Focus at Four: Texas A&M Athletics on recent record-breaking George Strait concert

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The past two weekends have been busy here in Bryan/College Station.

Between hosting a Mexico-Brazil friendly soccer match, and setting a new attendance record with a George Strait concert, Kyle Field has been packed to the brim with people.

Kindra Fry, the assistant athletics director and special events services with Texas A&M, said the events were a success.

“It’s been a long time in the making. Getting anyone in Kyle Field much less George Strait, but I think it was a a huge success to see that many people. I saw lots of smiles. I saw lots of singing along, dancing, all the things. And I think for us that was what’s important. We want people to see that Kyle Field is capable of doing other events and not just football games,” she said.

Fry mentioned both events helped boost the local economy.

“My background is tourism, so that’s where I came from and I feel like typically in the summer, this is when we start to see that slower time. And while we do have different sports events and other events happening in the community during the summer, we don’t have this magnitude of events typically. I know our hotels were highly impacted, our restaurants, and even several of our shops have reached out,” she said.

As they reflect on how both events went, Fry says reviewing security plans and parking is at the top of their list.

“These are all things that we’re going back to the drawing board and to the table right now, we’ve taken a lot of notes across all the different departments. I think we’re all going to come around that table and sit down and really talk about the things that we learned, and the things that we can continue to do. But the things that we might be able to do better are things we need to change,” Fry said.

Although she didn’t tell us specifics, she mentioned next year there could be another event of this caliber.

“You know there is a possibility of a May date maybe in the future but with commencements and high school graduations and things we got to balance around all of that. So we’re figuring out all the pieces that we need to put together,” she said.