By David Alvey
Fort Worth will have hosted ESPN College GameDay three times now.
College ball approaches, and Cowtown can prep to watch the pigskin fly from ESPN’s College GameDay in Sundance Square for a third time.
ESPN’s College GameDay show airs live from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 31. The 2019 college football season kicks off later that day with Auburn and Oregon squaring off at 6:30 p.m. at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Fort Worth will have hosted ESPN College GameDay three times now. On Sundance Square, ESPN set up shop in 2014 for the College Football Playoff National Championship and again in 2015 before the Alabama-Wisconsin game at AT&T Stadium. Moreover, ESPN came to Fort Worth for Super Bowl XLV back in 2011.
“Our organizations have developed a great partnership, and the community has certainly embraced ESPN,” says Johnny Campbell, President and CEO of Sundance Square. “As the living room of downtown Fort Worth, Sundance Square Plaza is an ideal setting for events like this, and we will be ready to welcome ESPN and their fans on August 31.”
In the two prior ESPN College GameDay shows at Sundance, thousands have attended and made for an uptick in restaurant and retail business thanks to the live broadcast, says spokeswoman Carolyn Alvey, who’s helping handle the event for Sundance Square. The same can be said whenever TCU is playing at home or there are big games coming to AT&T Stadium; hotel occupancies are high, which also results in increased restaurant and retail business.
“With ESPN coming to Sundance Square, there is a lot of national attention on the 35-block development,” Alvey says. “People are interested in dining, shopping, and enjoying everything that the area has to offer. As a result, people are coming to Fort Worth who might not have considered our beautiful city before seeing it on ESPN.”
As to whether Fort Worth can expect ESPN’s crew to make its way to town on a regular yearly basis, the Sundance team says it’s up to them each year to make that call. Even so, in what’s called a great partnership with the national network, the team wants them to come back “as often as they like.”
