Travis County Commissioners Court
February 24, 2009,
Item 19
>> we move now to number 19.
is to receive presentation from star Texas fair and rodeo on its history and on up coming events.
we do have a few board members present.
>> 60 or 70.
good morning judge and court.
i'm president of the 2009 star of Texas fair and rodeo.
it's my great honor, I have been on it for 25 years, to follow the foot steps of people like jay evans and hurly callahan and some others, it's mazing what we accomplish out there in such a short time.
as you can see, we have 60 or 70 volunteers on the of our 25 hundred volunteers on a yearly basis out here today to show the support and the passion that they have for promoting youth education and preserving western heritage.
that is our mission statement.
i think today what we would like to do is do a two-fold presentation.
one is to give you historical perspective of where we have been and how we became partners with Travis County in order to raise the fund that we do to give the scholarships to kids.
second would be to take in the last ten years and show you the accomplish mentsthat we have done over those ten years since bucky lam has become generally manager.
in order to give you the historical perspective, it will be jave evans, the past president of the show and the third generation Austinite.
>> thanks, gilbert.
judge, Commissioners.
we appreciate the opportunity to be here today.
i really want to talk about partnership as much as anything but I'd like to start with a little bit about history.
we have been working together for 72 years now.
it's been a wonderful opportunity.
we started on the banks of the colorado and wound up on the banks of Eckhardt lake.
it went from a small Travis County local show to the eight largest junior livestock show in the nation with an economic impact now of over 50 million to Travis County.
on an annual basis.
but all this time one of our goals has not been to forget our roots and that is why we continue to support and try to facilitate the Travis County livestock show which is a wonderful event and very accomplished in its own right.
our vision as gilbert said, was to live up to our mission statement, which is promoting youth education, preserving western heritage.
we understood early on that acceptable venue was going to be important.
the quonset huton the river wasn't going to work anybody.
quite simply, the vision became the Travis County expo center.
that was our goal when we started that.
and moving into our main purpose today or my main purpose today is really just to talk about this partnership and where we are going to, the future between the star of Texas fair rodeo and then the .
first Travis County, I think it's important to say we probably wouldn't be here today if wasn't for the county and its support over the many years.
i remember my first year as board ma'am I showed up to help with the, start working on the hut, dirt in the arena and everything.
and every presynched was represented that day with machinery, manpower and support in lots of ways.
it was small venue, a hundred by 120 foot arena, but it seemed like a large undertaking at the time and we would have never been able to accomplish it without your help.
also, the 50,000 a year that Travis County made in cash contribution leading up to the time where y'all assumed the ownership of the deal, that history on that has been kind of, oh, several wears, we used to have a nonmotorized parade that went down commerce avenue and came back down, and that meant all horses and carriages.
i'm convinces the fact that the carriage that had Commissioner hotand moyer in it ran away that day and was going down the hill on colorado.
i'm convinced that after that they came to us and said, if will you just come up with some kind of lump sum fee and promise that ee don't have to ride in that nonmotorized parade again, we can make a trade.
your ownership is huge at the time that it came along.
and your acceptance of those bonds and moving forward with that.
and then not only that, the improvements that you continue to make to the facility that helped us to have a better venue from everywhere from air conditioning on to the expansions that were made.
star of Texas also makes substantial contributions from their part of the partnership.
started with the 1983 lease that required a special election.
it was the least with 128 acres where the center sits now with the city of Austin for 50 years paid up in full in advance.
the capital campaign that took place during that time and the construction was an amazing feat.
we raised four and a half million all in private money that went into that facility.
i can't tell you how many hours of volunteer hours went into that from people with shovels and picks all the way up to major contractors.
we have continued to make any you'll improvements.
i don't have the records of the previous but I know since bucky has been there he has kept some records and it's been averaging right at 60,000 a year, over a half a million dollars.
that doesn't count the like kind and and all that stuff.
that was actually things paid for and improvements from parking to restrooms and right on down the line.
i think when we look at that, you can see that we have both made substantial contributions over the years.
and it's truly a partnership.
what I want to say here today, and this is more personal, is that I think it's important that we treat each other as partners as we move forward.
i think that we respectfully request that the court take these many contributions, not just financial but also contributions to the community and its young people, and that we both take these into consideration as we work toward a long-term solution that will allow us to remain your primary tenant at the Travis County expo center.
we don't feel just like another tenant.
we truly feel that you have a vested interest and we have a vested interest.
and it's not just in the Travis County expo center itself, but more importantly, it's in the young people of Travis County and all the young people in the state of Texas.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> good morning, judge, members of the Commissioners court.
thank you for the opportunity to come before you.
i'm bucky lamb, generally manager star of Texas rodeo.
in 1999 our board of directors developed a very bold vision, a vision of not only taking our message to the students of Travis County, but beyond.
students from all 254 Texas counties.
and so they set forth to do that.
they voted and changed the name of our organization from the Austin Travis County livestock show to the star of Texas fair and rodeo.
now, the star of Texas fair and rodeo, as thee two gentlemen just said is really a scholarship program first and foremost.
the second aspect is probably the rodeo, what most people know.
but many folks don't realize that we're a nonprofit charity and all our dollars help young people.
our signature event is the star of Texas fair and rodeo which occurs 16 days during of month of March, this year March 13-28.
we actually offer something for everyone.
we offer rodeo, concert carnival opportunities, shopping, you name it, a lot to see on our fair grounds.
what we are very proud of, we have now become Austin's third highest paid afraction.
in fact, we are attracting over 300,000 fair goers annually to come out to the expore center.
so we are very proud to have an opportunity to show case our home, which has for many years been the Travis County expo center.
what we are bows known for probably is the prorodeo.
i will say that we are excited to report that we are the fastest growing prorodeo in north america.
there are over 600 roid yos in this land and our organization was ranched 100th in the room a decade ago and today number 6th as the sixth largest indeer arena in the country.
that is something that has been an effort of a lot of different folks to make that come together.
we offer 15 different pro-owed yo events and I will say we have become nationally televised in easant year on fox sports, espn, and bring 80 million viewers to watch our event and see it show cased at the Travis County expo center.
the pro-owed yo attract the some of the world's top agent least.
many people don't nome the athletes competing are the same once coming to Austin, the very tom 78 agent leads--top 78 athletes in the world.
we are a leader in many ways, the first pro-rodeo in the world to live web broadcast our event pay per view.
last year individuals as far as way as australia actually logged on to their computer and watched our event to follow what was going on at the ec poe centers.
we offer a lot of different live music and have over 100 bands perform.
we embrace the life music capital of the world motto that Austin has.
and I'm happy to report that we really tried to reach out and expand our entertainment to a very diverse audience.
we have obviously country music, but we have rock and hip hop and all different types of activities for folks to see.
as a matter of fact, we had a rapper out there during the fair and rodeo.
you can see the linup there.
what really is our heart and soul, however is what started in 1938 the junior life on stock show for the kids.
i'm happy to report that we are also the fastest growing junior livestock show in north america, now serving students from all 254 counties and we have over 6,000 young people coming to participate.
that's a 938 percent increase in our entries and competitive events in the past nine years alone.
now, these young people actually receive their blew ribbons and have an opportunity to show case their project through the youth auction.
last year we returned over $820,000 back to the youth of this great state.
i mentioned the carnival.
we have a wonderful carnival provider, very family fendly event with crabtree amusement.
we also offer a great deal of shopping and wonderful chuck wagon and one of the largest barbecue cookoffs in the state.
we would encourage everyone to come out and take part.
lots to see and do on the fairgrounds from live long horns, petting zoo, pony rides you can see at our event.
i think what is the heart and soul of the organization, the two fellows sitting here to my right.
and all of the folks sitting here in the crowd.
they are really what it's all about.
they are our volunteers.
i'm happy to report to you that the folks here today are representing over 2500 volunteers that serve on 31 different committees.
and they don't just work during the month of March.
i'll tell you that they give of themselves year-round.
and it's pretty inspiring to have an opportunity for myself and the staff to work with such a dedicated group of individuals.
and we're very proud of their support.
our corporate partners are also key to our activities.
and I would say since we have ground and become a statewide event that we have now been able to actually recruit a lot of corporate support.
southwest airlines, dodge, heb and state farm, just to name a few.
we count do it without those folks.
the economic impact, as jay hit on briefly this past year, was studied by Texas perspectives and they reported 450,000 to the local economy from outside the region.
we are attracting guests from all over the year have a small staff of 12, employing 440 folks in seasonal and part time jobs.
a lot of things besides the activities at the actual fairgrounds and expo center.
we have a cow boy breakfast coming up soon on auditorium shores downtown on March 6.
what we are most proud of is probably the scholarship ceremony in August at the state Texas history museum.
just to speak to the scholarship program for a moment, because that is why we do all of this.
the program is open to students from all 254 Texas accounts now.
we have students from all walks of life that are recipients.
and once they are receiving a scholarship they can pursue any degrea plan they choose.
we have over 117 students attending college across the state in I think 12 different Texas colleges and universities.
to show you a little growth of our program since we began to expand a decade ago, you will see on the graph that we have actually increased our giving substantially.
matter of fact, 60 percent of all scholarships have been awarded in just the past nine years alone..
now, total youth giving program this past year in summary would be 1.5 million back to the youth of this great state.
we have awarded $25 million in the past 25 years alone to the students in Texas.
and recently we were voted the number one charity at central Texas.
so it's been a tremendous journey.
and we have a bright future.
and again, we love calling the tract expo center home and we would welcome everyone to come out to our event March 13-28.
thank you.
(
>> [one moment please for change in captioners] test test test test
>> we are very proud to put on the Travis County show for seven years and proud to work with a new board of directors that have spun off and continued to put on the Travis County youth show.
i'm happy to report to you there you can see hopefully on the powerpoint presentation that we actually funded a grant to that organization and we've given them $125,000 to get them up and running, regards to purchasing pins and livestock equipment, hiring livestock judges, things of that regard.
and then also to show you that the organization pledged dedicated dollars to Travis County 4 h and ffa students in the sum of $200,000, and that's a commitment that we've been honoring and as a matter of fact we've been exceeding that exitment on an annual basis.
>> and that little history, what the county used to do is take from one of two of the public corporations at $50,000, and the understanding was that that would go towards scholarships, and when the county acquired the facility, it stopped doing that, and so, you know, we made other changes, I think, that promoted the partnership and everything in this worked pretty well.
we have on our agenda today a contract for this year, and after the show we hope to turn our attention to trying to put in place a revised permanent contract, and so we're optimistic about our ability to do that.
anything else?
>> no, sir.
>> anybody else would like to address the court since you came down as volunteers?
we let volunteers speak here too.
>> [laughter]
>> thank you very much, we look forward to seeing you --
>> I'd just like to say thank you to all the volunteers.
it's pretty awesome that you have the number of volunteers you do and volunteers make an organization great.
thank you.
>> thank you for your support.
>> when I was young and I planned to do the bull ride one year, I gave up about that ten years ago.
we'll get you on the -- though.
thank you very much.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you.
ed ed
>> now, we should have the Travis County health care district representatives nearby.
all right.
there they are.
no.
26, 26, 27 and 28.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 2:17 PM