The 84th annual Poly Royal, Cal Poly Rodeo Team’s home rodeo, took place over the weekend in Spanos Stadium. This marked a significant return after Poly Royal had not been held at the stadium in seven years.
“It’s been an engineering issue for us to be in here but now the terraces are done, the Madden Center is nearing completion and we were given the okay to be back,” Anna Grace Durham, media manager of the Cal Poly Rodeo Team said.
Spanos Stadium expanded the audience seats to include over 39,000 people over the span of the weekend. Last year the audience capacity sat 9,000 people throughout the weekend at the Cotton Rosser Rodeo Complex.
Poly Royal is the largest college rodeo in America based on capacity and the Cal Poly Rodeo Team is ranked number one in the West Coast region, earning the nickname “Best in the West.”
The increased capacity gave the opportunity for students to attend who were previously unable to secure tickets. Last year, tickets for the student night sold out within 30 seconds and the following three nights sold out within two minutes, according to previous reporting by Mustang News.
“I tried my first and second year but it was nearly impossible to get tickets,” Emily Ramirez, Wine and Viticulture junior said.
“I’ve watched from the big hill the last couple of years. I thought because tickets are a little bit more accessible, I can finally get one this year, so I may as well,” Skyler Burnett, Aerospace Engineering senior said.
It took over 300 volunteers over the span of five days to transform the stadium into a rodeo arena, according to Durham.
“Building this arena took 24 hours straight through and some of these guys were here for up to 20 hours by themselves, you know, just working,” Logan Lindberg, Cal Poly Rodeo president said.
Cal Poly Rodeo partnered with ASI and SAFER to host the student night on Thursday, and featured surprise guests including world champion bull fighter Chance Moorman and the Flying Cowboyz.
After a successful weekend, preparation and planning for next year is already underway.