County Fair No Longer Country; It’s Big Business

The cow-milking contest will take place at the Orange County Fair next Sunday, just as it did at the first fair in 1892. And audiences will still be able to watch a rooster-crowing competition and something called a calf scramble.

But unlike the old days, this isn’t just any country fair. The Orange County Fair has certainly caught up with the late 1980s with a corporate-slick marketing plan that has turned a barely break-even operation into a multimillion-dollar moneymaker.

“I wish I had a business like that,” said Larry Arnold, president of the fair’s board of directors. “It is in what I would call an expansion mode.”

Reasons for the success include a management focused more than ever on profit, an intensified public relations operation, a significant increase in the fair’s attendance and increasing expansion into other activities, such as horse racing and rock concerts.

Moneymaking Encouraged

The Orange County Fair and Exposition Center is operated by the 32nd Agricultural District, a state agency under the Department of Food and Agriculture. Technically, its charter says it exists solely to conduct an annual fair that showcases the agriculture, livestock and youth of the community.

But in the last decade, especially, the state has encouraged its 55 fair districts to use their grounds for other moneymaking events, all to pump money into the fairs, said Esther Armstrong, state director of fairs. At that, Orange County has been among California’s most successful and is one of the few fair districts that turns a profit.

Except for a small allowance from the state--about 1% of the fair board’s budget--the district is entirely self-sufficient. Yet its yearly take has increased 1,000%, from $960,000 in 1976 to $9.7 million last year. And while the district lost $62,000 in 1976, last year it finished with a profit of more than $2 million.

The new profit-making mission has changed the fair forever. “The Orange County Fair is now big business,” said Norbert Bartosik, the fair’s manager. “If you want to make your fair bigger and better, you have to make more money.”

Not long ago, the annual fair accounted for more than half of the district’s budget. Now, the fair represents less than 25% of the budget, with the rest coming from other events.

In addition to the 11 days of carnivals, clowns and exhibits each July, the district also presents horse racing every summer at Los Alamitos Race Track, top-name concerts at the Pacific Amphitheatre on the fairgrounds, rodeos, weekly motorcycle speedway racing and a weekly swap meet.

The swap meet is by far the biggest moneymaker, bringing $2 million to the district last year. Ten years ago, the swap meet generated $230,000, about what the amphitheater now contributes.

In 1977, the fair’s annual budget ballooned when it began leasing Los Alamitos Race Track every summer for horse racing. But even though the event brought in more than $3 million in revenues last year, only about $500,000 of it was profit.

The fair district also is battling in Sacramento these days for a shot at being a center for so-called satellite wagering in which audiences can bet on out-of-town horse races as they watch live telecasts. Bartosik said he figures the wagering could generate up to $5,000 per day in profit.

But a bill that passed the state Senate last month to allow satellite wagering in Southern California excludes the Orange County Fairgrounds because it might impinge on the profits of two Los Angeles County race tracks--Santa Anita and Hollywood Park. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), would, however, allow satellite wagering at 13 other Southern California fairgrounds.

Since the fair usually pays for itself with a little left over, most of the profit from the other events is available for improving the fairgrounds and paying for better carnival attractions. A $4.2-million equestrian center was opened in February, 1982. It has more than 300 stalls in 13 barns, two major show rings and four exercise rings.

And still the fair has managed to keep ticket prices down. The $4 general admission ticket this year is 50 cents less than in 1976. And when the fair opened last week, a new $2.7-million entrance on Fair Drive greeted visitors. The construction included turn lanes, traffic signals and a giant parking lot kiosk. It had been badly needed because the former main entrance on Fairview Road was creating a traffic problem.

The controversial Pacific Amphitheatre opened on the fairgrounds in 1983. It was built for more than $5 million by Nederlander-West Inc., which has a 40-year lease on the site with the district. The fair collects about $200,000 a year from the amphitheater.

But the amphitheater has almost caused more problems than it was worth, district officials say. Neighbors and the board itself have taken the amphitheater to court several times over noise from rock concerts.

And the noise, along with the fair’s traffic mess each year, have combined to violate one of its paramount rules: Be a good neighbor. As a result, nearby residents have not been happy with the district’s proposal for $20 million in additional development over the next 10 years, including two new exhibit buildings and a new outdoor arena.

Fair officials, while embarrassed about the amphitheater, have defended the development as a positive resource for the entire county, not just its host city, Costa Mesa.

This fall, the board will consider that 10-year plan. For now, however, Bartosik said the only project the district is actively pursuing is a new $3.9-million administration building with offices on the second floor and a 50,000 square-foot exhibit hall on the first floor.

Bartosik said the district has put away $500,000 each year for two years so far to pay for the building.

The fair found its home in 1949 on the former site of a military training center. Many of its buildings, including the exhibit halls and the administration buildings, are 50-year-old former military barracks. The current administration building is a pale yellow house with creaky wooden floors and narrow hallways that double as a storage area for stacks of boxes and materials.

“Frankly, our staff is getting too big for this building,” Bartosik said. “And we have to hold meetings here and meet business people.”

The district also has entertained the idea of new commercial developments, including a hotel on three of the fairground’s four corners. But the first attempt at building a hotel fell through after the developer backed away, claiming that a glut of Orange County hotel space existed.

A recent study done for the board says the fairgrounds is now approaching capacity. Defining the peak of the “tolerable range” as 1,100 people per acre, the study says that a total attendance of about 430,000 over 10 days is the fairground’s capacity. Last year, attendance was almost 440,000.

To accommodate the growing crowds, the fair added one more day to its schedule this year for a total of 11 days. And if this year’s attendance continues to grow at the same rate, Bartosik said he will recommend that the fair study a 17-day schedule to reduce the crowds on individual days.

Attendance as of 6 p.m. Sunday was 41,618 people, up nearly 14% above last year’s attendance of 36,621 visitors on the first Sunday of the fair, according to fair spokeswoman Sue O’Shea.

Bartosik, who came to Orange County four years ago after managing fairs in Antelope Valley and DuQuoine, Ill., marveled recently at the fair’s performance. He called it “a bit staggering” and acknowledged that it has been a real learning experience for him.

“I’d say the ‘80s is when the fair graduated and came of age,” Bartosik said in his office, where the walls are covered with pennants from previous fairs, competition certificates and trophies. “There is never a day I come in here and don’t learn something new.

“So we’re going to start out for the 95th time and hopefully, once again, do it a little better than last year.”

RAISING FAIR REVENUES

The Orange County Fair has been among California’s most successful and is one of the few fair districts that turns a profit. The fair in recent years has gone from almost a break-even operation to one with a booming budget. The boom came after its administrations ranched into such new activities as horse racing at Los Alamitos Race Track, and after attendance soared.