Mysterious disappearing star at Cowboys Stadium

Factual Questions
1

I somewhat distant friend of mine had tickets to last night’s Cowboys/Giants game at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. He posted a picture of the view from his seat on Facebook for all of us to admire. He was sitting a bit to the right of the 50-yard line. There was a clear view of the entire field and the spectacular huge screen suspended above it. The field had the yard lines painted on it and there were several football players milling around, stretching, etc. The stadium appeared to be about half full. I noticed that there was no giant blue star at the center of the field. I just figured that they didn’t include that in the new stadium.

So, imagine how surprised I was to see the star during the televised game on NBC.

Any idea why the star wasn’t visible in my friend’s pre-game picture. In the picture, I can clearly see the entire 50-yard line. It stretches from sideline to sideline. The blue star is not there. During the game, it was there. Is the stadium so swanky that they roll out a special field (sans star) for warm up, then a different turf (with star) for the actual game?

So what gives?

(And, if you’re in the Metroplex, please ask Mr. Romo to throw the ball at the guys wearing the same color jersey as his. He seemed confused about that last night.)

2

There superimposing the star on the field for the broadcast; I believe.

3

I thought about that, but that seemed like an unnecessary thing for the network to do. It didn’t look like the down and scrimmage markers, which are added to the picture by the TV producers. Why would the network want to add images for one team, any way?

4

I think it was during the halftime show they showed a few pictures in the background of the opening ceremonies. One of them showed some performers pulling six segments of a green cover off the center star, I think. So it could have been hidden in the first picture, and revealed by the time the tv cameras were rolling.

I’m sure someone with a better cite will be along shortly.

5

The star, which had been absent for the preseason, was “installed” prior to kickoff.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/football/cowboys/stories/092109dnspocowfirsts.44c3561.html:

6

Thank you for clearing this up. That was bugging me through the whole game. Maybe it distracted Romo, too.

“Where did that star come from?” thought Tony. “Maybe this nice man will hold my football while I go ask someone. Hey, don’t run away with my football!”