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Top R&B music artist Mary J. Blige will appear at Dallas' Majestic Theatre on Thursday as part of the official NBA All-Star celebration, but it's sought-after country artist Miranda Lambert who will headline a concert at Billy Bob's Texas in the Fort Worth Stockyards on Friday.
When Lambert takes the stage at 10:30 p.m., it will mark the only NBA All-Star celebration event in Tarrant County, even though the game itself is being played Sunday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.The game has had only a minimal effect on bookings at Arlington hotels, and even less at Fort Worth hotels."There's not a lot of activity on our end," said Kelly Campbell, vice president of marketing communications for the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau.Tarrant County wouldn't even have an event if Pam Minick, Billy Bob's marketing director and co-owner, hadn't been persistent. Within days of being introduced to NBA representatives at a meeting last fall, Minick said she e-mailed them suggesting that the world's largest honky-tonk needed to be a part of the events leading up to the game.They agreed. So armed with the NBA's backing, Billy Bob's lassoed Lambert."You can't just sit and wait to see if something falls in your lap," Minick said. "It will be a big night for us."Reserved seating for the concert has been sold out, but $15 general admission tickets are available, Minick said. NBA legends, including Bill Walton, are expected to attend, she said. The NBA will also hand out NBA All-Star merchandise.Because the Dallas Mavericks are hosting the game along with the NBA, event professionals in Arlington and Fort Worth said they really didn't anticipate garnering much, if anything, in the way of events. All of the pregame events are Thursday through Saturday at the Dallas Convention Center or the American Airlines Center, where the Mavericks play.The NBA's Web site provides links to the city's convention and visitors bureaus.Based on early ticket sales, more than 90,000 people are expected to attend the three-day Jam Session. The attendance is on par with the daily average the NBA saw at its 2007 All-Star celebration in Las Vegas, league spokesman Mike Bass said. More than 136,300 fans attended that Jam Session, which was five days.About 300,000 people are expected in North Texas just to party, and about 5,300 hotel rooms will be booked. A record-setting 90,000 fans are expected to attend the game itself."The excitement and fan response is certainly there," Bass said.Arlington doesn't have a venue large enough to host some of the pregame events, said Jay Burress, president and CEO of the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau.Area hotels hoped for increased business, as they have had with other stadium events. But Burress said preliminary numbers for the All-Star Weekend showed hotels only about 70 percent booked.Hoteliers maintain that late bookings and spillovers from full Dallas hotels will come in."We've seen with all of these ... it's a very late booking pattern," Burress said.
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