It's a bit after the fact but here goes with my two cents...
My wife and I live in Pasadena so we were at the Rose 3 years ago and drove to the Fiesta 2 years ago. Like everyone, we were hoping for the Rose again so we could roll out of bed for the parade and then walk to the game but alas, B10 folks had different ideas. From a cost perspective, the Cotton was second on our list compared to the Orange as the flight to Miami was a whole lot more and the hotels were a bit more pricey though we would have gone to either one.
We flew out Dec 26th and when we checked in to our hotel in Arlington, it was clear we were at a Memphis hotel. Ratio was probably 8 to 1. We went to Texas Live the first night and saw more Memphis folks and only a few PSU people. We both liked Texas Live though their beer choices could be improved.
The next day (27th) we visited the team hotel, picked up a few Cotton Bowl items for family, I spoke with a few players/families and they said that yeah, the Rose would have been great, the Cotton Bowl has treated them the best compared to any of the last four (incl Rose). They were also excited to play in AT&T. We saw the Battle of the Bands which I thought was pretty good. Fans were probably 60-40 Memphis to PSU. Later that night we went to the North Texas Alumni welcome party at Community Beer Company. I really liked that brewery and talked with some great fellow alums. It was a smaller crowd than the Phx alumni party at the Fiesta Bowl but still a good time.
Game day (28th) was the only day with crappy weather. Had it been dry, I think all of the activities they had set up around AT&T Stadium would have been really fun. My only criticism was that I think the pep rally should have been the day before not a few hours before the game. I won't go into the game since it's been discussed here over the past 4-5 days. I don't know how it looked on TV but in the stadium it felt 60-40 Memphis to PSU. I don't go with these 70-30, 75-25 ratios I've read. The stadium was great though I think they could have made an effort to pull the Cowboys merchandise to make it feel like the focus was on the Cotton Bowl. Memphis fans we set around were very nice. It was actually a couple of PSU fans that I was annoyed with and embarrassed for the way they acted. After the game, we went to Texas Live to hang out watch the first CFP game and wait for the Uber surge pricing to go down. I enjoyed the two bars in Texas Live and Live by Loews hotel bar we visited.
On our last day, we visited Dealey Plaza which was great to see and flew back to LAX through PHX. Our layover was fun since we could see the happy Clemson and sad OSU folks.
OVERALL: I thought the Cotton Bowl experience was great and I'd do it again. My only regret was that we didn't visit Ft. Worth. I would have liked to have seen the Stockyards and visited some of the bars around there. I know this may rankle a few on here who consider the Cotton Bowl akin to the Idaho Potato Bowl but we had about the same experience we had at the Fiesta Bowl in terms of activities/bars/restaurants/game experience. The only difference was the weather.
My wife and I live in Pasadena so we were at the Rose 3 years ago and drove to the Fiesta 2 years ago. Like everyone, we were hoping for the Rose again so we could roll out of bed for the parade and then walk to the game but alas, B10 folks had different ideas. From a cost perspective, the Cotton was second on our list compared to the Orange as the flight to Miami was a whole lot more and the hotels were a bit more pricey though we would have gone to either one.
We flew out Dec 26th and when we checked in to our hotel in Arlington, it was clear we were at a Memphis hotel. Ratio was probably 8 to 1. We went to Texas Live the first night and saw more Memphis folks and only a few PSU people. We both liked Texas Live though their beer choices could be improved.
The next day (27th) we visited the team hotel, picked up a few Cotton Bowl items for family, I spoke with a few players/families and they said that yeah, the Rose would have been great, the Cotton Bowl has treated them the best compared to any of the last four (incl Rose). They were also excited to play in AT&T. We saw the Battle of the Bands which I thought was pretty good. Fans were probably 60-40 Memphis to PSU. Later that night we went to the North Texas Alumni welcome party at Community Beer Company. I really liked that brewery and talked with some great fellow alums. It was a smaller crowd than the Phx alumni party at the Fiesta Bowl but still a good time.
Game day (28th) was the only day with crappy weather. Had it been dry, I think all of the activities they had set up around AT&T Stadium would have been really fun. My only criticism was that I think the pep rally should have been the day before not a few hours before the game. I won't go into the game since it's been discussed here over the past 4-5 days. I don't know how it looked on TV but in the stadium it felt 60-40 Memphis to PSU. I don't go with these 70-30, 75-25 ratios I've read. The stadium was great though I think they could have made an effort to pull the Cowboys merchandise to make it feel like the focus was on the Cotton Bowl. Memphis fans we set around were very nice. It was actually a couple of PSU fans that I was annoyed with and embarrassed for the way they acted. After the game, we went to Texas Live to hang out watch the first CFP game and wait for the Uber surge pricing to go down. I enjoyed the two bars in Texas Live and Live by Loews hotel bar we visited.
On our last day, we visited Dealey Plaza which was great to see and flew back to LAX through PHX. Our layover was fun since we could see the happy Clemson and sad OSU folks.
OVERALL: I thought the Cotton Bowl experience was great and I'd do it again. My only regret was that we didn't visit Ft. Worth. I would have liked to have seen the Stockyards and visited some of the bars around there. I know this may rankle a few on here who consider the Cotton Bowl akin to the Idaho Potato Bowl but we had about the same experience we had at the Fiesta Bowl in terms of activities/bars/restaurants/game experience. The only difference was the weather.
