A&M, Texas praise Dickies Arena. But the Aggies coach wants tickets for another show.
Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams had nothing but good things to say about Dickies Arena, Fort Worth’s new $540 million venue.
“This arena is really nice,” Williams said. “What are they going to do here?”
Told the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is one of the main tenants, Williams said: “It’s that big? I want to come. The hotel we stayed at was incredible. The people have been phenomenal.”
But Williams then aired his only beef about the venue, outside of his Aggies falling to Texas 60-50 on Sunday afternoon. Williams was baffled the arena didn’t provide him tickets to the George Strait concert last month.
After all, the Aggies were off that weekend.
“They said George Strait was in concert to open the arena. They didn’t give me tickets?” Williams said, smirking. “We’re not signing a contract to play at Dickies if I don’t get tickets to see George.”
Other than that, Williams only heaped praise on the facility that will bring big-time college basketball events to town in future years. TCU and USC played in the inaugural game on Friday night, and Texas and Texas A&M played the encore on Sunday.
The games drew close to 15,000 fans (TCU-USC had an announced crowd of 5,656 and Texas-A&M had 9,136) over the weekend. Capacity for basketball games is 13,300.
The American Athletic Conference is scheduled to play its men’s basketball tournament at the venue starting next spring through the 2022 season. And the NCAA Tournament will have first- and second-round games at Dickies Arena in 2022.
Williams liked seeing the historic A&M and Texas rivalry renewed on the hardwood.
“I felt like it was a rivalry game,” Williams said. “It would be different if we were playing at home, or at their place. I’m not exactly sure how all of this worked, by the time I got the job, I think it was already kind of in the works. But I thought it was great. I thought the arena was great. I think playing them is great. I felt like it was a rivalry. I think it’s good.”
But Williams stopped short of guaranteeing this matchup being played on an annual basis, whether it’s at Dickies Arena or elsewhere.
“Scheduling is a little more complicated than what you guys would tweet, or what the average fan that reads the Fort Worth Star-Telegram thinks relative to the MTEs [multi-team events], relative to the we play in the Big 12/ SEC Challenge which is during conference play,” Williams said. “So there’s a lot of different factors involved in that.”
As far as Dickies Arena, though, Williams wasn’t alone in his praise.
Aggies forward Josh Nebo described the venue as “beautiful.”
“Probably one of the best arenas I’ve played in throughout my whole career,” Nebo said.
Added Texas coach Shaka Smart: “They did a great job creating this venue. Appreciative of the opportunity to play up here. It’s great for our fans in this area for us to be able to play here.”
