With 15 major events scheduled at State Fair Park during the next year while buildings there undergo major renovations, the city is trying hard to live up to that title as competition for top shows increases. The Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show were held at the park last week.
“That’s the state of the industry now,” said Steve Collier, the vice president for strategic event development of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. “Everyone has to improve their facilities and product in order to stay ahead of their competitors.”
In Lexington, Ky., where the Kentucky Horse Park will play host to the 2010 World Equestrian Games, a $35 million covered arena — financed by the state — soon will be built, along with a privately developed hotel. Down Interstate 64, Louisville has the World’s Championship Horse Show, the most important event of the year for those on the saddlebred horse circuit, at Freedom Hall.
A privately developed, 4,400-seat equestrian facility at a casino in Las Vegas is luring events like the International Friesian Show Horse Association Grand Nationals, scheduled for Nov. 10-12. In 2008, Tulsa will be the host city for the United States National Arabian and Half-Arabian Championship Horse Show, a show that spent 30 years in Louisville.
Facilities in Albuquerque, Denver and Fort Worth, among others, also are making bids for equine events, in hopes of luring their human participants — and their money.
“Oklahoma City and the Kentucky Horse Park are probably the two out front,” said John Long, the chief executive of the United States Equestrian Federation, the national governing body of equestrian competition. “But the rest of the pack is gaining, because cities do see the economic impact these shows can bring.”
That impact is considerable because of the volume of people involved in the shows. Caroline Fauks of Edmond, Okla., — who along with her husband, Steve, serves as the Morgan Horse Show’s manager — said about 7,000 people are connected in some way with the event, which lasts eight days and is one of the largest shows that uses the fairgrounds.
The State Fair assistant general manager, Scott Munz, said a recent study indicated equine shows had an annual economic impact of $182 million on the Oklahoma City economy and were responsible for 3,600 jobs. Those numbers provided strong incentive when city and fair officials began hearing rumblings from those connected with the shows that the fair’s facilities were starting to become run down.
“Obviously we have to be looking over our shoulder,” Munz said. “It’s a very competitive marketplace.”
In 2004, voters approved an increase in Oklahoma City’s hotel-motel tax to 5.5 percent from 2 percent. The majority of the money raised by the tax increase is financing $55 million worth of bonds to pay for the upgrade of equine facilities at State Fair Park. When the upgrades are finished next year, the fair will have about 3,200 horse stalls available. Also, the recent demolition of All Sports Stadium — once the home of the city’s minor-league baseball team — has added extra parking near the fair’s equine facilities.
Those improvements, along with Oklahoma City’s location along Interstates 35, 40 and 44 and its experience playing host to equine shows, will give the city an advantage in the quest to lure more events and keep ones like the American Quarter Horse Association World Championship Show, which has been in the city for three decades and plans to stay until at least 2015.
“Facilities like this just get booked and booked and booked,” David O’Connor, the United States Equestrian Federation president, said during a visit to the Morgan Horse show. “This is the future of where horse sports are all going — public lands, available for everybody for use. It’s fun to see this much effort being put into a renovation.”
Like Oklahoma City, other cities are not standing pat.
The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington has 1,084 permanent horse stalls and can add about 700 to 800 more for major shows, the spokeswoman Lisa Jackson said. The Horse Park holds 16 major individual shows and about 55 to 60 smaller shows each year and is the home to 29 national, regional or state equine organizations, including the equestrian federation’s office.
Because of its outdoor facilities, the Horse Park can play host to competitions that other equine-related locations cannot, including eventing and polo, Jackson said. The park’s new 6,000-seat indoor arena is being designed with input from equine organizations in hopes those organizations might be lured to hold events at the park, said John Nicholson, the park’s executive director.
The South Coast Equestrian Complex in Las Vegas has 1,200 climate-controlled horse stalls and includes 80,000 square feet of exhibit space, according to its Web site. The city already is the host to Western-themed events including the National Finals Rodeo.
“We have 40 million visitors each year, and our challenge is to find new markets to tap into and new areas for growth,” Cara Roberts, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman, said. “We think the whole horse show industry has a lot of potential for growth for our city.”
Oklahoma City is fortunate that it recognized that potential long ago, Collier said, and city officials want to continue to cultivate positive relationships with the equine groups interested in staying, returning or coming for the first time.
The Morgan Horse show is under contract to stay in Oklahoma City through 2012. Guy Brown, the interim executive director of the Shelburne, Vt.-based American Morgan Horse Association, said the organization is pleased with the ongoing improvements at the fairgrounds.
“Oklahoma City got the nod because of its location in the beginning, and they’ve capitalized on it since then,” Brown said, referring to the Morgan show. “Oklahoma embraces the Morgan horses coming to town, and we love coming here. We feel wanted.”
Now, he said, “other cities are getting the message.”
Reference:nytimes
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