The worst seats in the house

How many times has your house been redecorated since 1968?

The seats in the Fort Worth Convention Center arena have been refurbished, also.

Once.

That effort removed years of dirt and debris from the era of arena concerts by Elvis or Led Zeppelin or ZZ Top. Now, those refurbished seats in turn are showing wear from years of graduations, conventions and evangelical crusades.

The arena is worn out, and it’s scheduled for removal by 2025 in favor of more exhibit space.

But in the meantime, we need to show arena guests to better seats.

It may sound strange to spend $950,000 to redo 10,490 seats knowing they will be demolished within a decade.

But more than 50 major meetings and conventions are already booked by 2020, with the chance for more.

Fort Worth cannot afford to leave 10 years of bad impressions. The seating project should proceed.

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 5:52 PM.