ProRodeo Sports News - February 23, 2018

GROWTH

Kennewick volunteers Rick Daugherty and Scott English prepare for the new loading chute’s installation as part of the facility’s upgrades. Photo courtesy Horse Heaven Round-Up Rodeo

WORTHTHE EFFORT Kennewick’s recent growth didn’t go unnoticed, as it won the 2017 Polaris RANGER Remuda Award and the Large Rodeo of the Year for the RAMColumbia River Circuit. “We finally feel like we are where we have wanted to be for a lot of years and maybe the world is recognizing Kennewick a little bit more,” Lancaster said. “It was very gratifying to win the Remuda Award – as far as we know, we’ve never been in the hunt for that before.” The cowboys also took notice. “It’s just so good for the cowboys,” Parrott said. “It helps us more than they think, and it’s awesome to be able to go to those rodeos and have them pay that much. We really appreciate it.” “It’s a hard way to make a living,” Lancaster said. “The community’s been great. They think it’s a wonderful rodeo and don’t think we get enough recognition even in our local market by media – we actually had people writing letters to the editor after the rodeo saying there should be more coverage.” Many of Moses Lake’s spectators on the first night ended up returning for another round of the rodeo. The repeat attendance increased Moses Lake’s total by more than 20 percent, Brown said. He also credited the rodeo’s specialty acts, Tomas Garcilazo and Keith Isley, for the increased attendance. “We were able to do this because we stepped up to provide some incredible entertainment from the specialty acts to entice the community to come see our events,” Brown said. Having a bigger rodeo means more involvement in the community for Moses Lake, which sponsors youth sports and youth rodeos. “It’s given us a presence in the community,” Brown said. All of these improvements are building up toward Moses Lake rodeo’s 75th anniversary this summer. “We are planning on bigger and better things at our 75th anniversary with the best specialty acts and bullfighters and clowns we could get,” Brown said. “We don’t have the details worked out on it yet, but we’re taking a step up for getting quality contestants here and to put on a show like we’ve never seen before.” Just as the fans will return, so will the competitors. Parrott plans to compete at Kennewick again in 2018. “I’ll be there again for sure, and winning it would be nice,” Parrott said. If all goes well for Parrott, he could find himself with an even bigger check fromKennewick than last year. “I don’t think you’ll see us stop, our purse is increasing again in 2018,” Lancaster said.

a year in advance with sponsorships for the 2017 rodeo signed about a week after the 2016 rodeo ended. “I think we just want cowboys to want to come here because really it’s about our fans, and if there aren’t cowboys in the arena, then we don’t have a rodeo,” Lancaster said. “Fans like to see people who are leading the charge and leading the world (standings). They want to see that caliber of sporting event. We live in a community where we don’t have any professional sports other than rodeo. We are the only professional sporting event in our community. … We have feeder teams for baseball, or hockey teams that are feeder teams for the NHL, but none of them are professional athletes at the top of their game except for when it comes to the Kennewick Rodeo.” Three changes were credited for Kennewick’s growth – switching stock contractors, moving to a four-perf, short-go format and increasing the committee purse, Lancaster said. “We feel we have a great rodeo, but we’d never really gotten the attention that comes with being a great rodeo,” Lancaster said. “It’s certainly not simple, and there was a lot of discussion about whether to do it in phases or one thing one year and one thing the next year. We decided we worked long and hard and were ready to jump off a cliff – go big or go home.” Increasing the rodeo’s payout took an army of volunteers, numbering close to 500 between the fair and the rodeo itself. Moses Lake is also powered by volunteers and the board hired an expert to help the rodeo grow. “We did it as an association,” Brown said. “Our board and committee meet every month, so we look for ways to increase our attendance and attract the best contestants we could. Plus, we have one of the finest stock contractors in the country right here in town with Corey & Lange Rodeo. “As a committee of volunteers, we didn’t have the time to go out and do the job that needed to be done,” Brown said. “So, we hired a marketing specialist and she has done a phenomenal job of getting our event out to the community and businesses.” Both rodeos worked in conjunction with their local county fairs, where tickets covered entry to the fair and the rodeo. “It was to the point where families couldn’t afford to do both,” Brown said. That helped both rodeos increase their attendance. It also meant sponsorships were vital. “Sponsorships are a big part of our program,” Lancaster said. “We had a robust program for the size of our event to start with and it just meant going out and hustling a bit harder to increase it. People here are big fans of the rodeo and they’ve seen the changes here with the facility and everything we invested, and they really wanted to get behind us.”

ProRodeo Sports News 2/23/18

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