Business View Magazine - Feb 2024

and sometimes not at all, when world events, such as the two World Wars, and the Great Depression shut down the show. In 1954, city and county residents approved the construction of a new Taylor County Livestock & Exposition Center, which, when completed the following year, included a livestock barn and several smaller display buildings. In 1967, funding was approved for a new building on the site, the 5000-seat Coliseum, which, unlike the Center’s outdoor venues, would be able to provide heat for the spectators in the winter and cool air throughout the hot Texas summers. In 2016, a $55 million bond issue was passed for yet another round of updates, renovations, and expansions. ECONOMICS DRIVES RENOVATIONS Rochelle Johnson is the Expo Center’s Executive Vice President and General Manager. She started working at what is now a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, overseen by a Board of Directors, in 1984, and became GM in 2009. Like many of her forebears, she has a firm belief that Abilene’s strength still lies in its ranching and agriculture industries and that to attract “out of town” money, it must continue to produce and promote events that appeal to the country’s farming, livestock- raising, and horse-riding communities. “The equine and livestock part of the business brings people in from outside our community,” Johnson explains. “That drives economic impact – people staying in hotels, eating in our restaurants, buying gas, buying tires for their vehicles if necessary, going to grocery stores. Many of the events that we have are multi- day events so they are spending money throughout our community.And that’s newmoney coming in that we wouldn’t see otherwise.” “We generate approximately $30 million into our economy through facility rentals to businesses from out of town. And so, the economic impact from the agriculture part of the business is significant to Abilene. And we felt if we had state-of-the-art facilities, with better heating and air conditioning, 177 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 11, ISSUE 02 EXPO CENTER OF TAYLOR COUNTY