DENVER—After more than a century in north Denver, the National Western Stock Show is exploring whether it can expand where it is or has to move to bigger pastures.
Stock Show President and Chief Executive Pat Grant said Monday that he and other members of the executive committee are considering all the options as they deal with aging facilities and growing demands on the limited space.
“We’ve made no decision to remain or to move,” Grant said.
The executive committee is weighing the benefits and drawbacks of staying on its 95-acre complex just north of downtown Denver. The biggest problem is the National Western, which runs roughly two weeks every January, doesn’t have much room to grow.
“We’re seriously constrained on the south, east and west sides,” Grant said.
The complex is hemmed in by Interstate 70, the South Platte River, a rail line and a major north-south thoroughfare. There is some land to the north, but Grant said “the market’s pretty steep.”
Grant declined to say if the committee has any new sites in mind yet. He said there’s no timeline for making a decision.
The National Western, one of the country’s premier livestock showcases and rodeos, has had to cap the number of entries in the past few years because of limited space. “That’s a key factor in our thinking,” Grant said.
Maintaining the aging facilities, including the stock yards, where much of the business takes place, is costly.
In 1989, Grant spearheaded a successful campaign to include the stock show in a $242 million bond issue approved by Denver voters. The National Western’s $30 million share covered repairs, added stalls and exhibit space and built additions to a stadium and other buildings and an events center that greatly expanded the horse shows.
Attendance has been above 600,000 for the past eight or nine years and hit a record 726,972 in 2006, National Western spokeswoman Kati Anderson said.
There is usually a waiting list of exhibitors.
Anderson said studies by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce estimate the stock show generates about $84 million for the metro-area economy.
The 102nd edition of the National Western runs Jan. 12-27.
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