With its future hanging in the balance, the National Western Stock Show has appointed a blue-ribbon task force to guide its possible relocation.
The group will advise the stock show’s executive committee on how best to move the aging facility from its 102-year- old site in north-central Denver and how to finance the estimated $800 million cost of the new complex.
The 16-member task force includes leading figures from business, government and academia.
“We’ve clearly got significant challenges and constraints with our current facility,” said Pat Grant, president and chief executive of the National Western Stock Show. “We felt it was appropriate to bring together a first-class group of individuals who reflect various areas of expertise.”
The task force will be on a tight time frame, charged with issuing recommendations to the executive committee by the end of August.
In January, stock-show officials unveiled the rough framework of a plan to move the facility to a 1,000-acre site near Denver International Airport. Discussions have taken place with Florida-based International Speedway Corp. to make it a dual-use facility with a NASCAR race track.
Grant said the proposed joint venture “continues to be a possibility of real interest to us, but that’s not a prediction or a statement of what will happen. I don’t want to get out in front of the task force. Nothing has been emphasized as being on the table or off the table.”
The stock show initially had hoped to place a measure on the November ballot for a tax-supported financing plan but later backed away from that time frame.
Officials have said the existing complex has ever-growing maintenance costs and is too small to enable revenue growth.
For fiscal year 2008, including January’s stock show and rodeo, the National Western recorded a net gain of $184,000 on revenue of $14.1 million. A year earlier, the stock show had reported an operating loss of $556,000, the first such loss in modern history.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
Stock Show task force
- J.J. AMENT, Citigroup
- SUE ANSCHUTZ-RODGERS, Anschutz Family Foundation
- GEORGE BEARDSLEY, Inverness Properties
- HANK BROWN, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
- TOM CLARK, Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.
- DON ELLIMAN, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade
- CATHEY FINLON, McClain Finlon Advertising
- PAT GRANT, National Western Stock Show
- CHRIS HENDERSON, City and County of Denver
- BILL KELLER, Asphalt Paving
- JERRY McMORRIS, National Western Stock Show
- RICK PEDERSON, Ross Consulting Group
- DAN RITCHIE, Daniels Fund
- RICHARD SCHARF, Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau
- RON WILLIAMS, Gary-Williams Energy
- AL YATES, former Colorado State University president
