There are few single-building construction projects that tip the scales at more than a billion dollars. A few examples include ultramodern skyscrapers, like The Freedom Tower ($2 billion), power plants, factories, and lately, NFL stadiums. Amazingly, there are two billion-dollar stadiums on the drawing board right now: The New York Giants and the New York Jets plan to cooperate to build a $1.2 billion joint stadium in the Meadowlands sports complex. The 83,000 (or more)-seat stadium is scheduled to open in 2011.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys are hard at work on their own billion-dollar behemoth. Scheduled to open in 2009, the new stadium, located in Arlington, Texas, is as grandiose as Jerry Jones’ (the Cowboys’ owner) ego.

Jones is providing a majority of the financing, with a $325 million assist from Arlington taxpayers.  The defining feature of the stadium is the roof – a stunning translucent, retractable covering with a giant hole in the middle, so “God can look down and watch his team play,” as the joke goes. The Cowboys’ current home – Texas Stadium – has the same feature, and Jones wanted to make sure it was kept. The stadium itself is nearly translucent as well - enormous, 120-foot-high moveable glass walls enclose each end zone and huge rectangular panels of glass enclose the concave outer shell.  

Even if you’re not a Cowboys’ fan, you’d have to admit that early renderings of the stadium look fantastic – like the jewel Jones expects it to be. Of course, no billion-dollar project is complete without plenty of luxuries. The Cowboys’ new home will have two 60-yard video screens hanging over the middle of the field and dozens of field-level luxury boxes. Its expected capacity is between 80,000 and 100,000.