Frisco | May 2023

World Cup are already being seen in Frisco, which could also lead to more music opportunities, said Lisa Bet- hea, director of destination services at Visit Frisco. “I’d like to see this become the beginning of the renaissance era for Frisco,” Meinershagen said. Evolving tourism base Frisco has been called “Sports City USA” by city officials in acknowledg- ment of the number of sports-related businesses and events. More music events in the city could do more than just bring in tourists, Roe said. It could convince Frisco residents to stay instead of traveling outside the city for entertainment. “One of the Buxton studies that [Visit Frisco commissioned] did show one of the reasons residents and visi- tors leave Frisco is for live entertain- ment,” Roe said. Buxton, a data analytics company, conducted the study in 2019 for offi- cials to learn what people wanted in the city by tracking their comings and goings, Roe said. Included in the results were busi- nesses that, at the time, were rare inside Frisco’s city limits. “The things that rose to the top were breweries and live entertain- ment,” Roe said. After the 2019 study, Frisco updated city ordinances to allow breweries and wineries. For live entertainment, the American Coun- try Music Awards held at the Ford Center on May 11 proved Frisco’s dedication to its music community, Roe said. “ACM is the cherry on the ice cream top [for the city],” Roe said. Frisco being chosen to host the awards show is a marker of its past successes with large-scale enter- tainment events, Academy of Country Music CEO Damon White- side said. “The Academy of Country Music held the 50th ACM Awards in 2015 in North Texas at AT&T Stadium,” Whiteside said in an email. “Not only was it a huge success, … but we saw, firsthand, how passionate Texas coun- try music fans are.” Whiteside said hosting the awards in Frisco is an example of how music can possibly evolve the overall tour- ism industry. “Ford Center is a football-sized arena without a bad seat in the house, and the great Star facility and sur- rounding district has been a dream COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM

2021, according to Tourism Eco- nomics data. “When that sort of change happens, how does that impact your individual business?” Felker said. Longer hotel stays lead to guests spending more at surrounding busi- nesses, such as car rental companies, retail stores and dry cleaning shops, Felker said. Music events on par with sport- ing events like the May KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and 2026

“Understand and think about how that’s impacted [people’s] business, whether it’s just new tourism groups coming into town, whether it’s extend- ing a visit to Frisco from four hours to an overnight [stay, or] taking it from an overnight [stay] to a two-night or a three-night stay now,” Felker said. Extending those stays could mean an increase in the over $141 million spent on Frisco lodging expenses in

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Frisco, they spend a majority of their money on dining, lodging and entertainment. As more people hear about the musical ecosystem found in Frisco, more businesses could follow and bring tourists with them, said Tony Felker, Frisco Chamber of Commerce president.