Matt Homan is the president and general manager of Trail Drive Management Corporation, the organization behind the development and ascent of Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena.

Matt Homan’s climb from ticket sales to becoming the man in charge of running Dickies Arena dates back to his childhood. His father worked as the box office manager at the Spectrum Center in the city of Philadelphia, where Homan grew up attending anything and everything within the Spectrum Center — from monster trucks to Sixers games.

Matt became the youngest member of the Ticket Sellers Union in Philly during the early ‘90s, a role he pursued, in large part, motivated by his early desire to be involved in the events industry. At 13 years old, Matt fully embraced his own realization that he did not want to simply be involved on the ticketing side, he wanted to run an arena.

When it was time for Matt to head off to college, there was only one major for him: Sport & Entertainment Management. There were only three colleges in the country that offered it, which led Homan to the University of Massachusetts for one year before he ultimately chose to transfer to the University of South Carolina, which would become his beloved alma mater.

Upon graduation, Matt went back to Philadelphia, where he took a job in group sales at Global Spectrum. It wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but he did then what he has since become well-known for: He made it work. Motivated by an early rejection, Matt charged ahead from ticket sales to event manager, a role he held in Trenton, N.J., then back to the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. Homan departed Columbia a second time for a move to Des Moines, Iowa, where he spent five years running the Iowa Events Center, before returning full circle back to Philly, where he would become the general manager of the Wells Fargo Center. The dream job.

Over time, however, philosophical differences led Matt to consider the previously unthinkable notion of leaving his home all over again. Enter: the city of Fort Worth Texas and the not-for-profit operating entity, Multipurpose Arena Fort Worth (MAFW). Matt was immediately drawn to the opportunity to run the chess board on behalf of MAFW with the design, development and implementation of what we now know as Dickies Arena.

Three years later, Dickies Arena – home of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo — is thriving under Matt Homan’s watch, with a who’s who list of performers, artists, athletes, and otherwise, taking center stage before capacity crowds of 14,000 people. Matt shares an unrivaled perspective on a career path shared by few and its collision course with the birth and subsequent rise of one of Texas’ most renowned event venues.

In this episode, we learn how a kid from Philly with a knack for ticket sales leveraged his love for live sporting events and manifested an awe-inspiring career wherein he’s created an unsurpassed legacy by perfecting the art of putting on a show.

Find the episode on Spotify & Apple Podcasts