“We Didn’t Make This Decision Lightly” Williams Lake Stampede Association President

For the first time in a long time, C-Plus Rodeos will not be supplying the rough stock for this year’s Williams Lake Stampede.

Stampede President Court Smith said they (Williams Lake Stampede) compete with three other professional rodeos over that same long weekend and over a number of years heard from the contestants that come to Williams Lake, and some that don’t, that they had larger expectations on having an opportunity to win

“So it’s a fairly large commitment for them to come here for one shot a winning. So we listened to the contestants, like I said over the last several years, and we had to balance between the loyalties that we had here locally and what the contestants were asking us, we felt that without cowboys coming we wouldn’t have a rodeo. We took a lot of time to think about it and we didn’t take this decision lightly but we felt that in the best interest of moving forward that it was best to take on a new contractor.”

Smith said he’s been involved with the Stampede Association for probably 20-plus years and C-plus was with the Stampede prior to that.

“There was never a bid process, because they were a local contractor there were essentially given the contract annually there was never a multi-year contract in place. Annually we would have a chat with C-plus and go forward from there. C-Plus has been an integral part of the history, and the growth, and the success of the Williams Lake Stampede, we want to wish them the very best, again we felt that this was in the best interest of the Stampede going forward.”

Smith said they had some conversations with C-Plus in early December.

“We had done some research, we went back to the CFR (Canadian Finals Rodeo). We spent some time investigating and understanding kind of a what that picture would look like or what it should look like. We moved forward slowly in some people’s minds but we wanted to be sure that we got it as right as we could. These decisions are made in the very best interest of the Stampede and in the very best interest of our spectators, our sponsors, and all the people that are involved in it.”

Smith added that some decisions are not going to be what people want but we have to move on and these 17 people that work 12-months of the year to put this stampede on are the ones that really need to be applauded.

“It was more important to provide the best possible show we could so a financial decision was part of the discussion but it wasn’t the basis of any decision.”