The Calgary Stampede lassoed record revenues last year, flipping expectations of a $5-million loss into a nearly identical amount of black ink.
Calgary Stampede posts record revenues, unexpected black ink in 2024
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Published Apr 12, 2025 by the Calgary Herald
An all-time best attendance figure of 1.47-million people during the 10-day July hoedown and a better-than-expected performance of the new BMO Centre in the last half of the year garnered $206.4 million for the exhibition, another record and a 33 per cent increase over 2023 — while rounding up net revenues of $4.8 million.
“We had an absolutely incredible record year,” said Stampede CEO Joel Cowley.
“It’s a pretty wild swing from what we budgeted.”
Organizers typically figure in two rain days into their annual budget forecasts but last year’s western celebration had none, while the expanded BMO Centre proved a bonanza in keeping people on the park longer, he said.
“People actually stayed on the park for an average of 8.1 hours, which is phenomenal and a tribute to the BMO Centre, the additional space and the air conditioning,” said Cowley.
He noted the Stampede experienced an exemplary year even as it dodged the impacts of a water shortage last summer brought on by the rupture of a feeder main in the city’s northwest.
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With the BMO Centre expansion approaching its opening last June, the Stampede was on the hook for outfitting the building with fixtures, furniture and equipment, Cowley said in May 2024. And with only a half-year of hosting revenue available to Stampede, the revenues from those events weren’t expected to make up for the expenses necessary to get the building event-ready — and management wasn’t willing to skimp on Stampede to balance the budget.
Stampede officials also didn’t expect attendance last year to match 2023’s numbers, another happy miscalculation when sunny weather brought throngs down to the grounds.
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But bookings at the BMO Centre considerably exceeded expectations, he said, with seemingly “everybody wanting to have their Christmas parties there.”
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The Stampede’s fortunes have bounced back dramatically from 2020, when the pandemic cancellation of the July extravaganza resulted in a $26-million loss.
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But the exhibition is still feeling the pain of deferred maintenance during 2020 and the limited July party in 2021, said Cowley.
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“We’re climbing our way out but we’re still in a multi-year recovery until we catch up on capital repairs,” he said.
Those repairs amount to about $30 million, said Cowley, though some of them aren’t urgent.
Another bright spot for the Stampede was the sale of five acres of land for the construction of the Scotia Place events centre on the grounds’ north side that roped in a net $22.6 million, most of which will go to pay down debt with the rest going towards working capital, said the CEO.
Also, land transactions with the city also related to the events centre netted the Stampede an on-paper gain of $66.9 million.
Some of those land swaps could ultimately see hotels built on three locations with a total of nearly 1,000 rooms, said Cowley.
“We’re working diligently on one site in particular which we could be announcing this summer,” he said.
“It’s what the majority of convention organizers demand, that their delegates remain on-site.”
As for the coming July extravaganza which runs July 4-13, Cowley said he and his colleagues are projecting a break-even scenario, with the U.S.-Canada trade war and Washington’s threats of acquiring Canada likely factoring in on attendance and procurement costs, said Cowley.
The Stampede will work to capitalize on the desire among Canadians to vacation at home rather than in the U.S., a country that normally provides 3 per cent of July attendance, he said.
Non-Albertan Canadians typically comprise 10 per cent of the Stampede’s market, while up to 9 per cent are Albertans who hail from outside the Calgary area.
Seventy-three per cent of those who head through the Stampede grounds’ turnstiles are Calgarians.
Even so, Cowley said July hotel bookings so far suggest Americans aren’t staying away.
“We don’t anticipate we’ll lose a lot of U.S. visitors,” said Cowley, a Colorado native.
After living in both the U.S. and Canada and witnessing what had been a cordial relationship between the two, “it’s really devastating for me to see that jeopardized,” he said.
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