Colorado Springs – The ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy attracts 30,000 visitors annually and is the 15th most popular tourist attraction here.
Outside the museum stands a bigger-than-life-size bronze of cowboy great Casey Tibbs atop a bronc named Necktie.
“The first rodeo known to be held in the U.S. was in Colorado,” said former rancher Bill Hamilton, 77, as he walked through the hall on a recent visit.
In February, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson declared that his state had lassoed the cowboy shrine and its more than 300 exhibits.
Richardson dangled $17 million in taxpayer incentives to lure the museum and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, a trade group based in Colorado Springs, to Albuquerque.
“This move will have a major positive impact, not just on rodeo in New Mexico, but on New Mexico’s economy as well,” Richardson said at the time.
But Colorado Springs put up a fight, offering an incentive package of its own. For now, the attraction is staying in Colorado Springs, but the chairman of the PRCA board says all options are being reviewed.
“Our problem was we were hasty in making an uninformed decision before, and we don’t want to do that again,” said PRCA chairman Tom Feller.
Bidding for sports museums is happening elsewhere, driven by a hunt for “heritage” tourists, a willingness to spend millions in public money and the perceived prestige of hosting a hall of fame.
Daytona Beach, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Atlanta were in a bidding war for NASCAR’s hall of fame this year. In March, NASCAR chose Charlotte after the city offered more than $100 million in public money from taxes on hotel rooms to finance the hall of fame.
The city and county of St. Charles, Mo., where horseshoe pitching has a big following, recently agreed to spend nearly $1 million to lure the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association Hall of Fame Museum from Joelton, Tenn.
Colorado Springs has already lost the headquarters of a sports organization. In September, Pueblo roped the Professional Bull Riders headquarters from Colorado Springs with a $7 million incentive package.
“What they got from Pueblo would not have been possible from Colorado Springs,” said Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera.
But Rivera said the city and community leaders will fight for the cowboy museum and hall of fame, which has been in the Springs since 1979.
“It’s one of the icons for our Western heritage and our Western traditions that we have here in Colorado,” Rivera said. “It’s extremely important for us and our community to keep them here.”
According to the museum, the “rodeo was born in 1864 when two groups of cowboys from neighboring ranches met in Deer Trail to settle an argument over who was the best at performing everyday ranching tasks.”
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens wrote a letter dated May 9 that encouraged the PRCA board to keep the organizations in Colorado Springs.
Halls of fame are generally not major moneymakers, but the prestige they bring to a community is a big draw, said Max Muhleman, a sports marketing expert based in Charlotte.
“The perception is it’s an economic engine,” Muhleman said. “But the main driving force is civic pride and civic ego.”
The nonprofit ProRodeo Hall of Fame is far from being a cash cow. The museum shut down for three months last year because of financial problems. It lost $362,143 in 2004, according to tax documents.
Separately, the hall of fame generates about $2.25 million in tourist spending annually for Colorado Springs based on $75 per visitor, said Terry Sullivan, head of the Colorado Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The hall and the PRCA headquarters cost $1.9 million and opened in August 1979, with $300,000 from the city plus low-interest bonds to finance the building, said Larry McCormack, executive director of the hall.
The hall of fame sits on 13 acres. The 40,000-square-foot museum has shrines of more than 200 members. Adult tickets are $6.
The headquarters of the PRCA, which is the trade association that sanctions roughly 700 rodeos across the country annually, is adjacent to the hall of fame. Together, the groups have about 80 workers and a payroll of about $3 million.
The PRCA’s nine-member board voted in February to accept New Mexico’s offer to move the association and the hall of fame to Albuquerque. The incentives included $5 million for promotion and $12 million in low-interest bonds to finance the construction of a new headquarters.
However, the hall of fame, which has its own 15-member board, voted May 15 to stay in Colorado Springs. But it didn’t accept the city’s incentive package, which would require a 10-year commitment to stay.
Colorado Springs’ offer includes $2 million in private funds and low-interest loans to finance the construction of a new headquarters or the renovation of the existing facility.
On May 16, the PRCA board tabled the move to Albuquerque because the New Mexico deal requires both groups to move.
Jon Goldstein, a spokesman for Richardson, said recently that New Mexico’s offer is off the table.
Rivera said he hopes Colorado Springs’ offer will be discussed at the next scheduled PRCA board meeting in August.
But Feller, the PRCA board chairman, said that’s not likely to happen.
“The process that we have to go through is a lengthy one to gather information and to gather our own thoughts and do some long-term planning,” Feller said. “I don’t think it would be anything we would act on anytime soon.”
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-820-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
