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When to leave for AT&T Stadium.

Enter the kickoff time, adjust the drive, the parking and the tailgate, and see when to leave and when to start getting ready.

The plan in Ready Time

  1. Set the deadline. That's the time you need to be ready.
  2. Add your steps and how long each one really takes.
  3. Ready Time works backward and gives every step a start time.
Kickoff
15 min Final pack & check 10:03 AM
30 min Drive to the stadium 10:18 AM
20 min Park & find your spot 10:48 AM
15 min Walk to the gate 11:08 AM
15 min Gate security 11:23 AM
12 min Walk to your seat 11:38 AM
10 min In your seat for the anthem 11:50 AM
Kickoff 12:00 PM

NFL game day at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. For a concert here, start from the concert night plan instead: doors and a support act, not gates and kickoff.

Every row is editable. Tap the kickoff or any duration and the plan recomputes backward. The first travel row is your leave-by time.

Travel time to AT&T Stadium

The 30-minute drive is a typical run from Dallas without game-day traffic (the optimistic number). In the app, set AT&T Stadium as the destination and Apple Maps fills in the time from where you’re leaving.

Home AT&T Stadium
🚗 30 min
🚗 Drive 🚶 Walk 🚴 Cycle
30 min Drive to the stadium

Then add for game day: thousands aiming at the same exit and lots (real drive to AT&T Stadium). Change the row and every step before it moves.

AT&T Stadium seen from outside, in Arlington, Texas.
Photo by Dopefish, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain. Resized for this page.

Kickoff is later than you think

The time on your ticket is when the ball is kicked. The anthem and coin toss run before that. Aim for ten to fifteen minutes earlier if you want to be in your seat for any of it.

Gate screening usually decides it. Every NFL stadium runs walk-through detectors, and the queue is the gap between arriving and being inside. People who miss the start rarely misjudge the drive; they misjudge the lot walk and the line.

Here is the same day drawn to scale. A maps app can number the drive. The rest is the walk in, the gate queue, and finding your seat. A full tailgate is the version worth looking at.

Front door to your seat: 1hr 57min

  • Before you leave 15 min
  • Getting there 50 min
  • Walk in, queue and seat 52 min

Kickoff windows at AT&T Stadium

Kickoff times are national broadcast windows, the same ones every week. Pick yours and every step before it moves.

Windows are published in Eastern Time. AT&T Stadium is on Central time, an hour behind, so an early-window game does not start at one o'clock here:

Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Sunday late window sometimes at 4:05 instead of 4:25, and late-season Saturdays run their own times. Type those in on the kickoff row.

Getting to AT&T Stadium

No commuter or light rail, so essentially the whole crowd drives. Know which lot entrance your pass uses before you hit the surface roads around the complex.

Everything is bigger than it looks, including the walk. Shares an entertainment district with a baseball park; your assigned lot decides whether the walk is five minutes or twenty.

Gates, the queue, and what you can carry in

About two hours before kickoff

Gates open at most NFL stadiums

That is when you can get in, not when you have to. The official AT&T Stadium site has the real time, which moves for a night game or playoff.

Clear-bag policy at every stadium. Getting it wrong usually means walking back to the car and re-entering the line. Check the stadium's page for current sizes rather than a size you remember.

A retractable-roof stadium built to hold one of the largest crowds in the league, with a correspondingly large gate operation. The distances inside are real: getting from a gate to an upper-level seat is a walk of its own.

Leave time for packing up the tailgate

A tailgate feels open-ended until it isn't: grill, food, lock the car, walk to the gate with the whole lot. Add one and those steps go in, which means leaving earlier.

Gates, lots and bag rules change; the official site is the live source.

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Ready Time

You know what you need to do. Ready Time helps you know when to start.

Common questions

How early should I get to AT&T Stadium?

Gates open about two hours before kickoff at most NFL stadiums; that is when the crowd starts arriving, not when you have to. Without a tailgate, being through a gate about an hour before kickoff covers screening, the walk to your section, and a stop on the concourse. Everything is bigger than it looks, including the walk. Shares an entertainment district with a baseball park; your assigned lot decides whether the walk is five minutes or twenty.

When should I leave for AT&T Stadium?

Work backward from kickoff: minutes in your seat beforehand, walk to your section, gate screening, walk from the lot, parking, then the drive (30 minutes in the default plan). That puts leave-by at 10:18 AM for a 12:00 PM kickoff. Change the kickoff time and every row moves.

What time is kickoff at AT&T Stadium?

It depends on the national broadcast window. On this stadium's clock: an early Sunday game kicks off at 12:00 PM, the late Sunday window at 3:25 PM, a night game at 7:15 PM. This example uses the early Sunday window. Thanksgiving, Christmas and some late-season Saturdays run their own times; the kickoff row is editable for those.

How long does the security line take?

The plan allows 15 minutes for a normal walk-through queue. It runs longer in the twenty minutes before kickoff. Arriving fifteen minutes off that peak is usually enough.

What time do the gates open at AT&T Stadium?

Two hours before kickoff is the common NFL practice. It moves for a night game, playoff or special event. The official AT&T Stadium site publishes the real time for your game.

How early should I get there to tailgate at AT&T Stadium?

A short tailgate adds about an hour and a half; a full one closer to three. For a 12:00 PM kickoff that already means leaving well before lunch. Watch packing up and the walk to the gate. Those get squeezed when the lot is having a good time.

What can I bring in?

Assume a clear bag or no bag. Check the stadium's own page for current sizes. The timing risk is being turned around at the gate and walking back to the car: the walk twice and a second trip through the queue.

Flying in? The airport pages. Taking Amtrak? The station pages. No stadium listed? The tailgate timeline is the same plan without a particular lot.

Share one leave time with everyone on the trip

Whoever is driving sees the same 10:18 AM leave-by that you do, not just the kickoff time on the ticket.

They tap once, and every step gets its own alert on their phone.

👥 Shared by Rosa
🏈 Game at AT&T Stadium
15 min Final pack & check 10:03 AM
30 min Drive to the stadium 10:18 AM
20 min Park & find your spot 10:48 AM
Kickoff 12:00 PM
🏈 Game at AT&T Stadium
15 min Final pack & check 10:03 AM
30 min Drive to the stadium 10:18 AM
20 min Park & find your spot 10:48 AM

Build it once, then use it every home game

Ready Time keeps the plan and subtracts again when kickoff changes. Put in next week's game and the same steps land on new times, with an alert on each one.

Ready Time 10:03 AM
Final pack & check. Kickoff in 1h 57m
Ready Time 11:08 AM
Walk to the gate. Kickoff in 52m
Ready Time 11:50 AM
In your seat for the anthem. Kickoff in 10m

Alerts when it's time to start

Get a nudge at the right moment, while there's still time to act.

Each step gets its own alert, so you know what's next and how long you have.

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“A key part of my planning process. Well worth the investment.”
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Ready Time

You know what you need to do. Ready Time helps you know when to start.

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