ROCK SPRINGS — Executive Director Larry Lloyd and the staff of the Sweetwater Events Complex received congratulations and thanks at the Fair Board’s Tuesday meeting for a job well done with the recent National High School Finals Rodeo.
“You did a terrific job,” Sweetwater County Commission Chairman Reid West told Lloyd and his staff. “Be proud of yourselves. We’re proud of you.”
“It was well done,” Fair Board member Robert Zotti commented. Zotti is also a member of the Rock Springs City Council.
Fair Board Chairman Janet Hartford added her congratulations. “The people here are friendly, and (rodeo) people love it here and they want to come back,” Hartford said.
With the NHSFR over until 2019, Lloyd and the Events Complex staff have only a few days’ respite before the Red Desert Roundup Rodeo comes to town followed by Wyoming’s Big Show, the Sweetwater County Fair.
Not that the respite means anything. “It’s been chaotic,” Lloyd said regarding the EC’s in-between days.
He added that the EC was in no way ready to provide a conclusive report on the impact of the NHSFR this quickly. “We’re trying to put some sort of a report and numbers together,” Lloyd explained.
“I don’t think any of us expected a full report tonight,” Fair Board member Roger Torgersen responded.
Visibly tired, Lloyd tried his best to provide a general summation of the NHSFR. “The kids were happy. The parents were happy. The volunteers did a great job….The concessions at the rodeo did very well.”
Lloyd thanked his wife, Cheri, for providing popcorn and cookies to volunteers, even those working in the middle of the night.
“As for our volunteers, I can’t tell you how much we appreciate those folks. (Cheri) believes in the same thing I believe in, which is taking care of the volunteers,” Lloyd said.
The only major problem at the NHSFR was the number of available stalls during the first couple of days when rodeo participants and their horses were arriving.
Several hundred stalls were not ready by Sunday morning, July 17, the deadline for rodeo contestants to have checked in.
“We were still some 400 stalls short,” Marketing & Events Manager Kandi Pendleton said. She added that the solution had been to hire a roustabout crew to set up the remaining stalls.
“Some people waited three or four days for stalls,” Pendleton said.
The Pennsylvania individual which the National High School Rodeo Association had hired to provide the stalls has had his contract terminated effective this week, Pendleton added.
The horse stalls were supposed to have been arranged with each state’s participants next to one another; however, that process broke down with the delay. “People were happy to get a stall even if it’s not with their state,” Pendleton said.
“Hopefully that’s the last time that happens,” Lloyd said.
The National High School Finals Rodeo will return to the Sweetwater Events Complex in July 2019 before heading to Lincoln, Nebr. for 2020 and 2021. The NHSFR will then return to the SEC in 2024 and 2025.
