GREELEY — Though not yet completely worry-free, organizers of the Greeley Stampede are going into the next few planning months with a lot less to stress about, having emerged from the darkest of places last year, when the entire event hinged on a $200,000 loan.
Today, in fact, there are lots of smiles, now that word is out: After five years of consistently losing money, the Stampede came out of an all-or-nothing year with a half-million dollar profit. The last time the Stampede made that much was in 1998. To boot, revenues and expenses are back to levels they were in 2001.
“We had a fantastic year,” said Ron Wildeman, chairman of the Stampede Committee, which puts on the annual summer spectacle. “The weather cooperated. We busted our butts and did all we could do to survive. But we’re not out of the hole.”
The Stampede committee just this week received financial statements from its accountants, the Form 990s that detail the books for the 2011 event. The entire committee hadn’t yet signed off on the 45-page report, so Wildeman said he could only release the bottom lines Thursday. The report states a half-million profit with an ending fund balance of almost $300,000, a far cry from the last five years of losses.
