Music

Everything may be bigger in Texas, but Dickies Arena in Fort Worth is punching above its weight class. 

The 14,000-capacity venue opened in 2019 amid a competitive Texas market. With the 20,000-capacity American Airlines Center less than 40 miles east and the San Antonio, Austin and Houston markets reachable within a few hours, the region is saturated with large venues to book big names. Still, Dickies Arena has managed to stand out as a major contender in its first full year of shows following the COVID-19 pandemic, ranking at No. 2 on Billboard Boxscore’s Top Venues (10,001-15,000 capacity) chart for the 2023 midyear report. 

In the report, which is based on the touring period of Nov. 1, 2022-April 30, 2023, Dickies Arena grossed $40.1 million from 79 reported shows. Compared with the same period last year, as the touring business was still coming out of the pandemic, the venue nearly tripled the number of tickets sold (from 209,000 to 610,000) and grossed almost four times as much (up from $11.6 million). Even beyond its capacity limit, Dickies Arena out-grossed all but six venues in the 15,001-plus range, including American Airlines Center in Dallas. 

Midyear Boxscore charts are based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Eligible shows played between Nov. 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023.

“If you look at entertainment, there wasn’t really much on this side of the [Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex],” says Dickies Arena president/GM Matt Homan, who notes that the drive between arenas can reach up to an hour-and-a-half with traffic. “What we’ve proven is that the market is large enough for American Airlines Center and Dickies Arena.” 

While American Airlines Center is the larger of the two Metroplex arenas, the venue also has two home tenants (NBA team Dallas Mavericks and the NHL’s Dallas Stars) that occupy several dates on the calendar. Dickies Arena, however, only has the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, which runs from January to the first week of February, when concerts tend to be space. This year’s event brought in over $9 million from its 25 performances. 

The Dickies Arena’s arrival and success run parallel to the city’s growing population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2022, Fort Worth had the largest numeric population gain of any large city in the United States, with 19,170 people joining its population of roughly 1 million — and the venue is focused on catering to the city’s varying interests. Country music is naturally a good fit for the arena, with two sellouts from George Strait ($9.9 million) in November marking its highest-grossing run of the midyear report, with two more scheduled for later this year. “It’s a great experience for fans to see [Strait] in such an intimate venue,” says Homan, “you’re not going to a baseball stadium with 60,000 or 40,000-plus seats, which we all know George could sell out in a heartbeat.” 

Beyond country, the Dickies Arena’s Boxscore totals also included shows from the Eagles, Muse, New Edition and K-pop group Stray Kids, the lattermost moving more than $2.5 million in tickets sold. “Our K-pop merch sales have been great,” says Homan. “Our merch numbers are generally amongst the top three to five on the tour, based on numbers I’ve seen recently.”  Rauw Alejandro’s sold-out show in April, which grossed over $1.5 million, was also the start of Homan’s focus on the Latin market. “Going into this year, the [Latin market] was my highest priority,” he says. The arena will welcome Peso Pluma, Banda MS, Christian Nodal and Grupo Frontera in 2023. “We’re starting to finally dip our toes into those markets. We want to make sure that we have something here for everyone and that we’re really representing the major city that we are.”