Meet Cara Horn, the Heartbeat Behind Events at The Star and AT&T Stadium
By Stephen Hunt
As Manager, Event Booking for the Dallas Cowboys, Cara Horn books events both for The Star in Frisco, the headquarters for America’s Team, and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, the immense, state-of-the-art palace where the Cowboys play their home games each fall and winter. And it’s fair to say that Horn, a Cowboys employee since 2014 and graduate of the University of Mississippi, not only has a dream job but one of the most interesting gigs in the world to steal a line from those iconic Dos Equis ads.
“What I love most about my job is the people I get to work with, the variety of events I get to work on, the fulfillment of creating experiences for fans across the world. It’s really rewarding to enable people to come together and witness it live,” Horn said. “Working in the entertainment industry, it’s super fun. The social aspect is an important reason why event booking appeals to so many people. It’s really a chance to grow your network and then have fun doing it.”
In 2012, Horn graduated from Ole Miss with an undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism. However, at the time, she was uncertain of her next move, but fate intervened and gave her a gentle nudge in the right direction. “I knew a job in communications was the route I wanted to go, but just was unsure what exactly that looked like.
“The saying ‘it’s all about who you know’ is really true in my case,” she said. “A good friend of mine knew I was interested in moving to Dallas as it’s always been a city I could see myself living in. She introduced me to her sister, who worked for the Cowboys.”
“She then shared my resume with the person who used to oversee our catered events and tour business at AT&T Stadium. At the time, she was looking for a summer intern, and we instantly clicked. Without hesitation, I accepted the role and moved [to DFW]. During my internship, my goal was to connect with as many people as I possibly could within the organization, which then resulted in me landing a full-time job on our event booking team.”
And even though 2024 marks her tenth year as a Cowboys employee, she still vividly and fondly remembers the first high-profile event she worked on with the organization: the star-studded Academy of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium in 2015, the 50th edition of that highly popular event. “That was phenomenal,” Horn said. “It was really cool to see a football stadium transform into a [live] television broadcast and to witness all the country music artists and fans from all over that love country music. That event was super unique, different for our building, and really fun to be part of.”
She’s since worked on numerous other high-profile events of all types. Among the events that AT&T Stadium has hosted under her watch include concerts by musical luminaries like Beyonce, Garth Brooks, Metallica, Taylor Swift, and U2, in addition to other high-profile events like Wrestlemania, the Big 12 Football Championship Game, and numerous international soccer events.
In 2024, the AT&T Stadium calendar is again full of great events, including concerts by Kenny Chesney and Morgan Wallen, the CONMEBOL Copa America international soccer, and boxing between YouTube star Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. Among the events she’s booked for The Star in Frisco are the Conference USA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, various boxing events, and concerts from popular artists like Kane Brown and Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.
Fairly early on in her gig, Horn realized another aspect of her position she loves is that every day and event, for that matter, is a completely different experience. “No two days are the same, and I would say no two events are exactly the same. In my role, I get to work on many types of events from cheerleading competitions to gymnastics competitions to basketball tournaments to home and garden shows to concerts to what we call major events such as the Academy of Country Music Awards,” Horn said. “That event really has its own uniqueness, wants, needs, expectations.”
“Like any job [it has its challenges]. [For me], it’s navigating conflicting interests and taking risks. With booking events, there could be conflicting dates or promoters, clients wanting the same dates, or corporate partner conflicts. So, just deciding whether an event is worth taking a risk with many unknowns is another challenge.”
Since she books events both at The Star and AT&T Stadium, Horn has an office at both venues. However, since the Cowboys are headquartered in Frisco, that is where she spends most of her days, about 80 percent of her time, but does occasionally drive to Arlington for site visits, meetings, or third-party events at the stadium.
And since she spends the bulk of her time in Frisco, she’s developed a healthy respect for the strong entrepreneurial spirit present in Sports City, USA. “Frisco and its support of local businesses has really helped the city grow exponentially. I also love how many of our local sports teams are here,” Horn said. “You’ve got the Stars, FC Dallas, the RoughRiders, Legends, etc., along with really impactful companies that have made Frisco home. Being around that type of growing community, particularly in sports and entertainment is really cool and exciting to be part of.”
Considering she had no idea where her degree from Ole Miss would lead her, things have worked out quite nicely for Horn, and she has no complaints. And for anyone looking to follow in her footsteps and work in event booking, she offers simple advice: network, network, network. “Make connections with as many people as you can. Secondly, I would say maintain a curious disposition by asking a lot of questions,” she said. “The more questions you ask, that’s where you’re going to see the most growth. I would say lastly, be adaptable, flexible, and open to new opportunities.”
Since 2014, event booking has been at the forefront of Horn’s professional life. When she attends events outside of The Star or AT&T Stadium with family, friends, or co-workers, she finds herself viewing these external events a bit differently because of her experience in the entertainment industry, but she doesn’t consider that different perspective a bad thing.
“I think I’m spoiled getting to attend and work the events at our venues because we’ve got these world-class facilities, but I know as a fan what your fan experience is like at a live event is super important,” she said. “You think about parking, your Uber experience, how standing in line at the concession stand will be to finding your seats on your phone. When I go to events outside our venues, I’m always brainstorming on how we could improve the overall fan experience.”
When not at work, she and her husband, who live in Dallas, are the proud parents of two young children. “We have two beautiful girls, Chandler, who’s two years old, and Macauley, I just had her. She’s five months old,” Horn said. “They keep us really busy. We love to travel. The beach is our happy place. My husband and I both come from really big families that don’t live locally, so any chance we can get to visit and go spend time with family is super important to us.”
On a personal note, as someone who has worked in and around professional sports for nearly three decades, both as a writer and behind the scenes in television, one question which people often ask is if I occasionally still get starstruck? The simple answer is yes. It’s only happened a few times, but one particularly memorable instance came several years ago when I interviewed former big-leaguer Wally Joyner, whose baseball cards I had once collected, for a story. It was surreal, to say the least.
I posed the same question to Horn and not surprisingly, she delivered a similar response. “I have been [starstruck], yes. For someone who works in live entertainment with the types of live events and people I come in contact with, I’m actually a very starstruck person, so every celebrity that I see, it’s just really cool and surprising to me,” she said. “I’ve interacted with some really special people and had the opportunity to meet some really cool artists. Yes, I, to this day, will get very starstruck.”
To say that Cara Horn has her dream job as Manager, Event Booking for the Dallas Cowboys, which means she books events both for The Star in Frisco and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, might be an understatement. After completing her degree in broadcast journalism at Ole Miss in 2012, a time when she literally had little to no idea where life would take her in the future, she heeded her own advice of always networking, asking plenty of questions, being flexible and open to new experiences, and took the leap by moving to Dallas to embark on a new chapter of her life with the Cowboys.
It’s a philosophy that has clearly taken her far. So, the next time you catch an event at The Star in Frisco or AT&T Stadium in Arlington, take a moment to thank those who made it happen, people like Cara Horn.
Stephen Hunt is a Frisco-based freelance writer.
