see the reaction of everyone coming through the doors. ... The crowd has just been electric and we are all feeding off that energy.”