The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo shattered records as more than 2.5 million visitors passed through the gates during the event’s Feb. 25-March 17 run, nearly 11 percent up from last year’s attendance of 2,257,970 and 10.7 percent higher than the all-time attendance set in 2011 of 2,262,834.
“Astounding is not even the right word to describe it,” said interim president and CEO Leroy Shafer. “I knew it was going to be up unless we had really bad weather … I was projecting 2.4 million but for it to come out to 2.5 million and change was just unbelievable.
George Strait
“Our last 10 days here we were on fire. We had 100,000 people on the grounds here every day.”
The event featured its usual 20-concert lineup paired with rodeo events, but a concert-only evening by George Strait, Martina McBride and Randy Rogers set an all-time paid attendance record not only for the Houston Livestock Show but also for any event held in Reliant Stadium, with 80,020 fans packed in the venue.
The regular concert lineup also did well, with 10 sellouts in a row.
“It was the first time having 10 in a row and, in fact, the most we ever had before was eight and they were scattered throughout the 20 performances,” Shafer said. “So it was phenomenal from that standpoint.”
The rodeo concert sellouts, in descending order of attendance, were the Go Tejano Day act of Julion Alvarez and Los Invasores de Nuevo Leon, 75,305; Luke Bryan, 75,242; Blake Shelton, 75,238; Pitbull, 75,217; Bruno Mars, 75,177; Jason Aldean, 72,899; Jake Owen, 71,878; The Band Perry, 71,719; Tim McGraw, 71,534; and Kenny Chesney, 69,954.
A sellout occurs when the venue no longer has seats to sell; whatever attendance occurs after that is standing room only, Shafer said.
“That can vary on how many tickets we comp,” he said. “And we do have some days where we comp up to 3,000 tickets, such as when we’re doing special children’s days. We try to do that on days we don’t think will sell out.”
The lowest number of paid seats that resulted in a sellout was 68,900 and the highest was 69,300, Shafer said.
“Then I go standing room until the fire marshal says, ‘You can’t sell anymore standing room.’ And believe me, he was living with me those last 10 days.”
Although the Strait/McBride concert – which was able to reach that capacity with more seats on the floor that could be accommodated because of the lack of a same-evening rodeo – helped boost attendance figures, it does not completely account for the nearly 250,000 more event-goers who passed through the gates at Reliant Park, Shafer noted.
In fact, the day before that concert, Saturday, March 16, HoustonRodeo set the all-time single-day attendance record since the event has been held in Reliant Park in 2003, at 174,507. And the three days prior to that bested the March 17 Sunday when Strait appeared. That single-day attendance figure was 136,246.
Nor did the fact that RodeoHouston opened this year on a Monday instead of a Tuesday, with an attendance of 53,547. Those two factors still only account for about half of the increase.
“I think it was a combination of things,” Shafer said. “Obviously, we had great weather during the last 10 days. We didn’t have any bad weather other than high winds the first week.”
Actually, the grounds were closed one night at 8:30 p.m. because of 50 mph winds so when patrons exited the concert, they could not frequent the carnival or food booths.
“They were closed and we were directing people away from the area,” Shafer said.
Another factor that has boosted attendance for the past four or five years is a uniform spring break mandated by the Texas Legislature, which coincides with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Plus, Shafer added, Houston’s economy is booming, with three major office towers under construction downtown.
“I think you just put this all together and it turned into a perfect feel-good story.”
The Strait/McBride concert took place after a rededication ceremony at its Star Trail of Fame for Strait, elevating him as the first platinum honoree. As it was held on the last night of the event, employees got to work after the last rodeo Saturday to remove all the dirt, break down that configuration and set up for Strait.
After the concert, president and CEO Skip Wagner resigned and will be taking a position as the CEO of the Texas A&M 12th Man Foundation, said Shafer, who was named interim leader in Wagner’s place.
“There is a search committee that has eight people on it and I’m one of those eight,” he said.
The committee will employ a search firm and do a methodical job searching for a replacement. Shafer, 68, will not be throwing his cowboy hat into the ring.
“I’m committed to working on the transition, but what we need to find is somebody who can be here for the next 20 years,” he said.
Although all the numbers had not been crunched, all revenue streams appear to be up, Shafer said.
Revenue from the rodeo concert tickets, minus Strait, was $39,137,055, compared to last year’s $37,990,276, an increase of 3 percent and an all-time record.
Strait’s concert grossed $8.17 million, he said, a record for any concert ever held during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
“I can’t say what U2 or the Rolling Stones did here or anyone who was independent of the rodeo,” Shafer said.
Park admission exclusive of rodeo was $4,278,810, compared to last year’s $2,992,192, a 43- percent jump, Shafer said. Add that onto the rodeo concert revenues, which include admission, and it comes to a total of $43,415,865, he added.
Other revenue streams for 2013 compared to 2012 plus the percentage difference were commercial food exclusive of carnival food, $8,491,715/$7,371,600/15 percent; onsite carnival ticket sales, $9,704,763/$9,085,868/10.4 percent; carnival food, $7,752,249/$6,153,070/26 percent; drink tickets, $3,424,620/$3,197,230/6 percent; merchandise, $1,372,857/$1,267,027/8 percent; junior auction and wine auction, $11,662,642/$10,756,591/8.4 percent; World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest, $4,375,079/$3,987,230/9.7 percent; carnival presales, $6,133,649/$5,507,609/11.4 percent; wine garden, $599,721/$357,785/68 percent.
When added together, these “primary drivers” of the Houston Livestock Show add up to revenues of $96,933,160, compared to last year’s $87,629,960, an increase of 10.6 percent, Shafer said.
Laveen, Ariz.-based Ray Cammack Shows placed 84 rides on the midway and was up 18 percent, with revenues of $9,704,763 over last year’s $8,231,205. New this year were the Kami Kaze, Mach 1, Motorbikes and Quad Runners. The carnival does not do pay-one-price wristbands at Houston, Shafer noted.
Gate admission was $7 for adults, and $5 for ages 3 to 12 but, on Value Days, the cost is $5 for adults, and free for children and senior citizens.
“We designed that so grandma and grandpa can bring the kids and the whole family gets in free,” Shafer added.
Concert tickets were on par with last year’s prices, with the least expensive costing $18 and $25 and then a variety of options available, from suite seats that cost $56 and action seats for $88 that are the bottom five rows by the sidelines with food and drink included, to chute seats for $200 or $300 that include a state dinner and a directors’ seat that the concert-goer can take home.
“If we throw all of this together, an average ticket price is about $30.38,” Shafer added.
Sponsorships were up 7.6 percent at $14.1 million compared to $13.1 million last year, cash and in-kind, although officials only count in-kind if those funds replace money that otherwise would have been spent.
Next year RodeoHouston moves back a week to March 4-23.
Interviewed for this article: Leroy Shafer, (832) 667-1000.