The National Western Stock Show and Rodeo today released official attendance figures for the show that concluded Sunday: 636,662 over the 16 days, an average of nearly 40,000 people a day.
Attendance was down from 644,818 in 2011, but still ranked as the sixth-best turnout in the show’s 106-year history.
The biggest crowd was in 2006, the 100th anniversary, with 726,972 fans.
At the Junior Livestock Auction, 98 animals collectively sold for a record of $611,200, almost $20,000 more than the auction raised in 2011.
The stockyards included more than 16,000 head of livestock, making it one of the top five years for animal attendance.
Opening day this year had the second-best attendance of any opening in the show’s history, partly because of the first Colorado vs. the World Rodeo, pitting champions from the state’s local rodeos against top competitors from some of the top rodeos in the country.
The $100,000 in prize money was billed as the richest day of rodeo in Colorado history.
