During his final NWSS, President and CEO Paul Andrews reflected on his tenure and looked to the future of the historic Denver event and venue

In Part 2 of a sit-down interview between Lincoln Rogers and outgoing NWSS President and CEO Paul Andrews, the 15-year fixture at the helm of the historic event talked about the present state of the NWSS and relayed his enthusiasm regarding big plans and changes for its future. (NOTE: Like Part 1, questions and answers from the wide-ranging conversation have been edited solely for length.)

Lincoln Rogers: What has been the best part of the NWSS every year, for you?

Paul Andrews: I love all of our shows. It doesn’t matter. We crowned the Grand Champion Steer the other night (Jan. 22, 2025) and there were tears in my eyes. The young lady that owns the grand champion steer two nights ago was just emotional. It is neat to watch. It is also amazing to watch our rodeos. There is no rodeo in the world where the crowd interaction is better than our crowd. We have a tremendous rodeo and a tremendous team that puts it on. There is nothing better than the freestyle reining. That show on our site, in my opinion, is just the most unique event. I love all our horse shows. It is hard for me to choose. I love shopping, right? I walk around with my wife for two hours and buy 20 things because we just can’t stop. There is so much here that you can see in our 800 booths. Seeing the animals, the superbowl of livestock shows, it is hard for me to zero in on just one thing I look forward to. I look forward to it ALL. And frankly, even though I am tired and beaten and I have been here from 7 in the morning to 10 at night every night for 25 days and I can’t remember what my wife looks like; when it comes to the end of the show — and it has been this way every year — I will still be a bit sad and probably a little sadder this year since I will be transitioning the CEO position.

Lincoln Rogers: Is there a time frame for the completion of buildings under construction right now?

Paul Andrews: The next building that will be done in early November this year will be the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Livestock Center. It will have about a 3,000-5,000 seat arena, depending upon floor use. There will be 180,000 square feet of barns so all of our livestock are going to move in there into one location. The Hill and the yards are going to be married forever. That has never been done before, so that will be a real benefit. The Legacy building will also open early November. Both of those buildings will be done in say nine or 10 months from this interview (Jan. 24, 2025). They will do a grand opening of those at the 2026 stock show. I will be part of the celebration for sure, because that was more than a decade of my life. The Equestrian Center has not broken ground yet. We anticipate it to break ground here in 2025 and be ready at the 2028 National Western Stock Show.

Lincoln Rogers: Do you envision a museum or educational piece to the new Legacy Building?

Paul Andrews: The Legacy building will have a mission during stock show and then outside of stock show. During stock show, it is going to host our new national western club, our members will be up there, we will have a saloon in there and it will also be fun for the general public. But those that want to come walk through the building and see the history of the national western, it will be on display from 1906 forward in an area in there. We will also have our permanent collection of the Coors Western Art Show that will be featured there and we have never had that on display. And we have an American Values Conference Center in the Legacy building, It will be rentable space and also space we can use to honor and celebrate our western traditions. So, the Legacy building is going to change the business model that currently exists. Frankly, that is why I thought the transition of the presidency should occur now because the person coming in doesn’t have to be the all-event person that I am. They are going to have the Legacy building, the stock show, Rodeo All-Star and the Denver County Fair. They are not going to have to do all the other trade shows and the rest because there has been an entity formed that will do that.

Lincoln Rogers: How pleased are you when you walk out on the grounds now and see the progress that has been made?

Paul Andrews: I am somewhat astounded at how much the board and the staff and the volunteers and all of us pulling together have been able to get done in a longer amount of time than I anticipated. If you had told me we were going to have a pandemic in 2020 that shut down everything for basically two years and the cost escalations, it was a horrible time. I am pleased that we are on at least the path to open these in 2026. The original plan showed us opening those buildings in 2023 and I think we probably would have been there if we had not had a pandemic. I am very happy with the progress. There is still work to be done, we have to complete phases three-eight. Those are on the drawing board for the new mayor, Mayor (Mike) Johnston. He is looking at what will be the replacement for the Denver Coliseum and that would be a new coliseum over on the north side of I-70 instead of where the current coliseum is. So, we are looking at those plans with him now and I think he is focused on trying to solve that puzzle with us.

Lincoln Rogers: Is the current Events Center going to be replaced?

Paul Andrews: The Events Center will be taken down when the new equestrian center is up. You can’t take down our current events center until you have a new equestrian center up and that is like early 2028. The Expo Hall will also come down, but the stadium arena will not come down. The city owns all this land, so they are going to look at a development plan and I am sure there are going to be restaurants and hotels and bars and probably some housing here.

Lincoln Rogers: A redevelopment to create a destination?

Paul Andrews: Absolutely. This should be the place, if it is June and you live in Germany and you google for a western experience in one spot, the national western center should come up. You should be able to come here, stay in a nice hotel and enjoy the western stuff we’ve got going on in June. That might take several years, maybe even a decade, but I think ultimately this place will blossom into something similar to what LoDo did for baseball. This will have the western tradition feel to it.

Lincoln Rogers: In your vision for the future of the national western, what are you most excited to see occur for this event?

Paul Andrews: I am pretty certain that the National Western Stock Show, once all of this phase three-eight is built out, is going to get to a million people in January (current numbers hover around 700,000). There will be new facilities and new fun things to do around here with restaurants and activities once this is all built out. A new coliseum will be able to put more people in the rodeo. This 10,000 or so seat rodeo/multipurpose arena for the city of Denver will help drive their economics all year long, as well. I can clearly see, in my opinion, where we are today and where we are going. This is only going to keep growing with those new facilities and I also see us becoming a real factor in the world of horse shows during the non-stock show time period.

Lincoln Rogers: Are you trying to compete with Kentucky Horse Park?

Paul Andrews: Kentucky is kind of its own animal. We will be a smaller scale than that, but we will be competitive up to about 1,500-1,600 stall shows. I do see the horse business in the non-stock show time period becoming more a part of our fabric moving forward. And finally, I would say in the framework agreement that I signed in 2017 that assured us of 100 years here at the I-70 and Brighton location and National Western Center, I wrote in there that you could expand the National Western Stock Show up to 22 days. I think the board of directors — maybe a decade from now or maybe two decades from now — is going to be looking at that document and wondering, should we take this show from 16 days to 22 days? Should we go to 21 days? How would we program it if we did that? I would not be surprised to see leadership at that time make the yes decision to go to that many days in this show.

Lincoln Rogers: Experiencing your 15 years and now looking towards the future, are you feeling pretty good about the National Western?

Paul Andrews: Oh, I feel great. I feel like we are making new fans every year. Our data is actually showing about 30% of our crowd is new every single year, so that is exactly what you want because you want those new people to say, hey this is really something pretty cool. I can bring my family down here and I am not going to worry about anything or any content that might embarrass me as a parent that is going on here. We are going to be family friendly. We are going to try to get you around to see animals your kids will otherwise never see. As we look at the future years, we are going to have one of the biggest petting zoos in America. We are going to have it in the lower barns next year. We are taking it off the third floor that we are on that is kind of hampered by how much square footage we have there. The lower barns, we can build a gigantic petting zoo. Next year will be so much better for the families. I am very — I will use the term bullish since we are in this livestock industry — I am very bullish about where stock show is and where it is going as we look at the next couple of decades.

Lincoln Rogers: Have you thought about what your legacy will be as it ties to the National Western?

Paul Andrews: There is no legacy for me. It is never an individual thing. I have said this before. I have to have a team of people that do all of this well in order for people to think we are doing something right. If you wanted to define a legacy of my tenure, it would be defined on having great leadership with the board of directors over my entire 15 years. It would be defined by having the best staff in the live entertainment business. I think we have had it and we continued to have it through all 15 of my years. To me, my legacy is continuing to further this mission of the National Western Stock Show and now that we are in a very sustainable business model with no company debt, we can even start expanding some of our scholarships even further and our education programs further. I am just really excited about what the next person has in store for them with new buildings and a little bit different business model.