MCKINNEY, Texas — Collin County will soon be home to one of the largest open-air, covered amphitheaters in the country.
On Tuesday morning, the Colorado Springs-based music venue and hospitality company Notes Live announced plans for a new $220 million music venue in McKinney.
The proposed 20,000-seat capacity venue, which will feature 295 fire-pit suites, will sit on a 46-acre site just to the northeast of the U.S. Route 75 and State Highway 121 intersection.
The facility will be called the Sunset Amphitheater.
"What's coming to McKinney is the most luxurious amphitheater to ever be built in history," said Notes Live CEO JW Roth. "Whether you're sitting in a fire-pit suite or sitting on the lawn, your experience is going to be elevated."
Roth told WFAA that his company, which has also recently announced amphitheaters in Colorado, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Georgia, is taking a page out of the NFL playbook by offering a fan experience and ambience beyond the event itself. He said the focus of this covered venue -- one of nine forthcoming ones he has planned across the country -- is to create "elevated" experiences.
Roth said the Sunset in McKinney will boast temperature-controlled turf, a state-of-the art air flow system to be used during the hot Texas summers, wide seats with access to gourmet food and drinks, a landscaped grass berm and and custom-built "Owners Club" suites.
"The air flow will keep the temperature inside 20 degrees cooler than it is outside, and your turf will always be 70 degrees," said Roth.
McKinney Mayor George Fuller is every bit as enthused as Roth is at the prospects the Sunset will offer his city.
"You're going to be able to be in the worst of the heat in a comfortable environment," Fuller said.
The venue will be built at the cross-section of two highways, which Fuller calls the "Gateway to McKinney." The land is currently owned by the McKinney EDC, Economic Development Corporation, but Fuller said Notes Live has signed a binding term-sheet on the property, and both sides have agreed in principle to move forward on the deal.
"There's the huge economic impact, but there's the social component you can't beat," said Fuller.
Fuller, who Roth dubs the "Rock 'n' Roll Mayor," is a musician himself. He plays guitar for the Maylee Thomas Band, which is fronted by his wife. Fuller said he believes music can truly transcend and connect people in ways that other things simply cannot.
He also said he thinks the Sunset will bring an economic impact in the "billions" for the area.
To do that, it will have to also attract big-name acts.
Roth and Fuller both believe the venue will be able to compete for talent with two similarly 20,000-capacity venues down the road in Dallas -- the American Airlines Center, the arena where the Mavs and Stars play; and Dos Equis Pavilion, which is already established in Fair Park as North Texas' go-to concert amphitheater.
They'll also need to vie for performers against spaces on either side of that 20,000-capacity mark -- destinations such as Irving's mid-sized convertible amphitheater The Pavilion at the Toyota Music Factory (8,000 at max capacity), Fort Worth's Dickies Arena (14,000 capacity for concerts) and even the Texas Rangers' climate-controlled Globe Life Field home in Arlington (43,000 capacity for concerts).
Who will ensure McKinney's new home for music will be able to draw acts away from those spots? At the moment, Roth said the McKinney space has yet to sign any exclusive deals with concert promoters to bring in high-drawing performers. But, he noted, Notes Live does have relationships with the biggest names in the business: Its Tulsa market equivalent is partnered up with Live Nation; and its Colorado venue is booked by AEG.
Early-announced performers for the Colorado Springs venue once it opens later this summer include Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Beach Boys, Primus, Lauren Daigle and Dierks Bentley. The venue will open with a three-night stand featuring pop rock band OneRepublic -- fitting, considering that the band's front man, the pop super-producer Ryan Tedder, and its lead guitarist, Zach Filkins, were both born and raised in Colorado Springs.
(Another reason Notes Live may have had a leg up in scoring three nights of OneRepublic performances: Tedder's father, Gary Tedder, is listed on the Notes Live website as the company's senior vice president of business development and investor relations.)
For now, Roth said his focus in McKinney is getting the Sunset Amphitheater through the city approval process over the next 120 days. Next, he said, Notes Lives hopes its new McKinney venue will break ground later this year. Then, if all goes according to plan, the venue will begin booking acts -- and possibly shifting the gravity of the North Texas concert scene even farther to the north -- in 2025.
"We knew they [Notes Live] were looking at other markets in North Texas, and we jumped on it." Fuller said. "We said 'McKinney is the center of the universe. It's gotta be here.'"
