Since the April Fools’ Day announcement that the Fiesta Stock Horse Show and Rodeo was canceled, members of Old Spanish Days have nonetheless been trying to negotiate with Earl Warren Showgrounds to try to find a way to hold the century-old event. No agreement was found, and the rodeo is scrubbed for 2025, Fritz Olenberger, El Presidente this year, announced this Monday morning.
Josiah Jenkins, who heads the rodeo committee, asked the Showgrounds for one last proposal to try to bring a rodeo this year. Earl Warren offered to hold a professional rodeo only, with sponsors and 10-20 volunteers from Old Spanish Days. Earl Warren would assume all the risk and responsibility for the event, but also the profit, if there was any. No local participation or events would take place.
At the general board meeting last Wednesday, the members had agreed the terms were not acceptable. Some of them “flat out don’t want to work with those folks on those terms,” Jenkins said, saying some of the boardmembers reacted with “animosity” to the Showgrounds’ proposal.
Later that day, Old Spanish Days sent a letter to the Showgrounds Foundation and the 19th District Agricultural Association, which owns Earl Warren, outlining the board’s inability to work “collaboratively toward a fair and sustainable agreement.” Among the issues was the Showgrounds’ habit of “unpredictable post-event invoicing” in lieu of a requested flat fee, which had put the event in the red before. The letter also called out a lack of timely contracts that would enable Fiesta to meet its obligations — in fact, Fiesta’s board said they’d delivered a deposit early in the year but did not receive a contract in time “to confidently proceed with our financial commitments.” The letter also contended that there had been fruitless requests for equitable access to the revenue streams generated from parking, concessions, food and beverage, stabling, and RV fees; Earl Warren staff had been adversarial at times; and facility conditions were substandard despite a $1.5 million investment from the equestrian community.
The letter went on to thank the Showgrounds for the proposal but added that Fiesta did not have experienced volunteers to contribute, its sponsors were uninterested in a Fiesta rodeo that Old Spanish Days did not produce, and it was unlikely a paid-staff event could succeed. It also pointed out that the Fiesta rodeo audience would be greatly disappointed if community-focused events, such as mutton busting, were not held, which was likely to affect ticket sales. And the boardmembers did not wish to lend the Old Spanish Days name to an event they did not produce.
For its part, the Showgrounds boards, through its CEO Ben Sprague, sent a reply expressing surprise and deep sadness that the rodeo would not continue this year. “The Showgrounds was fully prepared to keep the rodeo tradition alive this year,” Sprague wrote. He added that the Showgrounds shared “their hope that the spirit of community, heritage, and horsemanship will continue to thrive” and that Earl Warren planned to “continue exploring ways to host a rodeo event in the near future.”
During the morning press meeting, Jenkins described the daytime and nighttime rodeos as two different competitions that they’d been putting on for years. Much like the flamenco showcases during Fiesta, the daytime rodeo events featured young people who were highly supported by their parents and families. These daytime roping, penning, and riding classes brought to the arena kids, families, and friends, most of whom recognized each other. It was all about getting kids involved in “the life, livestock, and the country way,” said Jenkins.
And of the annual rodeo costs, “There’s quite a chasm between expenses and income,” he said. Some of the expense was the $5,000 purse to attract professional rodeo cowboys to Santa Barbara, where flights and hotel rooms were not cheap. Competing rodeos in the northwest and Midwest, where more than one rodeo would be held in a locale, could offer purses of between $15,000 to $40,000.
They were working toward 2026 at this point, said Jenkins, and an arena in Ventura had been in touch as an alternative site, as had the equestrian center in Santa Ynez. He said they planned to put the next Fiesta rodeo on from the heart, from the positive, and “to do it right.”
[Update: April 23, 2025] After this story was posted, Ben Sprague and Tory Milazzo, board president of the 19th Agricultural Association, sent an email on April 22 to state they did not share Old Spanish Day’s characterization of their partnership or events. “As a California state-owned facility, all Showgrounds fees are governed by publicly adopted policies and are applied consistently to all users. We host countless of successful events every year—from equestrian and ag shows to concerts, quinceañeras, community festivals, and youth competitions—and many partners continue to work with us year after year under these same policies.”
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