Ag Society presents concept plans for new western event center

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Strathmore and District Agricultural Society (SDAS) is planning to develop a new western event center, which would significantly upgrade their event capacity. 

Ryan Schmidt, SDAS CEO, introduced the concept to Strathmore Town Council during the Feb. 2, regular council meeting. 

“For many years, the agricultural society had what was once, I’d say a dream to have a western event center in Strathmore and district,” said Schmidt.

“In 2019 we took the step of developing our five-year strategic plan and really at the heart of that strategic plan was to include this project.”

Schmidt shared with town council the conceptual design of the facility and the plans for its potential use, should the society proceed with its construction.

“Over the last year … we struck an advisory committee that led to this design. It had representatives from the Town of Strathmore, Wheatland County, the agricultural society and then also representatives from various western sports and disciplines,” explained Schmidt.

“The idea was to bring forward everybody’s input and develop a facility that we knew would meet a broad range of needs within the community.”

The plan is for the event center to be completed and operational by 2025. Advantages of the center, according to the current plan, would include the ability to host a year-round rodeo academy, as well as contain multiple indoor event halls.

Additionally, the facility would be able to host a ranching school that would be fully equipped for allowing high school and post-secondary students to train and earn credits towards official certifications.

Councilor Denise Peterson said she was interested in having a facility in the local region that would allow for advanced agricultural, as well as western sport training. 

“It fits in very well with what Ryan said and the programs already exist both at the high school and the post-secondary level,” said Peterson.

“We already have people moving to the community so that their children can access what is available in the green certificate program and so this would just add another whole element (to that).”

Peterson suggested that the facility would also situate Strathmore perfectly to be able to host the National High School Rodeo Finals in the future. 

The concept for the facility would see it able to hold up to 2,000 people in the main event hall, with a secondary hall able to host 600 people for smaller events such as weddings, receptions and conventions.

The SDAS is preparing to launch a feasibility study to gauge whether development of such a project would work for the area and what kind of an impact it would expect to have for the region.