Stampede CEO Joel Cowley said revenue from this year's festival will help the organization tackle financial problems still lingering from the pandemic years
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The 2023 Calgary Stampede saw Calgarians and visitors from across the globe pull their boots on and brave a mixed bag of weather on Stampede Park at near record-setting numbers, officials say.
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This year’s Stampede is set to wrap up as the second largest on the books, with the closing day poised to land the festival’s total attendance numbers just short of the all-time high set during the 2012 centennial edition of the western heritage celebration.
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Organizers gave themselves a pat on the back on Sunday morning just before gates opened for Day 10 of the 111th iteration of the Calgary Stampede. They plotted attendance at 1.26 million through Saturday — about 150,000 passes through the turnstiles shy of 2012’s record 1.41 million Stampede-goers.
“Shortly after we open the gates at some point this morning, this will officially become the second largest, second most attended Calgary Stampede in history,” said Stampede CEO Joel Cowley told reporters, also noting a record opening day of 164,939 on July 7.
Calgary Stampede president and board chair Will Osler, serving his first year of a two-year term in the role, said this year sets a high bar, but he’s sure they’ll manage to surpass it in 2024.
“Each year, Stampede Park transforms into its own city — the third largest in the province — for 10 days,” he said. “We fill that city with diverse programming and activities … so that everyone who walks onto Stampede Park feels welcome.”
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The Stampede bounced back with $13 million in revenue in 2022 from two years of significant financial losses — a combined total of almost $35 million — caused by the cancellation of the 2020 event and heavily scaled-back 2021 event during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This has been some really tough years for the Calgary Stampede, and when you look at our business model … it is entirely predicated upon people gathering. During the pandemic, people could not gather — it was really hard,” said Cowley.
Officials believe they’ll be back in the black again this year, and likely by a more significant margin. While the 2022 event was marred with uncertainty in the lead-up due to fluctuating health restrictions, Cowley said organizers knew early on this year they were in for a good show thanks to high numbers of advance ticket purchases and hotel bookings pouring in well before the gates opened.
“We knew it was going to be a fantastic Stampede weeks beforehand, so we had to prepare to welcome the world to Stampede Park,” Cowley said, noting that roughly a third of those who attended the event this year came from out of Calgary — a return to the pre-pandemic norm.
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Cowley didn’t offer specific revenue numbers for the Stampede this year so far, but he said this year’s festival will aid the organization in tackling problems still lingering from the pandemic years. He said the Stampede took on a lot of debt and still needs to deal with deferred maintenance on the park and hire more staff.
“Having a Stampede like this really allows us to set ourselves on firm footing and look forward to addressing all of those things moving forward so that we can continue to provide a great experience on Stampede Park,” he said.
Smoky weather loomed over the grounds throughout the Stampede this year, with a hazy cover hanging around through much of the 10 days, as well as periods of sweltering heat, rain and hail. The weather has proven a drain on attendance, with only 87,681 attending amid last Monday’s rain and lower temperatures.
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Cowley said new additions like the BMO Centre expansion and the upcoming Sam Centre will aid visitors in beating the heat at future events, but he’s unsure whether inclement weather may have warded off any would-be visitors.
“I do think people come prepared for heat for the most part, and we give opportunities where they can go and cool down and hydrate,” Cowley said. “I don’t know that it had a tremendous impact, but obviously, we’d love 10 days in a row where it’s 22 degrees and sunny and breezy. But we can always order that up — we’ve had a hard time finding someone in charge of the weather that can actually deliver upon that.”
For the second year in a row, organizers had to pack the festival into a smaller footprint due to ongoing construction the BMO expansion — which is anticipated to open ahead of next year’s Stampede. Cowley said planners made a tremendous effort to use “every square inch of this park.”
Cowley said issues of congestion and lineups — among the most complained about by patrons in 2022 — were largely mitigated thanks to the shuffling of some larger attractions like the Coke Stage and the Dog Bowl, as well as flow adjustments on the midway.
“That opening day record of nearly 165,000, as I walked around, felt better than the 130,000 last year,” he said.
Twitter: @MichaelRdrguez
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2023-07-16 20:19:02Z
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