At a recent Tucson Rodeo committee meeting, one of the board members asked general manager Gary Williams how to explain a 13 percent increase in advanced ticket sales.
“Your general manager is doing a great job,” Williams joked. “I don’t know if that’s going to buy me a raise or a pink slip. Some people laughed; some people sat there and looked.”
Williams sure is tickled about the added interest for the 94th edition of La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, which begins Saturday at 2 p.m., even if they don’t exactly know the root cause. Williams has an idea.
In the summer of last year, Tucson Unified School District put out a survey about renaming Tucson’s stalwart Rodeo Days, which date back to 1925, in response to a petition from a local animal rights organization.
“They did an online poll and 87 percent said leave Rodeo Days alone,” Williams said. “Rodeo Days has been Rodeo Days since 1925. A lot of the comments were: ‘Hey, this is ours. This is our history. We’ve lost so much other history, don’t mess with this.’ From the local standpoint, that may have had a bearing, like, ‘My God, I haven’t been to the rodeo in a couple years, I’m gonna buy tickets this year.’” It could also be the appearance of nine members of the legendary Wright family, immortalized in one of last year’s great books, The Last Cowboys, by the New York Times’ John Branch. Or perhaps it is the attention paid to detail, a staple of the longtime rodeo.
Even with the expected increased turnout — or maybe because of it — Williams said that the rodeo’s infrastructure has undergone improvements. He pointed to an improved warmup area for timed racers, and a redone chute system in the scored events. Williams said the rodeo also bolstered its Wi-Fi capabilities this year, particularly to execute a live stream of the final two days, including championship Sunday, on the Wrangler Network...
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