As pickups with out-of-state plates roll from Lincoln, towing horse trailers and carrying cowboys and cowgirls with starched jeans headed in all directions, local business leaders are taking stock of the economic bootprint the National High School Finals Rodeo left behind.Â
A dizzying week that featured day-and-night bronc riding and barrel racing, lassoing in the Railyard and nearly 1,200 RVs and campers packing the Lancaster Event Center grounds officially signaled a comeback for the local economy as it nears the post-pandemic era, said Jeff Maul, executive director of the Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau.
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The rodeo was projected to usher 30,000 visitors and $16 million into Lincoln's economy — equal to that of four Husker football Saturdays. Now, as the rodeo's 1,592 competitors and their families trickle out of Nebraska and back to 41 other states and three foreign countries, Maul says the money they left behind could add up to even more.Â
"I could see us even push in excess of the $16 million or so that the event center's estimating," Maul said, noting first-time visitors like many of those in town for the rodeo often buy souvenirs and spend more time and money checking out the city. "There's no doubt in my mind that they've met the moment."
For now, evidence supporting Maul's claim remains largely anecdotal, as Eric Thompson, the professor of economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln commissioned to study the rodeo's financial footprint, is in the earliest stages of data collection. Thompson said an accurate quantitative grasp of the event wouldn't be available for months.
But there are signs that the rodeo's stay in Lincoln exceeded expectations.Â
For example, Amy Dickerson, the managing director at the event center who quarterbacked the years-long effort to prepare for the rodeo, said organizers sold twice as many multi-performance wristbands as expected.Â
The wristbands made financial sense only for spectators who planned on attending at least nine of the rodeo's 13 performances, she said, an indication that family members of competitors attended in larger numbers and stayed longer than in previous years, when smaller Wyoming communities like Gillette and Rock Springs hosted the event.Â
"In the past, there was literally nowhere to stay within an hour of the rodeo," Dickerson said on Friday in a voice strained by long days.
For the last week, Lincoln hotels have reaped the benefit of visitors no longer bound by the constraints of a small town, with lodging sites on the east and north ends of the city drawing the most rodeo-affiliated guests.Â
The general manger at Country Inn and Suites in north Lincoln reported seeing teens working on their roping skills outside the hotel. His counterpart at Annabell Gardens, where 70% of units were booked for the weekend on Thursday, said the hotel's parking lot near 68th and O streets was full of Texas license plates.Â
The Staybridge Suites Lincoln Northeast — the closest hotel to the event center, just 2 miles down 84th Street — sold out nearly every night last week, general manger Caitlyn Sanner said. On the nights the hotel wasn't booked solid, there were only a few rooms vacant.Â
Of the hotel's 83 rooms, Sanner said, 60 to 65 have been occupied by rodeo-affiliated guests each day over the last week, bringing distinctly Southern charm and a high demand for dry-cleaning services to the hotel which typically houses business travelers.Â
"It's been a wild ride," she said. "But, honestly, it's been a blessing for us here at Staybridge."
Located at 84th and Holdrege streets, the hotel sits 100 yards or so from one of two prime roadways that have carried campers and visitors from the event center to Lincoln's nearby businesses, some of which have been flooded with belt-buckled patrons in the last week.
Restaurants on Havelock Avenue — the other main street leading from the rodeo — have seen a sharp increase in demand, including Valentino's Pizza, Misty's Restaurant and Lounge, and Isles Pub and Pizza, which reported a 20% increase in sales last week.Â
Grocery and convenience stores near 84th and Havelock have also seen an uptick in business, according to both employees and Google Trends data.Â
The search term "Walmart near me"Â . (The Walmart along 84th Street is the closest grocery store to the event center, though managers there directed interview requests to corporate media officials, who did not respond.)
Russ's Market in Havelock has been busy with customers buying ice, water, Gatorade, beer and chewing tobacco, store director Drew Kelsey said. Russ's ordered five pallets of ice to prepare for the rodeo — up from one pallet in a normal week.
He reported similar increases for bottled water and noted that the store had stocked up on sunscreen and every cold beverage it could think of. The store also extended its hours from 11 p.m. to midnight to accommodate campers needing something after the late-night performance wrapped up.
Even after Dickerson and other event center officials hosted an informational meeting ahead of the rodeo, urging nearby businesses to prepare, Kelsey said he was still caught by surprise on some items. He said he didn't expect to sell as much meat as he did last week.
"It's nice to just get to know what we're in for, and then we can grow off of it for the future when (the rodeo is) coming back," Kelsey said. "That'll be the big thing — we'll know what's coming."
Mark Whitehead, president and CEO of Whitehead Oil Co., said the U-Stop convenience stores in the area stocked up on tobacco and ice, even ordering some ice from outside contractors, an unusual step for the chain that typically provides its own.Â
U-Stop didn't have its garden hoses handy when trailers first rolled into town. But when visitors setting up shop in the dry camping area of the event center asked to fill their rigs' water tanks at the convenience stores, Whitehead said they were accommodated.Â
"It's just something that kind of popped up this week," he said.Â
Perhaps U-Stop's biggest opportunity came late in the week, though, as competitors and their families — often hauling horse trailers and campers — got set to fuel up and drive home.Â
"I don't know of anything quite like it in the country in that people from across North America — whether that be Mexico or provinces in Canada — are coming in, and they're all driving," Whitehead said. "And they're all driving long distances. You're typically not gonna get in your car and drive 25, 30 hours to get to your destination."Â
While the businesses in the event center's vicinity certainly benefited from the rodeo's arrival — and contestants, wearing their back numbers, have ventured as far as Top Golf in Omaha — the hotels in downtown Lincoln have not reaped the same benefits.
The event center received $7 million in lodging tax revenue — money generated by Lincoln hotel stays — to prepare to host the rodeo, which was to have debuted in Lincoln a year ago. It's set to return in 2026 and 2027.
It was that four-year commitment that sold county officials on using the lodging tax dollars to fund improvements over objections.
Bryan Sullivan, general manager of the downtown Embassy Suites, told commissioners in 2019 that Lincoln hotels only generate around $1.9 million to replenish the Visitor Promotion Fund each year and that it would take 372 rodeos to recoup the total amount in lodging tax funds distributed to the center.
Now, with the rodeo wrapping up, Sullivan's initial fears about rodeo families avoiding downtown seems to have come to fruition. The Courtyard, Hyatt Place and Marriott Cornhusker hotels all reported typical occupancy levels for this time of year, noting no substantial bumps from rodeo visitors.
The same was true for the Embassy Suites, Sullivan said.
"They got pickup trucks, they got trailers -- that's just the way it works," he said. "You're not gonna get a lot of people really coming downtown unless they have to."Â
Sullivan said the taxes collected at downtown hotels are the largest contributors to the Visitor Promotion Fund, from which millions of dollars went to the rodeo to promote traffic everywhere else in the city.Â
"Was it worth it?" he asked. "Maybe it was. Maybe I'm wrong.
"It's a great event. And hopefully the people at the rodeo are enjoying it."