There’s more than another rodeo in the plan
Ticket sales registered somewhere between 4,500 and 5,000 at the 57th annual rodeo that almost wasn’t.
“In the summer of 2008 there was a notice in the paper that they were having a last meeting to close down the association,” said Mt. Pleasant businessman Bo Rester.
Skipping some of the tale to move on to Mt. Pleasant Rodeo Association 2009 incoming President Bo Rester and the Bleacher Crisis, it was what he heard when he leaned on the help of a pro that opened a nuts and bolts drama of the working-cash kind. He called Priefert Engineering to ask if they’d come out and help with making best plans for bleacher repairs.
“I remember Glen Calvert telling me I was gonna wish I hadn’t called him because as of that moment the bleachers were condemned,” President Rester recalled. He said there was no choice in the matter – professional engineering code protocol had kicked in.
The way Allen Scrap Metal Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Parr wound up on the guest list Buddy McCollum’s appreciation barbecue for the 150-or-so players showing up in the association records since then, what’s known as the Scrap Metal Money when President Rester tells the story turned into the down payment money for new bleachers. It’s the next-to-overnight story of the speed of pieces falling in place once everything’s lined up by kindred spirits, how they got old bleachers torn down and new bleachers up in time for the next rodeo.
“When we got demolition bids after Glen’s news, I called Mr. Parr and asked him to come out to see if the scrap value was enough to pay the demolition cost,” President Rester said. What happened next, the Parrs asked the Prieferts if they’d move a 70,000-pound piece of equipment from the scrap yard where it works.
They sent the wide load truck, the one that moves stuff so big it requires special permits.
“It was like watching a mechanical dinosaur eat,” President Rester said, remembering watching the machine pull steel supports out of the ground, snipping through steel in a bite. “I remember Bobby grinning when he made the last cut before the length of the stadium seats went down like dominos falling.”
When the check for the steel came back made out to the association instead of Allen Scrap, the whole deal went from the debit to the asset column.
Among names at the top of the appreciation barbecue guest list were sponsors who’ve stayed on or signed on since sponsorships went from hundreds to thousands. President Rester unveiled a secret sales weapon when the increased fees dropped old-timer jaws in the board room.
“Guys,” he shrugged as if not understanding any hint of reluctance. “That comes with VIP parking.”
It’s easier to sell something you believe in because you saw it when you were a kid, he said.
“My dad bought box seats for the family every year when I was growing up,” he said.\
Compare ticket sales in multiple thousands to ticket sales in the hundreds in the years the rodeo fizzled down, an era now the ‘back when’ part of a story gathering steam in odd ways.
When pandemic protocol kept the appreciation barbecue from being booked at the civic center, the other choice meant cleaning out a pavilion where “it seemed like everything that must have broken in the last fifty years wound up,” said Mr. McCollum.
Instead, it unleashed a chunk of junk hauling energy and repair money bringing the pavilion from storage up to outdoor covered dining specs matching the first of the Gold Buckle Box with seating for 24, a prototype structure on stilts overlooking the arena from the west end that opened this year.
“We’re building six more next year,” said Mr. McCollum, a 2019 Chamber of Commerce businessman of the year. Now retired, his business sense is a part of the rodeo brain trust.
So’s his wallet.
The grand vision of a retiree doing what he likes is an arena as a venue with the potential to stuff motels to the max, a vision steadily soaking in seed money.
Besides the first Gold Buckle Box, they put $54,000 into dirt work on the grounds and Priefert donated pipe posts for 3,000 feet of fence with three runs of steel cable this year.
“What really got me going was a story Eric Dunn told about a three-day roping event in South Texas where there’d been more than a thousand entries in his son’s bracket,” Mr. McCollum said. “When I asked him what he thought it would take to have events like that here, his answer was so simple it made sense: there’s not a promoter who’s going to put together an event that size anywhere that doesn’t have a covered arena. He can’t afford the rain out insurance without it.”
Akin to a sandlot club, but putting together a business plan instead of a ball game, that barbecue invitation was a gesture of respect, appreciation of a slice of community gathering for the cause.
