Andrews reflects on his 15-years at NWSS

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During his final NWSS, President and CEO Paul Andrews discusses his tenure at the helm of the historic Denver event and venue
Editor’s Note: With family roots in livestock and the National Western Stock Show — his grandfather, Paul Pattridge, was inducted into the American Hereford Association Hall of Fame and served on the stock show’s board of directors and his uncle was a NWSS veterinarian — Paul Andrews reconnected with his roots in November 2010 when he left the world of professional sports with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment to become president and CEO of the National Western Stock Show and Complex. On the final Friday of the 2025 NWSS, Andrews sat down with Lincoln Rogers to talk about his 15 years leading the historic event and his thoughts on its future as he prepares to hand the reins to a new president and CEO sometime this year. (NOTE: The wide-ranging conversation will be split into two parts. Part 2 will focus on Andrews’ thoughts on the present and future of the NWSS. Questions and answers have been edited solely for length.)
Lincoln Rogers: What caused you to leave Kroenke Sports & Entertainment for the National Western Stock Show?
Paul Andrews: When I was approached about this, I started thinking back to my childhood and the roots I had on my grandfather’s ranch in Golden, Colo.; a polled Hereford ranch, and I said you know, I have always loved agriculture and cattle, but I am a venue operator and a promoter. I was pretty sure with my experience in sports and entertainment and running venues, selling tickets, selling sponsorships and providing customer service, that they would translate over to this business. That is what really motivated me along with the fact that I could have spent my entire career with the Nuggets and Avalanche and had just a great time and continued along that path, but it wouldn’t have made any difference to anyone in society, necessarily. The stock show means something. That meant something to me as I was thinking through why I would transition to this role. It meant something both to society and the state of Colorado. It meant something to the students we were supporting in education. Those scholarships meant something to me. That is really what motivated me to continue through the interview process back in 2010. And they interviewed me for a full year.
Lincoln Rogers: Do you feel like your Kroenke Sports experience directly applied to your NWSS position?
Paul Andrews: Oh, for sure. In the live entertainment business, there are several things that are common throughout all of it. No. 1 – Ticket sales is king. You have to sell tickets, first and foremost, in order to drive a business model that is going to work. No. 2 – Sponsorship drafts off ticketing, so if you have strong ticket sales you are going to have great sponsorship because the sponsors want to be in front of hundreds of thousands of people. No. 3 – February to December we were operating the complex. I was used to doing about 175-200 events a year at Pepsi Center. I wanted this facility — we had a horse facility, we had an expo hall, we had a stadium arena — to expand our programming February to December and drive more revenue. I really started looking at the staff structure in the company back in 2010 and I added quite a few areas. I added an entire sponsorship department that now is driving multimillions of dollars’ worth of revenue. We have 110 great sponsors. I added more depth in our event booking area so we could take our events from 80 or so to our current 150-200 each year. That started driving real revenue, so now we are in a sustainable business model and we have zero debt.

Lincoln Rogers: When did you feel like you were hitting the self-sustainable model regarding revenue?
Paul Andrews: It was after we got our full sponsorship team in place and got a full complex event team in place. The only way we make money here is through ticketing, sponsorships, concessions, parking and renting the facilities. Those are our revenue streams. Certainly, people will donate to the 501(c)3 that we are, but I have never asked for money in my life. At Kroenke Sports, I wasn’t going to go out and ask the people to fund the Avalanche or Nuggets. So, you had to make enough revenue and keep prices — especially here — as low as possible. We are a very inexpensive entertainment option in this city. You can buy a ticket here for the grounds for $16-$17. That is less than a movie anymore. You can stay all day and see 50 things that are going on site. You can buy a rodeo ticket for $25-$30. That is maybe the best two hours of entertainment you are going to see. Same with our horse shows. Dancing Horses was phenomenal last night (Jan. 23, 2025). Our reining show, you are talking $20-$30 tickets here. This is very affordable, and I love that and we need to keep maintaining that over time.
Lincoln Rogers: You arrived in Nov. 2011 and your first NWSS was Jan. 2011. Baptism by fire?
Paul Andrews: Very much so. I could work 80 days and nights in a row because the Nuggets and Avalanche were always going, so I was coming in saying, this is 16 days, this is going to be no problem for me. Definitely that first year was overwhelming. I got sick about six days in and that was tough. I hadn’t been around the animals that much since my youth and that hit me. But I remember saying to myself that first November, listen stock show is starting in two months. You are not going to change anything they are doing at the stock show in 2011. There is no way you can even understand this structure and all that in two months. So I concentrated on ticketing. I am really good at ticketing and creating promotions. I immediately sat with the head of ticketing at the time and said we have got to create some promotions here. We are going to create a family night that has four tickets and four Pepsis and four hot dogs and we are going to sell it for $60. That is going to get people in the door for some of the rodeos that maybe we wouldn’t have sold out before. Then we created a Boots Night Out right away. two beers, two tickets, have a fun night with your friend and come to Boots Night Out. Early on I concentrated on getting through 2011 and having a good show. I got to learn what the rodeo guy was doing, what the trade show person was doing and what the livestock team was doing. Luckily, we had people that were very efficient in all those roles. It was more about learning that first 90 days exactly what role everybody plays and then helping in the areas that I knew I could immediately help, which was focused on ticketing.
Then I had time in 2011 to take between February and December and really hone in what we are doing in stock show. I got more comfortable with stock show as I got to the second one. Then once you get to the third, you start to really feel better about what is going on. You know what things are and where the levers are that you have to pull. It really takes three years and it will take the next CEO at least three years to actually get their hands around what this behemoth is.

Lincoln Rogers: Were you embraced by the agricultural and western community when you stepped into your role?
Paul Andrews: You have to go through a little bit of a period of proof and fortunately my heritage here with my family, the Pattridge family, all the Hereford guys on site knew Paul Pattridge. So, when I started, they figured, hey a descendant of Paul Pattridge, this guy can’t be that bad. So, I was fortunate to have that in my background and I had some street cred, as they say, with my family. I had to earn my stripes, especially with the livestock people and the horse people. At the end of the day, I am not going to tell them I am a horse expert or the foremost livestock expert, but I know enough to know how we have to keep this western tradition alive, and they are big part of that, both horse and livestock.
Lincoln Rogers: If you can narrow it down, what would you consider to be your primary achievement at the NWSS?
Paul Andrews: I would say I have been fortunate to have the ability to look at a staff structure and structure it differently to meet a few goals. One goal would be to make sure we are making enough revenue to pay the bills and pay the people we have employed. So, I wanted to make sure we had a sustainable business model. Then I really wanted to create a culture of success within my staff. I have always had the ability to hire great people that then work together to accomplish great things. If you can hire great people and you can help them lead as their CEO, then you are going to succeed and fortunately we have had tremendous success here over the years. It is really due to the fact that, again, it starts with a great board of directors but then it comes down to the staff structure that the CEO sets up with the people that he or she hires into those positions, and I have hired great people, honestly.
Lincoln Rogers: How was it for you to come back to your ag roots for this job?
Paul Andrews: I will tell you, the people in the world of ag are the best people on planet earth, in my opinion. I love everybody, okay? You can be any political party with me. You can be this that or the other, as long as you are an American that loves America, I love you. But I can tell you, I enjoy the 50 states that are on site and shaking their hands and telling them thanks for being here. If we have a disagreement on something, say if somebody doesn’t like the way we judged something — their animal is this, that or the other — we get past all that because we are all just normal people out doing something in agriculture and trying to help the food chain and trying to educate people living in the concrete jungle here in Denver, Colo., about how their food doesn’t just show up in the grocery store. These people from 50 states are working out there on their farms and ranches to bring us this food. So really, I was embraced since day one, both with the business community, because you know the stock show president isn’t going to be 100% ag all the time. That person also has to be able to navigate downtown Denver and navigate the political waters around us — the mayor, the governor, the city council, the legislature. We interact with all of them at various times of the year. So this person has to be — and I had to be — a bit of a unicorn so to speak, because you have to wear a lot of different hats at the same time at different times of the year.
Lincoln Rogers: And you feel like it has been a good fit for you?
Paul Andrews: Yes. I tell you what, I have been asked this 100 times by people that knew me from Kroenke Sports. Why would you go from having the biggest sports teams — I got two Stanley Cup championship rings — why would you do this? And really, the fit for me was from day one. I love the people I was interacting with. I love agriculture. I understand agriculture and how important it is to us in society, and I wanted to be part of that. I wanted to be part of this historic tradition and celebrate our western heritage and keep that going.
To be continued in Part 2…
