Event will expand to five days in 2007; Focus will shift to
entertaining adult crowd
San Jose – The struggling County Fairgrounds got $4.5 million Tuesday to make much needed repairs and infrastructure improvements to its Tully Road site.
The money granted by the Board of Supervisors also includes an operational subsidy of $285,000 to boost the 2007 county fair’s entertainment budget.
After setting a record for worst attendance in 2006, organizers say the annual event is now at a crossroads – and this funding plan will allow the fairgrounds’ managers to fix leaky buildings, reinstate fireworks, book “sexier” bands and expand the event from three to five days.
“It’s extremely important,” said Arthur Troyer, CEO of the Fairgrounds Management Corporation. “Not much improvement has been done at the property since the early 1970s … and the money just hasn’t been there to maintain it. We’re the only major provider of expo space on the peninsula and in the South Bay, and we don’t have air conditioned facilities. That makes it very difficult to rent them during the hot summer months.”
“We were actually losing events (such as trade shows and consumer shows) during the winter months,” Troyer added, “because of water coming through the ceiling.”
Last year, the Board of Supervisors gave $750,000 to fairgrounds managers to replace two electric transformers and to re-roof the major halls.
The fairgrounds in San Jose was home to nearly 200 booked events last year that collectively brought more than 750,000 visitors to the site. That, however, was the lowest attendance level the exposition center has experienced in the last 30 years, according to the county.
Attendance for the county fair also plummeted in 2006, totaling just 31,000 people over three days, 26 percent less than the previous year’s 42,000.
Undeterred, organizers say they will use their new $285,000 subsidy to expand the event back to five days to attract vendors who left because the shorter run wasn’t lucrative enough for them. There’s also hope that by opening the fair on a Wednesday instead of a Friday, the general public – particularly Silicon Valley families with young children – will get an opportunity to see more of the farm animals and competitions and get some idea of what the 4-H Club and Future Farmers of America are all about.
“I think it’s a good thing,” said Chris Bianchi, a volunteer at the Adams 4-H club in Gilroy who shows cattle at a variety of fairs each summer. “Most kids have no idea where their food comes from.”
Bianchi was optimistic of better entertainment bringing more people out. “They have to do something, or there’ll be no more fair,” she said.
Organizers will work with a promoter to book bigger bands akin to the ones that play at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, costing between $20,000 and $30,000 per night.
Supervisor Blanca Alvarado said the fairgrounds holds a soft place in people’s hearts and is well worth preserving.
“People have wonderful memories of the fairgrounds and feel a certain endearment toward that place,” Alvarado said. “This (funding) is a step in the right direction.”
The money from the new funding plan will help mitigate what some say has been a major eyesore at the fairgrounds – 80 acres of dusty land that was cleared in 2000 in preparation for the 7,000-seat concert hall that never got built.
Caretakers say they’ll “hydroseed” the area and build overflow parking, thanks to the new funding. Supervisors scrapped plans to build the big rock ‘n’ roll venue in August.
The funds for the fairgrounds already existed in the budget. They were allocated for infrastructure as a prelude to the failed theater project.
A new master planning process for the fairgrounds is expected to start in February or March 2007. Aides in Supervisor Don Gage’s office said the discussions may include “an exploration” of whether to move the fair to South County in the future.
