It was an historic night for the Calgary Stampede.
The Stampede canvas auction raised a record amount for the drivers in this year’s Rangeland Derby.
Sponsors paid a combined total of $6,075,000 to win the opportunity to showcase their brand on a driver’s chuckwagon canvas throughout this year’s Calgary Stampede, smashing the previous record of $4,015.000, which was set in 2012.
Chuckwagon driver Rae Croteau Jr., one of 27 drivers whose canvas was up for auction, also garnered a new record bid for a single canvas at $550,000 from Bar L5 Ranch, in Aldersyde — nearly doubling the previous record high bid of $300,000 for a single canvas.
“It’s a shocker,” said Croteau Jr. “It means it’s time to win. I’m a competitive person. I didn’t think we were gonna go for that much. So I’m still vibrating from it. We love it. That’s why we’re here.”
“This kind of support sets you up for the year. It’s not just the races, it’s the off-season too — buying horses, building depth, sourcing feed — it even helps get the kids to hockey in the winter,” Croteau Jr. added.
“Maybe companies are making choices not to put people on planes and take them to an event in the U.S. to go watch a hockey game, and they’re saying we wanna do it here. We wanna show people what we have and why we’re so proud of it,” said Heidi Lindgren, who, along with her husband Darren, made the winning bid.
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“The energy in that room was palpable,” said Stuart O’Connor, chair of the Calgary Stampede. “Everybody got behind the bidding — and I hope (it) is a precursor for what’s coming down this summer. We are absolutely thrilled.”
“There were eight new bidders and you know that again is a reflection of the support for chuckwagon racing and to be able to bring in those eight new bidders and actually win is phenomenal,” O’Connor added.
For many Calgarians, the canvas auction is also considered a bellwether of the health of the local economy.
“There’s economic uncertainty, but we also know that oil prices have spiked here recently as a result of world events,” said Joel Cowley, CEO of the Calgary Stampede.
“Last year we had $3.8 million total, so yesterday, I would have said if we can just get close to that, that would be fantastic. So to surpass $6 million is just absolutely incredible.”
Asked if the canvas auction is a barometer of the health of the local economy, the President and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce said “if people did not feel confident (about the economy), there’s no way they would have written such large cheques.”
But Deborah Yedlin cautions “there is still a lot of uncertainty.”
“I think that when you look at the inflation numbers in the United States for March, they jumped and so what is gonna be the impact here? Having said that, we also know that because we’re in Alberta, our gasoline prices aren’t as high as they are across the country, so we’re a little bit shielded from everything else, but we know that 27 per cent of businesses in Calgary are pessimistic about the future — and you have to pay attention to that,” said Yedlin.
“And we don’t know what the impact of the conflict in the Middle East, how it will play out. We don’t what the trade negotiations will look like in terms of how it impacts us as well — so there’s still a lot of uncertainty — and we still are waiting to have the final I’s dotted and the T’s crossed on the MOU, right? So there’s a few things that are sort of out there, but I also think that broadly speaking, there was a sense of optimism yesterday. We haven’t seen that for a long time.”
This year’s Calgary Stampede takes place from July 3 to 12.
This whole Stampede madness is still going on? I was hoping many years ago that it will die off, the animal abuse will be banned but looks like Alberta is destined to be so dumb and barbaric that we cant figure any more meaningful activity for ourselves. This is quite sad.
Ken,
I feel the same as you do.
Companies that sponsor animal abuse will never get my business.