In Fort Worth, the first part of the year always brings extra layers of flannel, bull sheeeeet, and cold hard cash.
We’re grateful for two of those. Old Man Winter can stick it. (I do hope he didn’t hear that.) Yet, he just can’t seem to help himself by decreeing a round of “Stock Show weather” to torment us all.
And, sure as Christmas comes every year on the 25th, the forecasters have begun tormenting us with the threat of arctic — arctic to me anyway — “inclement” weather this weekend.
I saw something on the socials the other day about the Alaskan Wood Frog. It freezes solid in the winter. Heart stops, breathing ceases, brain goes silent. In the spring, it comes alive as if nothing happened. That’s many of us in winter.
Well, anyway, that’s all offset by the economic impact, which like the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is enduring. And hot. Well, it’s legendary.
At an economic impact forum, “The Power of Sports in Fort Worth,” hosted by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Stock Show officials say its impact on the local economy is $120 million, with 1.2 million people visiting the grounds for the 23-day show.
Moreover, the impact of Will Rogers Memorial Center is $350 million a year. There are horses roaming the property pretty much year-round. Specifically, about 200 events every year. That’s why they call those guys who built the complex 90 years ago visionaries.
Richard W. Rodriguez
The new Will Rogers Coliseum features a sparkling concourse and a host of new amenities, like, for example, hot water in the bathrooms.
Will Rogers, as you know, debuted its multimillion-dollar makeover for the Stock Show, including newfangled amenities like hot water in the bathrooms.
Horses were at the center of economic development in Fort Worth at the very beginning and they still are. The more things change … .
“Whether you know it or not, whether you're a bank or a builder, your business is fueled in part by the equine industry,” says Pam Minick, who moderated a discussion the equine industry on Thursday at the Kimbell Art Museum. “In the Stockyards alone, when you think of equine, you might think of the steers, but we've got drovers on horseback that push those steers and 10 million visitors a year are seeing that. Don’t think that those visitors don't impact your businesses.”
Among those is the National Reined Cow Horse Association, which has moved all of its operations to Fort Worth after transferring its premier event, the Snaffle Bit Futurity, here several years ago. Between two events, one in February and the futurity in the fall, the NRCHA is in the coliseum 30 days.
The transformation of the Stockyards includes the city-owned Cowtown Coliseum. Built in 1908, she is the grand dame of public buildings in Fort Worth. It is managed through a partnership of the PBR, ASM Global, and Stockyards Heritage Development Co., which has upgraded the facility to meet modern standards and expectations.
Those upgrades have amounted to a transformation in business activity.
In 2026, the complex will host 279 events, up from 76 when the partnership took over, says Tim Young, general manager of Cowtown Coliseum.
“We've worked really hard to keep the historical value while making the building function better for our guests,” says Young. “I believe in 2022 it did about $4 million of revenue just out of the Coliseum. We'll finish this year at about $28 million.”
In Fort Worth we’re getting another equestrian event this year: FEI World Cup Finals Jumping & Dressage, April 8-12 at Dickies Arena, which itself has fostered a huge economy with more than 1.1 million people walking through its stately doors annually. More than 12,000 of those came to see the Dallas Mavericks play Oklahoma City in a preseason opener. Mavericks president Ethan Casson was also part of the forum. He says they’ll definitely be back.
The FEI World Cup, though, will bring top riders from Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and North America to Fort Worth, all of them vying for the world crown.
It takes, ahem, los huevos to do this stuff, says Ms. Minick.
“The,” um, “balls that people have to have to do the cow horse event and the tenacity that folks have to be a bull rider,” says Minick. “But these equestrians that make a six-foot jump … it's not if they fall off, it's when, because it's just unnatural. And the elegance of these horses. If you don't have tickets to that event, you need to because it's a whole different level of horsemanship.”
That World Cup will precede by a couple of months the other World Cup — futbol’s FIFA World Cup. Soccer’s governing body said this week that more than 500 million people in just over a month — that’s half a billion — submitted applications for the event’s random selection draw.
In addition to the host countries — U.S., Mexico, and Canada — the highest number of applications came from Germany, England, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Colombia.
Many of them will be coming here to the so-called “Dallas Stadium” — better known as AT&T Stadium in Arlington (someone really needs to have a talk with these out-of-towners) — to watch, among others in the round robin portion, England, Argentina, and Japan. Who knows who is coming in the knockout round.
“These are events that we support, but that are independently run and operated here and really bring an increased economic impact to our city,” says Mitch Whitten, COO of Visit Fort Worth. “And many people ask us, ‘How do we get involved? Or ‘How can we support?’ It's really simple: buy a ticket, attend, bring a child, bring a grandchild, bring family.”