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Financial woes at Earl Warren Showgrounds trickle down to local business

Last year’s back-to-back disasters, along with repeated evacuations, are having a trickle-down effect in Santa Barbara. And that’s taking a toll on businesses and an aging gem of a landmark: the Earl Warren Showgrounds.

“In 2011 we had like 25 horse shows a years,” said Maggie Robles, Manager of La Cumbre Feed in Santa Barbara. “Now we’re down to nine.”

Robles showed our reporter Beth Farnsworth years of dwindling rosters depicting horse shows at the Earl Warren Showgrounds, dating back more than a decade.

“We’re totally connected between La Cumbre Feed and Earl Warren,” Robles said.

Robles, who has worked at the business for 17 years, said horse show bookings at the nearby facility are a financial lifeline for the feed shop, thanks to orders for hay, shavings and other supplies. Two cancellations this year alone, including the coveted Santa Barbara Nationals, along with fewer shows, are a major loss of business.

“It’s like $100,000 a year that we’re losing,” Robles said. “And that’s just us. That’s not restaurants and hotels and everything else — gas stations — all the local people. We’re all losing money when we don’t have the horse shows here.”

“It’s falling down. It’s an old facility,” said Pat Cary, Interim CEO at the Earl Warren Showgrounds.

Cary and Mary Rose, Vice President of the state appointed Board of Directors, said our back-to-back disasters, command posts and more than 1,400 large animals evacuated to the site, took a toll on the aging stalls and 50’s-era facility. Both women also mentioned damage from “rough” rodeos and a behind-the-scenes change in management didn’t help either.

“So there’s been a lot of activity here, more people have been exposed to the showgrounds,” Rose said. “They see that we’re a state facility that needs to be supported by the entire community.”

Once the showgrounds left county hands, the state used to earmark roughly $200,000 dollars to the facility, according to Cary and Rose. Then, nothing — not a cent — for several years. Cary said this year, the Santa Barbara landmark received about $30,000 dollars.

Requests for funds must be submitted to the state each year.

Both women said, like Santa Barbara, Fair and Exposition facilities in Ventura, Santa Maria and Paso Robles are also suffering due to a lack of funds.

Needless to say, “fundraising” is becoming a popular word.

“Anybody that wants to donate, we’re more than happy to take the donation,” Cary said.

She mentioned that the Santa Barbara Showgrounds Foundation supports the mission and is a 501 c3.

“We’ve got to somehow pull this together. I want to see it saved,” Robles said.

NewsChannel 3 reached out to organizers of the Camelot Classics, another hunter-jumper event, 30 years strong.

Organizers canceled the slot at the showgrounds because “the footings at Earl Warren are sub- standard and the facility needs an influx of money,” the person said.

That person did not want to be identified.

For the first time in years, Camelot Classics will be held at the Polo Grounds in Carpinteria, instead. And, La Cumbre Feed would be more than happy to keep the order to supply the shavings for the upscale competition.

For fundraising/revitalizing suggestions for Earl Warren Showgrounds, contact Pat Cary:(805) 687-0766

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