FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 What once was the largest arena in North Texas is getting yet another major facelift to help keep up with the growing demand. It\u2019s a change the City of Fort Worth said has been a long time coming.<\/p>\n
September marks the last hurrah for the indoor arena at the Fort Worth Convention Center.<\/p>\n
A year before Bob Hope went overseas to uplift the spirits of our service members for Christmas, the Hollywood legend made a stop in North Texas, helping open the brand-new fixture in Fort Worth the week of Nov. 21, 1968.<\/p>\n
Although he wasn\u2019t there for opening day, Terry White was front and center at several iconic shows at what was then called the Tarrant County Convention Center. He has the mementos to prove it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYup, well, this is Eric Clapton, 1975. My friends and I had tickets right down front, so I snuck my camera in and caught this picture of him at Fort Worth Convention Center,\u201d said White, a Prosper resident.<\/p>\n
White has been holding onto these pieces of history for over 50 years. This year, he\u2019s finally letting them go.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s interesting that anybody would think it has any value. But it\u2019s got, definitely got some history value. And you don\u2019t find tickets like this anymore. Nowadays you get your ticket on the internet, and it\u2019s a barcode on a scan, and you\u2019re in,\u201d said White.<\/p>\n
Now all these items will be housed by the Fort Worth History Center. The center is collecting items like the ones White has before demolition day next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, the arena has a big part of my heart, as the rest of the building does as well. But I will say that I have seen many changes in growth in this entire building. I am looking forward to this building going, coming down and then rebuilding with something of the future. And so, with that, we can bring and will bring a lot of different, larger conventions that will bring an economic impact to our city,\u201d said Gina Castillo, the field operations supervisor at the convention center.<\/p>\n
This place has been her home away from home for nearly three decades. During an interview with Spectrum News, she carried a lot of memorabilia. A Cher backstage pass from the early 2000s was the oldest pass she had in her possession.<\/p>\n
But time has finally caught up to the aging arena, after hosting thousands of shows from Elvis to U2 over the past 58 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a U2 fan. I came to the concert here back in the late \u201880s. I think it was around \u201886,\u201d said Castillo.<\/p>\n
The City of Fort Worth said Elvis Presley sold out a record-breaking three shows in 1974 with 55,000 attendees, and that Paul McCartney\u2019s first show in the U.S. after the Beatles broke up was at the arena in the Fort Worth Convention Center.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 20, the city will host its final farewell as it prepares for demolition and a new expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it\u2019s sad in a way, but I mean it\u2019s a, it was a 60-year-old building. So, it could definitely use some upgrades,\u201d said White.<\/p>\n
White and Castillo plan to be there once again, front and center for its new chapter. The upgrades will be on full display when construction wraps up in 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 What once was the largest arena in North Texas is getting yet another major…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1041036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,359,416672,5281,1596,159075,31126,7371,7372,50,7202,358,41035,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":["post-1041035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-austin","tag-blessing-iwuchukwu","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-dfw-what-you-need-to-know","tag-el-paso","tag-fort-worth","tag-fortworth","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117207879427178541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}