Oakley’s 2025 Independence Day celebration is right around the corner, and last month, the city council sat down with a consultant to talk about improving the 5,700 seat rodeo arena.
Joel Feldman from CSL International says the city is competing with other major events in the Park City and Salt Lake City area.
“Candidly, the lack of any sizeable population further to our east puts us at a somewhat of a disadvantage in terms of the overall market draw for the [rodeo] complex, relative to some of these other facilities,” Feldman told the Oakley City Council, referencing the sports arenas being built along the Wasatch Front.
His main recommendations for keeping Oakley competitive are expanding the arena’s eastside footprint, creating open space by removing bleachers to the west, renovating the aging north bleachers and adding 400 VIP seats.
That would bring the total arena capacity to 6,100. Feldman said “continuing to sell out the rodeo is going to be a critical goal” for Oakley in the future.
Implementing all the recommendations could cost about $5.7 million, he said. So Feldman described them as a “starting point” for community conversation.
Those conversations began immediately after his May 14 presentation, when the city’s rodeo committee presented its own vision for the rodeo grounds.
Committee Chair Wade Woolstenhulme said they don’t want to change the arena footprint, but the committee recommended expanding up to 7,500 seats, including VIP options.
The two presentations overlapped on proposals for better food vendor options and new announcer booths.
Mayor Zane Woolstenhulme indicated the most important next step is drafting a request for proposals to find the contractors and architects who would build an expanded arena. The plans wouldn’t be final until then.
As usual, the 90th Annual Oakley Independence Day Rodeo is already sold out. It runs July 2, 3, 4 and 5 this year. The Xtreme bull riding night is July 7.
