Monticello's Most Crowded Nights This Fall Fall Between December 10 and 13

The art deco tower at Will Rogers Memorial Center and the brick bulk of Dickies Arena sit across Trail Drive from each other. For most of their shared history, different organizations ran them. The City of Fort Worth managed Will Rogers. Trail Drive Management Corp. ran the arena. This fall the two campuses are set to have the same people at the top, and the calendar they share runs into one solid four-week block before the year ends.

One Operator Group, Two Calendars

On June 9, Fort Worth City Council voted unanimously to hand day-to-day management of Will Rogers to a nonprofit called Gendy Street Management, effective Oct. 1, 2026, the Fort Worth Report reported. Three groups make up the partnership. One is the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. The second is Event Facilities Fort Worth, the Bass-backed group that led the effort to build Dickies Arena. The third is Trail Drive Management Corp., which manages Dickies Arena.

City staff gave the reasons at the time. Will Rogers was running close to a $10 million annual operating deficit. The list of needed capital work kept growing, and the city's procurement process added cost and delay to every project. The contract runs 10 years and allows two five-year renewals. The city keeps responsibility for any operating deficit. Any savings the new manager produces go back into the property.

In August the group named Geoff Hinds general manager, according to an announcement published by the Fort Worth Report. Hinds was most recently chief operating officer of Cheyenne Frontier Days, and he began helping with the transition on Aug. 31. That announcement called the 120-acre complex home to "some of the most prestigious western equestrian competitions in the world" and put its traffic at about two million visitors a year.

So far, no one has announced anything that changes the visitor experience. There is no joint ticketing, no shared parking system and no single booking calendar. Will Rogers still lists its events on its own calendar, hosted by Visit Fort Worth, and Dickies Arena keeps its own. Putting the two lists side by side shows how busy the campus will be.

Where the Two Calendars Land on the Same Day

Below is every date from mid-October through New Year's Eve when both venues list an event.

October's overlaps run alongside the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity through Oct. 24, followed by a few single nights. From Nov. 2 through Nov. 15, the two calendars don't overlap at all. Starting Nov. 16, the pattern changes, because the Coliseum is booked every day for nearly four weeks.

Four Weeks of Cutting Horses in the Coliseum

The NCHA World Championship Futurity holds the Coliseum from Monday, Nov. 16, through Saturday, Dec. 12. The National Cutting Horse Association says it changed this year's dates because of a scheduling conflict at Will Rogers. As a result, every Dickies Arena date from Ty Myers on Nov. 21 through Billy Strings on Dec. 11 shares the campus with a working horse show next door. That includes Intocable on Thanksgiving weekend, Jingle Ball and for KING + COUNTRY.

The Futurity also spreads beyond the Coliseum. Western Bloodstock lists nine Futurity sale sessions at Watt Arena from Dec. 4 to 12, with on-site previews Dec. 2 and 3. The association's event page also lists a Best of the West Tradeshow and the NCHA World Finals. The reviewed pages don't give the tradeshow's hours or public-access terms.

The championship rounds come at the end. NCHA's tentative schedule, posted June 2, puts the Non-Pro Finals on Thursday, Dec. 10, at 5:30 p.m. The Open Semi-Finals follow on Friday, Dec. 11, at 2 p.m., and the Open Finals on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 6 p.m. Prekindle sells an all-ages three-day pass covering those three sessions. The listing doesn't show a price. NCHA labels the schedule tentative, so check the times close to the date.

December 10 to 13

Those finals start the most crowded four days on the combined calendar. Every day from Thursday to Sunday has events in at least two buildings, and on Friday and Sunday both venues have events.

• Thursday, Dec. 10: Futurity Non-Pro Finals in the Coliseum at 5:30 p.m. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's Hook in Concert opens its four-day run in the Auditorium, and a Futurity sale session runs at Watt Arena.
• Friday, Dec. 11: Open Semi-Finals at 2 p.m., the Hook concert, a sale session and Billy Strings at Dickies Arena.
• Saturday, Dec. 12: Open Finals at 6 p.m. on the Futurity's last day, the final sale session, the Hook concert and the opening day of the JCRBA/SWRBA Christmas Show in the Small Exhibits Building.
• Sunday, Dec. 13: USLBM at Dickies Arena, the last Hook performance and the second day of the JCRBA/SWRBA show.

After that the campus gets lighter but doesn't empty. Pentatonix plays Dec. 16, the day the ABBI Showcase begins at W.R. Watt Arena. Matt Rife plays Dec. 18 and 19, and the Holiday Spectacular fills the Auditorium on Dec. 19. Then the calendar thins out. The Ambassadors of Fort Worth Charitable Foundation is listed at the Round Up Inn on Dec. 26, and Flatland Cavalry plays Dickies Arena on New Year's Eve.

The short break ends quickly. The Original Fort Worth Gun Show returns Jan. 2 and 3, and the Southwestern Exposition & Livestock Show takes the Coliseum from Jan. 15 to Feb. 6, 2027. This will be the second Stock Show in the Coliseum since its renovation of nearly a year, which added new corridors, seating, accessibility features, lighting and kitchens in time for the 2026 show, the Fort Worth Report reported.

Where the Cars Go on an Overlap Night

Dickies Arena's directions and parking page sends traffic onto the streets along Monticello's southern edge. The routes below come from that page and the city's Cultural District rates.

1. Chevrolet Garage: 2,200 spaces at 3464 Trail Drive. The arena directs garage traffic in from Montgomery Street.
2. Yellow Lots: Open for all arena events and reached from Trail Drive via University. Lots open 3½ hours before showtime, rates vary by event, and both cash and card are accepted.
3. Preferred and reserved access: Reserved garage parking and the prepaid Montgomery Lot both use Harley Street and Dickies Way. ADA overflow uses Gate 49.
4. Rideshare: Drop-off is in the west entrance lane on Dickies Way. Pickup is on Harley Avenue, on the arena's north side, the side closest to Monticello.
5. Meters and event rates: The city's Cultural District parking page lists meter rates of $6 for up to two hours, $12 past two hours and $15 past three. Special-event parking runs $12 to $15, and the city notes that prices can change.
6. Transit: Visit Fort Worth notes that Trinity Metro Route 2 stops at University and Camp Bowie, a couple of blocks from Will Rogers, and quotes a $5 day pass. The sources reviewed don't mention an event-night shuttle.

On a night like Dec. 11, a 2 p.m. Futurity semifinal, an evening symphony concert and a Billy Strings show all pull from these same garages, lots and pickup lanes. Both venues update their calendars and rates often, so check the date-specific listing before you plan around one.

Monticello's location next to these venues shapes its calendar as much as its parks and bungalows do. Knowing which weeks the campus fills is part of how John Zimmerman advises clients on this neighborhood, whether that means timing a showing around the Futurity finals or planning a listing launch around the Stock Show. If you're weighing a move in or near Monticello this season, work with us and we'll walk through the calendar with you.