Fort Worth officials hope to demolish the city’s Convention Center arena and replace it with modern meeting facilities in the next eight to 10 years but in the meantime, the City Council has approved a $700,000 contract to renovate the arena’s seats.
Cy Young Industries, Inc. will be the contractor for the project, which is is expected to take approximately 175 days but could take longer because the contractor will need to work around the arena’s event schedule.
According to a staff report to council members, the seating in the 47-year-old arena has experienced much “wear and tear,” and both the city’s Public Events Department and the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau believe that “rehabilitation of the arena seating is imperative to continue to book events to the venue.”
Since Fort Worth purchased the Convention Center from Tarrant County in 1997, the city has spent more than $80 million in renovation and expansion projects. Most of that money was spent on infrastructure improvements, and the only work done to the arena’s interior was an upgrade of the lower bowl seats in 2003.