If Only The Dallas Convention Center Booked Shows Like The Fort Worth Convention Center Does...

Robert Wilonsky

The Memorial Auditorium, as seen just this past Saturday afternoon.

​To end the day here on DC9, allow us to point you in the direction of our sister blog, Unfair Park, where Big Bad Bobbo has just tackled a subject pretty near and dear to his heart: the city's recent efforts to re-vamp the Dallas Convention Center's Memorial Auditorium into a relevant-again home for major concerts. After all, as Robert explains, the venue, once upon a time, was a fairly prominent hub for shows. Perhaps you've heard of the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, The Who or the Grateful Dead?

And the city really appears to be trying. Writes Wilonsky:

Turns out, the convention center arena is actually is being studied at this very moment: The city council hired HKS several weeks ago to do a facilities assessment at the Dallas Convention Center, with the arena "as one of its priorities." And, as a matter of fact, [outgoing Dallas Convention Center head Frank] Poe says, in recent months the city has been actively pursuing the kind of concerts that would normally go to Nokia and Superpages.com Center. But, he says, it hasn't been easy since, of course, those venues are controlled by promoters -- AEG and LiveNation, respectively.

Poe's guess as to the renovation costs? Some $30,000 to $70,000--just to study the place, actually. That picture above sure makes it look nice as is, though, don't it?

Anyway, I can think of at least one big show in particular that isn't going to Nokia or Superpages--and maybe one that Dallas maybe could've scored for Memorial.

Maybe it's kinda selfish of me, a Dallasite, to think like this, but next Wednesday night's Muse/Silversun Pickups show, which is taking place at the Fort Worth Convention Center, sure would look nice in the 10,000-seater Memorial Auditorium, yeah?

It's not like the bands would really notice the difference--Muse's MySpace page is already under the impression that the Fort Worth Convention Center is in Dallas anyway.