Lancaster Event Center Managing Director

Contestants were coming from 43 states, Canada, and Mexico, and even a few bumps in the road on the way. The first contestant to check-in was Ember Schira from Canada, and she got in line at 7 a.m. The event center said they’re anticipating about 30,000 visitors to be in the Capital City. Many will be eating at Lincoln restaurants, shopping at small businesses, and getting gas, all of which are expected to bring in millions to Lincoln’s economy.  For Amy Dickerson and the team at the Lancaster Event Center, landing the National High School Finals Rodeo meant 1,700 teens were coming to stay for a week -- and bringing their families. They would start arriving within days, but getting the place ready has been years in the making. "We were excited to finally be at this point," said Dickerson, the executive director who essentially invited everyone to come and stay five years ago while knowing she didn't have room for everyone to sleep. The work to get the world's largest rodeo to Lincoln wasn't a "Field of Dreams" story. It wasn't "If you build it, they will come."

 

"We had to tell them that we couldn't hold it tomorrow," Dickerson said, reflecting last month on the discussions that went on between the event center and the group that runs the rodeo. Its board includes directors representing states from Hawaii to Florida, along with Canadian provinces, Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand. The National High School Finals Rodeo, with spots guaranteed for the top four finishers in every event from each of the states, had become a one-stop-shop. From 2010 until the request for proposals went out in 2016, cowboys and cowgirls converged on Wyoming to compete for world titles. Two years in Gillette, followed by four years in Rock Springs, essentially the opposite corner of the state. Through her connections in the horse show circles, Dickerson heard rodeo officials might be looking for a third location to add into the mix. Likely somewhere east, an easier destination for those coming from the majority of states. When her staff investigated a possible bid, they estimated they had 80% of what was needed to host the event already in place, and the remainder was consistent with their master plan. Adding campsites? The space was there. A covered grandstand? Already on the wish list.

 

So, Dickerson, with backing from the county's Ag Society, Lancaster County Board, and Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau, drew up a pitch. Looking back, Dickerson says Lincoln perhaps had only one shot to get into the rotation. "We might have gotten frozen out if we hadn't been entrepreneurial back then." By July 2016, when the rodeo returned to Gillette for the 10th time, Lincoln emerged as a finalist. But the board's vote wouldn't happen until the winter when Dickerson sat in the back of a banquet room as the verdict came in. One after another, directors said they were heading to Lincoln in a few years, bringing riders and ropers, moms, dads, sisters and brothers, horses and horse trailers, and campers. Lots of campers.

 

Nebraskans are determined to make the event a success, sparing no expense. The rodeo will bring in over $16 million in economic impact. According to event center managers, that's about four Husker football weekends,

 

The new metal grandstand at the Lancaster Event Center holds up to 5,000 people, with a view of multiple rodeo arenas, and acres of campsites. The 1,600 high school cowboys and cowgirls would usually compete in Wyoming, so this is Lincoln’s first time hosting the event after a year-long bid process back in 2016, which led to some facility improvements, including the grandstand. The event center spent over $7 million from Lancaster County lodging taxes, and private partners to meet rodeo requirements, including a covered grandstand and additional 1,000 campsites.  "It was kind of a chicken and the egg. We didn't have the money in hand, but we also didn't have the rodeo crowd contract in hand," she said. "And so, we went to our county board and said 'Listen, would you give us an agreement that says if the rodeo will sign their contract that we will commit the lodging tax revenues necessary to make the improvements so that we have the facility needed for them." "On top of coming out of a pandemic and having to re-hire people and train them and then dealing with all these supply issues. It was quite a challenge, honestly," she said.