Alternative plans ‘just didn’t work.’ So Idaho rodeo cancels its 105th edition in July
The coronavirus pandemic canceled another hallmark of Idaho’s summer — the Snake River Stampede.
Organizers for the 105-year-old rodeo announced the cancellation Friday evening. Jeff Agenbroad, a board member for the rodeo, said the event looked at several options to continue the yearly tradition.
But all posed larger risks than the rodeo could accept.
“We were willing to sustain a reasonable loss just to have it,” Agenbroad said. “But the risk, both financially and healthwise, was just one step beyond what we could take.”
The Snake River Stampede draws 60,000 fans over five days to the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa every summer. It awarded $453,975 in prize money last year, attracting some of the world’s top cowboys to Idaho.
This year’s edition was scheduled for July 14-18. But the dwindling timeline, financial risk, health hazards and potential liability concerns led organizers to reluctantly pull the plug on one of the county’s Top 10 rodeos.
Like many other businesses, Agenbroad said the Stampede’s insurance would not cover claims related to an outbreak at its event.
The rodeo’s most recent plan to continue the event limited the Idaho Center to 50 percent of its 10,000-seat capacity and put more fans in the Idaho Center’s amphitheater with a video board and concert-level sound.
But even that created too much risk for the nonprofit organization that runs the rodeo.
“We thought we had an opportunity to do that,” Agenbroad said. “But as we looked at the logistics of it and the financial piece of it, it just didn’t work.”
The Snake River Stampede’s cancellation comes two days after the Cheyenne Frontier Days made the same decision. Cheyenne’s main events were scheduled for the week after the Snake River Stampede.
Any fans who purchased tickets for the Stampede can get a full refund via the Idaho Center’s ticket office.
Agenbroad said the Stampede reluctantly canceled this year’s rodeo. But he vowed it would return next summer.
“We are a nonprofit organization,” he said. “Our responsibility is to the community, and it is a community event. We have every intention of coming back in full force and bigger and better than ever next year.”
The Caldwell Night Rodeo remains scheduled for Aug. 18-22.
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 6:32 PM.
