Those attending this year’s Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo can expect cooler corridors and bigger bathrooms as they mosey through the 90-year-old Will Rogers Coliseum.
The improvements are just a portion of the $50.5 million effort to fully renovate the coliseum, which reopened earlier this month after nearly a year of construction.
The completed work included opening up hallways as well as adding seating areas, accommodations for those with disabilities, fire prevention features, new lighting, a dining room and an industrial kitchen.
“From March until a few days ago, really it was 24/7 work,” said Matt Brockman, spokesperson for the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, noting that the building’s historic architecture was carefully preserved.
Freshly renovated hallways tunnel through the Will Rogers Coliseum on Jan. 15, 2026. (Drew Shaw | Fort Worth Report)
The renovations are part of a yearslong effort to refurbish the Will Rogers Memorial Center by the time it turns 100 in 2036 — a year that also marks Texas’ bicentennial, Brockman said. In the last five years, the center has seen updated sheep and swine bars and improvements to its poultry building and cattle barns.
Improvements to the arena, including new seating, are planned. Those will come between now and 2036, but not all renovations have been given a timeline, Brockman said.
The Will Rogers Memorial Center is most known as the historic home of the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. But over the decades, it has also hosted bull riding events, concerts, circuses, boxing matches and more. And it’s only gotten busier, Brockman said.
“The stock show is 23 days. But as soon as we’re over, there’s horse show after horse show after horse show that are in here year-round for the rest of the year,” Brockman said. “So it’s got a lot of use, and it was in need of some TLC.”
The city of Fort Worth committed $28.6 million to renovating the coliseum in August. That money — which will be doled out over the next four years — comes in part from the city’s hotel tax revenue in the Culture and Tourism Fund.
Another $12.5 million for the project was reallocated from other memorial center renovations.
“Our visitors are paying for this project, and this project will enable the coliseum to keep on attracting visitors to our community,” Mike Crum, Fort Worth’s public events director, said in August.
New seating spaces overlook the arena of the Will Rogers Coliseum on Jan. 15, 2026. (Drew Shaw | Fort Worth Report)
Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo has had a “long-standing, fruitful and productive relationship” with the city, Brockman said.
“The city sees the stock show, I think, as somebody willing to come to the table and put our money where our mouth is,” he said. “They value what we do, and they value the financial commitment and the expertise we bring to the table.
Event Facilities Fort Worth Inc., a nonprofit supporting organization for the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, chipped in $5 million for the coliseum’s renovations.
Matt Carter, president of the stock show and rodeo, said in an August statement that keeping costs low while ensuring work will complement future improvements were top priorities. The coliseum is in its first phase of projects that will take place over the next 10 years.
Will Rogers generates more than $217 million annually for the local economy, Carter said in August. Brockman described the center as the “envy of the Western competitive sports world.”
“Other cities, especially cities in the West, would kill for something like this,” he said.
Will Rogers’ central location in Fort Worth is one valuable asset, he said. Brockman also noted the buildings surrounding the coliseum — such as the Richardson Bass Building, the John Justin Arena and the Moncrief Building — and the livestock capacity they bring.
Dickies Arena, which opened in 2019, neighbors the Will Rogers complex and also hosts stock show events and other acts.
“It’s taken time, but we cultivate those relationships — that trust is strong, and that bond is strong.” Brockman said.
“And the proof’s in the pudding,” he said, gesturing out over the well-lit, freshly laid dirt of the arena.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
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