Cattle come through downtown Denver for the annual National Western Stock Show kick-off Parade. We have longhorn cattle, horses, marching bands, Grand Marshal, stage coaches, riding groups, etc., all to celebrate the start of Stock Show every year.
Attendance was 640,022, up 11,000 at this year’s National Western Stock Show & Rodeo in Denver Jan. 11-16. The record was set during National Western’s Centennial Celebration in 2006, with 726,000 in attendance, but this year was one of the Top 5.
And it featured five new ideas that President and CEO Paul Andrews promoted prior to and throughout the event. Postevent, he deemed them all successful.
The next new news will be plans for expanding the National Western. A master-planning team has been tasked with coming up with a way and a cost for expanding the event, possibly at its current site. Andrews said that while “it is our intent to expand on site,” the only certainty is that the National Western is laser focused on staying in the city and county of Denver. The report is due by Dec.31.
The master-planning team is led by Parsons Brinkerhoff and includes Populous, Civitas and Keiwet Construction. They have been given the wish list, such as a 10,000-seat arena with 35 suites. The current coliseum seats 8,300 and has no suites.
This year’s event experienced no severe weather. In fact, for Denver, it was a balmy mid- 40 to -50 degrees almost every day of the 16-day show, Andrews said. That and the five new groundbreaking exhibits and events, never seen there before, helped lead to the uptick in attendance. Those included:
• Cinch Equicross Games. This event featured high school-age competitors and was modeled after the X-Games, Andrews said. Cinch stepped up as partner. Competitors could win money toward a college scholarship.
Events did not require a rodeo professional to compete, but rather tested how good the teens were on horseback, with contests such as grabbing a flag out of a bucket and planting it elsewhere while riding a running horse, he explained. “It was the best high school kids in the country showing how good they are on their horses without having to get bucked off a bull.”
• National Western Nursery. Newborns with their mothers, including pigs, goats and more, were exhibited in an open-pen environment where patrons could see them up close. The exhibit was crowded throughout the show, Andrews said. Videos of animal births were shown as well.
• Colorado vs. the World Rodeo Series. Three rodeos in which the champions of Colorado rodeos in 2013 faced off against the champions of World Rodeos, including champions from Houston, Ft. Worth, San Antonio and Calgary, competed. The Colorado teams also represented Pikes Peak or Bust, the Estes Park Rodeo and more. The series, featuring eight teams in each of three rodeos, was attended by more than 20,000 people. “Team Colorado beat the World team three events to two events, so it was all great,” Andrews said.
Several rodeos are discussing the team concept and how to further develop it, he added. “I think it’s intriguing. We have 28 rodeos. I’m not going to have 28 nights of teams. Right now it’s a fun day in each city, for each rodeo.”
• A Free Day sponsored by Metro PCS. National Western had never had a free grounds admission day before. Metro PCS, a cell phone provider just breaking into the Denver market, covered everyone’s cost of admission. Rodeo tickets were not sponsored. The grand total attendance that day was 37,000, up 10,000 from a normal Tuesday, Andrews said. “A lot of daycare centers came out, which fits our educational mission perfectly.”
Admission to the grounds costs $10; rodeo tickets were $15 and up.
Sponsorships in general were up six percent year over year, Andrews said. “It was a tremendous year to have that much growth.”
• A Heifer Mart. Heifers are normally exhibited in the outdoor pens, “called our yards. Our livestock department believes a trend is to market commercial heifers for sale. It is unique to the market to have a whole area for the sale of commercial heifers,” Andrews said. It was well attended by the livestock world trying to repopulate their herds, and drew the agricultural crowd, he added.
“I felt great about all five, and now we’re challenging ourselves to improve them and look at new ones as we get ready for Rodeo All-Star weekend, April 18-19,” Andrews concluded.
“We expect to have positive cash flow this year.”
Interviewed for this story: Paul Andrews, (720) 987-3001