Majestic Valley Arena takes three-month break

No shows scheduled until March this year

Ever since the last gate closed on December's final team penning event, things have been pretty quiet at Majestic Valley Arena.

With no events on the books at the Kalispell equestrian and event facility until late March this year, arena managers dialed back the heat in December, dimmed the lights and gave the word to three or four employees that they would be out of work for a while.

Majestic Valley didn't exactly go dark. It just got a touch of gray.

"Like everybody else, it's just wait and see," owner Bob Parker said this week. "I imagine Semitool and Plum Creek and some of the others have a lot more people to do some explaining to than I do."

Bookkeeper Jolene Sipe said three of Majestic Valley's laid-off workers probably would come back full-time to crank the place into operation for the Colgate Country Showdown in March.

Until then, it's just the manager who lives on site and two maintenance workers.

"And there's been plenty to do on maintenance with these snows lately," Parker said.

The price of diesel fuel was blamed in large part for the decision to close down the arena over the winter. Fewer horses were being trailered across the country to events at Majestic Valley, Parker said, because the cost of diesel for the trucks pulling those trailers had skyrocketed.

Now that the global economic slump has reached Montana and the Flathead Valley on much more severe terms, patrons just aren't as ready to shell out sparse dollars for tickets.

And, Sipe pointed out, the Parkers "have worked in this valley for eight years now and it's been 24/7. It's time to move on."

So, in October, Parker and his wife, Janice, announced that they had listed the arena for sale. But they plan to hold out until they find the right buyer.

"There's been some interest but I think, with the market, people are kind of gun-shy right now," Parker said. "We'll just see what happens. We'll just sit on it. We're not going to budge from the price."

Despite talking with a few potential buyers, he can't project when they might seal a deal. He especially cannot say whether it could happen in the next few months.

"Anything could happen but I doubt that," he said. "I just don't know where the market's going to head."

The Parkers developed the facility at a cost of about $6 million in 2002, with the intent of serving as a community center.

A 55,750-square-foot arena building that seats 7,000 people is its centerpiece. The complex also features a 45,000-square-foot outdoor arena, a host of horse stalls, paddocks, pastures and holding pens.

The Parkers and their team have been working it hard ever since.

Rodeos, country and rock concerts, monster truck shows, boxing matches, political rallies, weddings, trade shows, high school graduations and equestrian events are just a few reasons patrons have lined up on U.S. 93 north of Kalispell to turn in at Majestic Valley.

When the arena's doors first opened, the Parkers themselves promoted events. But he said those days are over.

Last year they promoted one concert, country star Kellie Pickler, but it didn't turn out to be a money-maker for them. Community-benefit associations and other promoters brought in the rest of last year's concerts.

They have no plans to change the types of events the arena hosts.

Advance bookings for 2009 events are running about 25 percent of normal, Parker said.

"Horse shows are down, participants are down, people are out of work," he said. "The price of diesel is down, but still that's not enough."

They have penciled out what it will take to keep the heat and lights on - "we know what we've got to do to keep a bare minimum," he said.

But a few events, some of the most popular ones that have a proven history at Majestic Valley, have been booked: Colgate Country Showdown comes in late March, the Lipizzaner Stallions also in March, an arena cross in April, horse clinician Clinton Anderson in May, and a monster truck show this spring or summer.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com