Key Highlights

• MLB Draft held at the historic Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth
• More than 30,000 fans expected at Fort Worth Stockyards
• Significant economic impact anticipated for local businesses and tourism
• MLB aims to elevate the profile of new baseball talent through a grand event

(NicePlay Sports) –The Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft made a grand return, embracing the vibrant culture of Fort Worth, Texas. Staging the event at the 116-year-old Cowtown Coliseum, the league blended the historic charm of the venue with the thrill of baseball. The choice of location, right at the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards, was both symbolic and practical, offering a unique experience for fans while boosting the local economy.

MLB Draft Enlivens Cowtown Coliseum

Last night wasn’t MLB’s first rodeo with its annual draft in tandem with the All-Star Game—an arrangement that first debuted back in 2021—but this was certainly MLB’s first time in a rodeo. The league staged Sunday’s draft in Cowtown Coliseum, the 116-year-old home of the world’s only year-round rodeo. About 2,000 fans filled the seats while select guests, league officials, and media were stationed on the dirt floor.

“We really wanted to make sure that we made it true to the market that we were going to be in and find the best location for it so that you actually knew you were in the host city where the All-Star week was being hosted,” said MLB VP/Global Events Jeremiah Yolkut.

There was no mistaking the setting, with signs in the venue for the Saddle Suite and Roping Box. Adorning one of the Will Call windows was a notice touting “Rodeo Contestants Only.” Between picks, a line dance instructor from Billy Bob’s gave a quick demo, and trick ropers entertained with lassos a short time later.

“When you come to Texas, this is the Texas you kind of expect,” said Fort Worth Sports Commission Exec Dir Jason Sands. “We were excited to work with [MLB] to give that experience and leverage this historic building and the Stockyards.”

Significant Economic Boost for Fort Worth

It’s a boon for Fort Worth, Sands noted, with 8,000 hotel rooms booked by MLB officials, sponsors, and media. That doesn’t include fans coming to visit, and he estimated about 20,000 people walked around the Stockyards historic and commercial district earlier today. Nike sponsored a viewing party for those not able to enter the capacity crowd. New Balance had a pop-up shop where it had an exclusive unveiling of the new Shohei Ohtani signature line a day before its public availability.

As part of its push to promote its future stars, MLB arranged the schedule for the draft to be unopposed by any regular-season games. ESPN and MLB Network both provided live TV coverage. Tickets were free, and the atmosphere was lively: a dozen team mascots, the Rangers Six Shooters, and a DJ named Miss Ninja—who regularly appears at Dodgers games—were all on hand.

“The draft, obviously first and foremost, is the time in which our teams get to pick the next generation of players that will be major leaguers, but we also recognize that it’s now a large-scale event that’s also intended to be an opportunity for us to raise the profile of those players and create a much larger entertainment event,” Yolkut said.

There’s a long road to match the NFL or NBA in terms of broad fan appeal in the draft, a challenging comparison anyway given the longer development period required for most baseball draftees to reach the majors compared to the immediate impacts prospects have in those other sports.

Visitor Surge and Local Business Impact

Fort Worth leaders are hoping for a home run as baseball fans rally in Tarrant County. Tens of thousands of visitors are expected at the Fort Worth Stockyards on July 14 for the opening night of the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft, part of All-Star Week events in North Texas that start July 12. The main event, the 94th Midsummer Classic, will be played at Globe Life Field in Arlington on July 16—the second All-Star Game that the Texas Rangers have hosted in the franchise’s 63-year history.

The city of Fort Worth couldn’t be more excited to host the draft in the Cowtown Coliseum, said Becca Berger, senior sports marketing manager for the Fort Worth Sports Commission, a division of Visit Fort Worth that promotes the city for sporting events that have an economic impact on the city.

“This opportunity was made possible by the great partnership we have with the city of Arlington and the World Series Champion Texas Rangers who have led the charge on securing the MLB All-Star Week for Tarrant County,” she said.

The impact of the Mid-Summer Classic will be significant for Fort Worth, Berger said. About 2,000 dedicated fans are expected to be in the coliseum for the draft.

“More than 8,000 hotel rooms have been secured at Fort Worth hotels with MLB executives, sponsors, fans, and representatives from all the franchises,” Berger said. “We anticipate more than 30,000 fans in the Stockyards for the draft and the activities we have planned in the district throughout the day.”

Coverage of the MLB events, Berger said, will also bring added media attention to the city, providing “yet another opportunity for us to share the Fort Worth story with sports fans across the country.”

Historical Significance and Cultural Flair

The draft follows in the footsteps of other sporting events that made history at the coliseum. “As home to the first indoor rodeo in America in 1918 and having hosted entertainment icons, including Elvis Presley, to think that some 125 years later, the coliseum would be home to the 2024 MLB Draft is amazing,” Craig Cavileer, managing partner of Stockyards Heritage Development Co., said.

To see a schedule of Major League Baseball events in North Texas, visit here.

Some studies on the economic impact of sports provide a realistic take on revenue. A 2021 study by the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, showed the 2014 All-Star Game in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the 2019 All-Star Game in Cleveland, Ohio, generated “at most 10,000 additional room nights and $4.5 million in additional hotel revenues.”

“These figures suggest that the All-Star Game generates a total direct marginal increase in tourism spending of only $3.9 to $9.4 million,” according to the study, which examined the MLB economic impact after the 2021 All-Star Game was moved from Atlanta, Georgia, to Denver, Colorado, in response to a Georgia voting law.

Georgia had claimed that the state lost $100 million because of the removal of the game, an assertion the study said was “pure fiction with no basis in economic data.”

William Crowder, chair of the economics department at the University of Texas at Arlington, previously told the Fort Worth Report that several studies over the past two decades have looked at the impact of major league sports on cities and it is not as substantial as many believe.

“The long and short of it is that the estimates come in somewhere around $2 to $3 million per game, so it’s not nothing, but it’s not the hundreds of millions that some envision,” he said.

Tourism dollars have increased in Fort Worth in recent years. Earlier this year, Visit Fort Worth officials touted the city’s $3.4 billion impact of tourism from 11.4 million visitors in 2023, up from $3.1 billion and 10.9 million visitors in 2022.

Fort Worth City Council member Carlos Flores, who represents the Stockyards, said he believes businesses in his district will benefit from the MLB Draft event.

“Hosting the 2024 MLB Draft in the Cowtown Coliseum is an honor and a big win for Fort Worth’s professional sports,” Flores said. “I’m excited for the thousands of baseball fans that will visit our historic Stockyards to enjoy distinctive Western culture, entertainment, dining, shopping, and hospitality. This will give a big economic boost to our local businesses.”

Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected]. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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