Like a lot of places where rock ‘n’ roll memories are made, the Fort Worth Convention Center arena doesn’t look like much in the cold light of day.
Inside, without the music and the people and the energy, it’s just a stark, hollow dome with a cement floor, corrugated walls and 10,400 empty blue seats underneath the “flying saucer” roof that’s been a feature of the downtown landscape since 1968 — when the complex was known as the Tarrant County Convention Center.
But standing where the stage normally is, gazing out across the expanse, it’s easy to imagine Elvis shaking his hips in roughly the same spot, or of Mick Jagger or Bono or Paul McCartney or Eddie Van Halen or B.B. King or Bob Dylan … or any of the long list of greats who have played that room over the decades. They helped make the arena the closest thing Fort Worth has had to a Madison Square Garden or a Hollywood Bowl in terms of cultural impact.
Unlike those legendary venues, though, the Fort Worth Convention Center arena’s days are numbered. That iconic circular roof will soon be imploded and the building demolished to make room for a new ballroom and additional exhibit hall space, part of a $700 million convention center renovation project funded by hotel occupancy and venue tax collections and a portion of shared revenue from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Time has passed the space-age relic of the swinging 1960s by, city officials say. Dickies Arena, with its luxury suites and modern amenities, now has the right of first refusal for concerts and sporting events. That left the old convention center arena underutilized.
Mike Crum, the city’s deputy director of public events, said the facility needed to evolve for Fort Worth to compete with places like Oklahoma City, Nashville and Charlotte for large-scale convention business…