The Greeley Stampede (formerly known as the Greeley Independence Stampede) is by far the largest event that happens in Greeley. Really, it’s the only thing that brings in people from out of town in large numbers. As I wrote about the Greeley Stampede last year, it has rodeos, concerts, a carnival and lots of people-watching.

Unfortunately for us, this year we won’t be attending. You see, the Greeley Stampede is going to charge an entrance fee for the first time ever in its 80 or so years! Now, if we get free tickets to an event  again or for some other strange reason happen to end up there, I’m sure we’ll be happy to go, but otherwise, we won’t be in their count.

Because we ride our bikes there, do a lap or two around the midway, maybe grab a fattening snack and then ride back. We are not going to spend $10 for that ($5/person) just to walk (bike) in. Maybe others will, I don’t know. But for most people with families of 4 or 5 people who don’t ride their bikes there, just getting in the doors will likely cost $30-40 bucks -just for parking and admission. Then they will have to decide whether or not they want to buy any $5 corn dogs or $6 lemonades. Probably not so much. For a humorous look at this, check out this funny editorial column in the Greeley Tribune.

And I understand that the Stampede is a victim of this wacked out economy just like everyone else…but this is definitely a discretionary item, a fun thing, not a necessity. It is a community event, why not allow the community to come in? It seems to me to be excluding a lot of people to a public park. Would you walk around a park if you had to pay $5 to get in? That’s basically what it comes down to. A big, busy park.

And if you are going to the concerts, rodeos or have a full pass to the carnival, you don’t have to pay to get in…so it really is just attacking people who would be utilizing the park as it was meant to be used…as a public gathering place. You know, like back in the old days when it was meant to celebrate the potato farmers… But instead they are going to erect a fence to keep people out, instead of trying to invite them in…Sounds familiar as Greeley is known for its fences.

And for budgeting purposes, they had other options -for instance they could have charged more for parking…then people who car-pooled or biked like us would be given the motivation to do so. And people who lived in the neighborhood would feel a sense of pride for living there (that they don’t usually feel) because they could walk. They could have tacked on higher charges to vendors and sponsors. They could have charged the fee but then given a coupon for one item of 1/2 price food or drink at the vendors. This would have encouraged people to still spend money with the food vendors and at least made the entrance fee worth something other than just getting in to walk around. Or they could have just scaled back!

It just seems strange that you would want to discourage people from coming out to this event -because that’s exactly what they are doing with this walk-around entrance fee.

But we’ll see. It’s their party, they can charge if they want to. In the end, the proof of this little experiement will be in the pudding. Maybe they will have higher numbers of attendance and make more money than ever before…Some people don’t care too much what kind of value they get for their dollars. But we do, so we won’t be there.  Maybe we’ll ride our bikes to another park one of those evenings.