Business View Magazine | July 2020

122 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2020 Ford Arena, Ford Exhibit Hall and Ford Midway opened in the Fall of 2003, with Ford Arena selling out its inaugural event. The 9,737-seat multi-purpose Ford Arena hosts concerts, rodeos, circuses, motor sports, ice shows and many other special events. Ford Exhibit Hall has 48,000 square feet of exhibit space and is attached to the Arena, offering a combined 83,000 square feet of space. The Exhibit Hall includes 8 individual meeting rooms, an 11,000 square foot lobby or pre-function space, concession stands and restrooms. Ford Midway is home to the YMBL-sponsored South Texas State Fair, which draws an attendance of over 400,000 each year. With 9 acres of paved midway, there is plenty of room for festivals, fairs, carnivals, and rodeos. Structures in Ford Midway include a 45,000 square foot practice arena, over 25,000 square feet of covered barn space and a dedicated parking area. There is also an RV park on the site, the Gulf Coast RV Resort, as well as eight meeting rooms and a regional visitors center. There are also 3,700 local hotel rooms in close proximity to accommodate event goers. Claudio Oliveira, Ford Park General Manager admits, “It’s a crowded field for us, in terms of the convention business. Obviously, we compete with multiple larger markets within the state of Texas, so we do try to find niche events. We’ve seen some success over the past three years on the trade show front, with everything from Home & Garden shows, to Boat/RV shows, to a Homeschool Expo, and Nutcracker Holiday Market. We try to find events for every genre in the complex. We host around 130 events annually across the five venues, collectively, here on site. That’s a mixture of concerts and family shows and all of the above.” Ford Park competes with Houston – a top five market in the country and slightly over an hour to the west of Beaumont. And Lake Charles, specifically with the casino model, is about 45 minutes to the east. Competition-wise, it’s the