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Pioneer Days Rodeo Committee sees $24,000 in unpaid bills |
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Thursday, 22 May 2008 |
By SHAWN YORKS
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The Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo saw less money than previous years, the Guymon Convention and Tourism Board heard on Tuesday afternoon.
The rodeo committee requested an amendment to this year's Convention and Tourism budget to increase funding from $12,000 to $20,000 for fiscal year 2008 because of it. The board tabled the funding request until the next meeting.
"We budgeted a total revenue of $261,900," said Rodeo Committee Chairman Jim Sarchet. "We had total expenses, we figured, at $243,000. We figured we might have a profit of $18,000."
But the rodeo committee experienced a shortfall because it made less in sponsorships — $117,000 instead of $163,000. Sarchet didn't take over the chairmanship until January. so when he went to the oil companies looking for sponsorships at that time, they had already set their budgets.
"Steve Long and I called several of them and we thought we'd get somebody," Sarchet said. "We didn't.
"We have $24,800 in unpaid bills and we got about $12,000 in income. It looks like we're $12,000 to $20,000 short.
"We got most of the sponsorships in the last month and-a-half, which is insane," Sarchet added.
But the rodeo committee did have some good news.
The committee budgeted to sell $50,000 worth of tickets but actually sold $66,000 — despite cold, windy conditions on the first night of the rodeo.
"We went up on our ticket sales," Sarchet said. "But that Friday night I think cost us two or three thousand dollars in ticket sales and concessions."
And despite better weather Saturday and Sunday, Sarchet said they had about an $8,000 shortfall on concessions.
"The way the economy is, maybe people didn't spend as much," Sarchet said. "Bottom line, that's where we're at — some place between a $12,000 and $20,000 shortfall."
Sarchet didn't get the final figures from the 2007 rodeo until last month.
"When we got all of the cost numbers in, we made about $1,800 on the whole rodeo, the whole thing, last year," Sarchet said.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 26 May 2008 )
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