As we learned in October, State Fair attendance was down by 47% this year due to around 97,000 fairgoers who turned fair-noers and exercised the good sense to stay home during a pandemic. Coronavirus prevention comes at a cost (which most of us are willing to pay!): according to Governor Kristi Noem’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget proposal, the State Fair saw a 49.8% drop in total revenue:
The hardest hit came from grandstand entertainment, where revenues dropped 94.6% from 2019’s Fair; that decline made up 38.9% of the total dip in Fair revenue. The Fair also sold 69.7% less beer, bringing in $243K less than last year, but attendees apparently consumed more than their usual share of other items, as the drop concessions and vendor rent was only 21.7%.
Camping in Huron dropped only 4.57% in numbers and 5.16% in revenue, and parking revenues rose 0.95%.
The State Fair is losing revenue outside of Fair time, too: while 2018 had 231 off-season event days and 2019 had 304, this fiscal year the fairgrounds are only staging events on 177 off-season days. The Governor’s FY2022 budget foresees only 62 such off-season event days, mostly because one of its prime venues, the Beef Complex, burned down at the end of October.
Noem’s budget proposes shifting $721,582 in the current budget to mitigate this year’s $1.849-million revenue shortfall. Noem proposes spending another $19 million—$12M in taxpayer dollars, $4M from private fundraising, and $3M from the insurance claim—to build a new livestock complex twice the size of the old one in time for the 2022 Fair:
The new, multi-purpose facility will be 200,000 square feet. That’s more than 100,000 square feet larger than the old beef complex.
This new space will be capable of housing up to 2,000 head of cattle, and allow for indoor regional and national rodeos, equestrian events, and livestock exhibitions. In addition, the new livestock complex will enable us to replace the sheep barn. Many of you here know that the sheep barn has long outlived its useful life. This step will minimize livestock transportation safety issues within the fairgrounds.
This state-of-the-art facility will position us to better compete for national rodeo and equestrian events and provide new opportunities for the city of Huron and the state of South Dakota. Like its predecessor, the new livestock complex will be a special place, and I can’t wait to see families and fairgoers making new memories [Gov. Kristi Noem, FY 2022 Budget Address, as published in that Sioux Falls paper, 2020.12.08].
And you can bet that when that barn is built and we hold the first fairgrounds rodeo of 2022 in it, Kristi will be there, riding in on her high horse with her flag for another Bull Bash just two months before the election, soaking in the glory of another great achievement… brought to you by big government spending.
$3 million in insurance seems light. I’m also a bit unclear on who actually owns that and other state fair facilities. Was this the state underinsuring an asset or is this a corporate welfare bailout to supplement bad business decisions?
The state owns the electrical system in the fair grounds to include the distribution system. They buy energy at the fence from a provider, metered at the delivery point. So, I am pretty sure they would own all the buildings also. The land is in a trust for the state, but if the fair ever ceases to exist, the land returns to the family that gifted the use of the land —- just like the fair grounds in Sioux Falls.
Cows and horses are more important than building new schools and raising low teacher salaries in SD, I guess.
Barnyard Barbie wants a multimillion dollar new barnyard.
More bloat and bribes “Siandhara Bonnet
Construction on the Liberty Center in Box Elder could begin as soon as March 1, 2021, if state legislators grant Gov. Kristi Noem’s proposed $3.2 million for the project.” Rapid City Journal 12.09.20
This boondoggle will just more for less. What are the odds that the cabal in Pierre will even consider and argument over this bloat, zero.