Campgrounds Figure into Rodeo Host Plans

City officials have received word that Gallup, N.M., will host the Wrangler Jr. High Rodeo for two more years after this summer.
The event’s supervising board voted 25-24 on Jan. 24 to give the event to Gallup in 2010 and 2011. Its current contract already provides that Gallup will host the event this summer, like it has since 2004, according to the Gallup Independent.
“I was worried that we may not get it,” said Dudley Byerley, who has helped run the event for the past five years and who was one of three representatives sent by the city last week to Denver to present the city’s request.
Some of the competitors were just as anxious to get the event as Gallup, he said.
For example, Newton, Kan., told the board that if they were selected, the city was willing to come up with the money to build a large rodeo complex, which would include two indoor arenas, one outdoor arena and a 1,000-site RV park.
For this, however, they would also expect that they would be given the contract for the National High School Rodeo as well.
Gallup, with the support of the New Mexico Rodeo Committee, is also seeking that contract, but Byerley said to be considered, the city and the state would have to invest millions of more dollars at Red Rock Park to build an indoor arena and trade show pavilion as well as enlarge the existing campgrounds.