ARLINGTON – The first round of sales for what could be described as the cheap seats at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium wrap up this week.

Today is the deadline for season ticket holders to grab reserved seats that are comparable to what they have at Texas Stadium. Those upper deck and end zone seats cost between $59 and $125 per game.

Team officials said they're pleased with how the sales have gone, but that's as specific as they'll get. Several months ago, they stopped giving updates on sales figures for the expensive club seats and have never released any numbers for the reserved seats.

"We're trying to be out of the business of giving those kind of updates," said Chad Estis, vice president of sales and marketing.

The last update was that the Cowboys had sold about 8,000 of the 15,000 club seats and 200 of the 300 suites. In several weeks, after this round of reserved seat sales are processed, season ticket holders who wanted to trade down from a club seat to a reserved seat will get a shot.

The reserved seat options range from nothing for the cheapest seats to $5,000. The options for the club seats are a National Football League-record $16,000 to $150,000.

The Cowboys have also found a more traditional way to help pay for the $1.1 billion stadium. The team is selling personalized paving stones that will be placed in the surrounding walkways.

The cheapest, a 4-inch-by-8-inch paver with a three-line message, costs $150. That's more than the most expensive reserved seat. The priciest paver with a Cowboys star and four-line message costs $375, more than a single club seat.

The deadline for ordering is Oct. 1. The deal comes with a replica paver and display case.

Clarice Tinsley, co-anchor for KDFW-TV (Channel 4), said previously that she would be avoiding Cowboys stories for the next couple of years because of her position on the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee. She said that she and her news director agreed that would be the best way to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest.

That voluntary ban was lifted – temporarily – after a little more than a month when a crane accident injured three men at the stadium in June. Ms. Tinsley was introducing stories about the accident on the Fox affiliate.

Ms. Tinsley said that was a fluke. She was the only anchor in the newsroom when the accident happened.

"It was breaking news," she said. "And it was about the stadium and not the Cowboys or the Super Bowl."

Ms. Tinsley said she'll continue avoiding Cowboys-related stories that might appear to be a conflict of interest. But she said this was a case where she and the station didn't have an option.