The Sunday night clash, the official debut for the Cowboys' new state-of-the art home in Arlington near Dallas, was watched by 105,121 fans, an all-time record crowd for a regular season NFL game.
It is true that North Texas has not been as hard hit by the recession and financial crisis as many other parts of the country but it has still been stung.
That did not stop the spectators from piling into the one of the largest domed stadiums in the world which cost over $1 billion to build.
Like everything else in Texas, the stadium is colossal.
At 660,800 square feet (210,000 meters), the roof is one of the largest domed sports structures in the world.
The 180-foot-wide (60 meter) by 120-foot-high doors at each end of the stadium, are also the largest operable glass doors in the world.
The price of admission is high but if Sunday's crowd is anything to go by that will not stop fans from snapping up tickets.
Prices have risen so much compared to the old stadium that they have driven up the average cost of NFL admission across the country at a time when many teams have cut ticket costs.
The average price of NFL tickets is up 3.9 percent to $74.99 thanks largely to the new home for the Dallas Cowboys, where the average price hit a record $159.65, up 89.8 percent from last year, according to a survey compiled by Team Marketing Report in Northbrook, Illinois.
All of this combined with the pre-game hype made Sunday's nail-biting 33-31 loss to the New York Giants, decided by a field goal with seconds to spare, a gut-wrenching one for the Cowboys fans still hurt by their performances last season.
"I'm disappointed for (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones because I wanted to win this one for him. I think our team overall wanted to because he's such a great owner and he's put this (stadium) out for us, basically for the Dallas Cowboys," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said.
