Thousands of college fans fill Sundance Square Plaza in downtown Fort Worth for live TV broadcast launching the new season of college football’s longest running pregame show.

Before the sun even rose above the skyscrapers in downtown Fort Worth September 5th, college football fans poured into Sundance Square to help kick off ESPN College GameDay. When the program aired live at 8 a.m. the scene resembled a huge college pep rally, only one that featured more than four different colleges, complete with mascots, cheerleaders, pep squads and even a few marching bands. Then there were the country music fans there to see Brad Paisley perform live in the plaza. If one could bottle the energy in that crowd, we could probably keep the lights on in downtown for a few years.

Starting its 29th season, College GameDay is hosted by Rece Davis, with analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and David Pollack, as well as contributors Samantha Ponder, Tom Rinaldi, George Whitfield and Gene Wojciechowsk. The three-hour weekly program features discussion about the week’s most compelling college football stories and previews of the weekend’s biggest games. The show highlighted the Saturday night matchup between Alabama and Wisconsin at AT&T Stadium. There were plenty of fans from both schools in the crowd, along with lots of TCU and Baylor fans. TCU Coach Gary Patterson was among the guests on the show.

Fans were especially vocal when Brad Paisley took the outdoor stage to perform “Country Nation” for the crowd and the national TV audience. In the popular song, Paisley sings about college mascots and teams across America: “We work in the factories and the fields…assembly lines… the coal mines and the steel mills. That's what we do but there's more to us than that… if you wanna know who we are, it's on the logos of our caps.” Paisley goes on to name a list of popular mascots: “We're Wildcats, we're Wolverines…we're Tigers, Buckeyes, Bruins… Bulldogs, Hogs and Hurricanes.” When the crowd would hear a reference to their school, they erupted into cheers and applause.
 
Brad Paisley has earned numerous awards, including three GRAMMYs, two American Music Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards and 14 Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year. Paisley and Carrie Underwood will return for the eighth consecutive year as hosts of “The CMA Awards” November 4th, live from Nashville on the ABC Television Network.


“It was a great day in Sundance Square with thousands of people enjoying the atmosphere, shops, and restaurants,” commented Tracy Gilmour, marketing director for Sundance Square. “Many of our shops and restaurants opened early just to accommodate the fans who were a part of the festivities. Having ESPN and Brad Paisley in the plaza, the heart of downtown Fort Worth, was great visibility for Sundance Square, which translated into a successful day of sales for our tenants.”
 
Chef David McMillan of Bird Café was also featured on College GameDay with a “Tailgating” segment that showcased his barbecue beef ribs, collards, black beans and other savory regional dishes. Bird Café is located at East 4th and Commerce Streets in Sundance Square.

Sundance Square is a vibrant 35-block commercial, residential, entertainment and retail district where people work, live, shop and dine among beautiful landscaping, red-brick streets and turn-of-the-century buildings. More information about Sundance Square can be found at www.sundancesquare.com.