Fort Worth is cutting a costly tie at Will Rogers Memorial Center, agreeing to pay Craft Culinary Concepts $510,000 to walk away from its food-and-beverage contract nearly six years early after a rough financial year in 2025.
The settlement, approved by the Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday, ends a 10-year agreement that had already run into deep operational and financial trouble. Along with the payout, the city will release or offset claims worth up to $305,000, closing out a partnership that never really found its footing.
Council signs off on settlement
According to a City of Fort Worth staff report on Tuesday's agenda, the council authorized a settlement, release and payment of $510,000 and approved offset payments up to $305,000 to reconcile disputed amounts tied to the early termination.
The report says the $510,000 figure is the unamortized portion of Craft’s investment in Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment at Will Rogers Memorial Center, a capital investment the company was required to spread over the life of the contract. The payment will be booked as a capital expense, and all of that equipment will stay with the City of Fort Worth.
City cites losses and low sales
City staff told council that Craft experienced significant operational losses in FY25, language that appears in the staff materials and was echoed in local reporting. A presentation cited by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram showed concessions at Will Rogers averaging about $1.86 per customer, compared with roughly $4.60 per customer at other city venues, a gap staff flagged as a chronic problem.
What the contract required
The original 10-year concession deal, approved in January 2022, required Craft to put at least $750,000 into new food-and-beverage equipment and to amortize that investment over the contract term. That obligation, along with the agreed amortization and profit-sharing formula, underpins the $510,000 unamortized payment described in the staff packet.
For readers who want the line-by-line breakdown, the city’s original agreement and selection packet spell out those financial terms in detail, including how the investment was supposed to be paid down over time.
Offsets, funding and legal notes
Under the settlement, the city agreed to disclaim its claim on repair-fund reserves and year-to-date profit-sharing, up to $305,000, to offset amounts Craft says it is owed for FY25 losses, management fees and employee retention incentives. Staff note that this offset requires no additional funding, while the $510,000 reimbursement will come from the Will Rogers Memorial Center capital budget.
The staff packet also states that the city will give up any interest it might have had in an ongoing Craft lawsuit against a vendor, leaving any potential recovery in that case entirely to Craft.
Where Will Rogers goes from here
With Craft’s exclusive role ending just four years into the agreement, the city now has a clean slate for how it wants to handle concessions at the historic complex. Public Events staff will verify that capital funds are available before cutting any checks and will take over the equipment Craft leaves behind.
City staff have not yet rolled out a replacement concessions plan. Local reporting on menu and staffing shifts, including a new executive chef in recent years, has already tracked a slow pivot in the venue’s food strategy, see Mansfield Chef Waylon Cornelius for earlier coverage.
Legal implications
The agreement is a civil, contractual settlement, crafted to close disputed financial claims without dragging the city into extended litigation. By structuring the deal as a full release with offsets, Fort Worth regains full control of the Will Rogers concessions portfolio while allowing Craft to continue pursuing certain claims on its own.
The staff materials are clear on one point that tends to get lost in the drama: there are no criminal allegations involved here. The March 31 action is strictly a financial settlement between the operator and the City of Fort Worth.
