Departing CEO: The future is now at the National Western Stock Show

When Paul Andrews saddled up and took the reins at the National Western Stock Show and Complex in November 2010, he was more familiar with the bright lights of the NBA and the NHL than the dusty arenas for cows and horses.

“My kids and grandkids had grown up going to Nuggets and Avalanche games their entire lives,” said Andrews, who plans to retire as president and CEO after the upcoming National Western Stock Show, Jan. 11-26, 2025. “They weren’t quite sure what to think about this rodeo stuff.”

As the former executive vice president for Denver’s Kroenke Sports Enterprises, Andrews led the parent company of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Rapids — as well as Ball Arena and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, which he’d helped develop.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t his first rodeo. Andrews’ grandfather, Paul Pattridge, showed champion cattle at the National Western Stock Show for 44 years. A famous American Polled Hereford Cattle producer with a 5,500-acre ranch north of Golden, he sat on the Stock Show board and immersed Andrews in a rich culture that sparked some of his earliest memories.

That familiarity helped him lead the Stock Show through some of the hardest challenges in its 118-year history, including the COVID pandemic, which scuttled the 2021 event. That was only the second time it had been canceled since 1906; the other was in 1915 due to a “hoof and mouth” disease epidemic among the animals.

Most urgent has been the drive to remake the overall complex, located around Humboldt Street and 47th Avenue, with new and upgraded buildings that will keep up with attendance growth, technological innovation and diverse revenue sources. Still under construction, it’s a multi-pronged, $1 billion project that’s expected to be wrangled in time for the January 2026 show.

Andrews did his part with the $150 million fundraising campaign, Honoring the Legacy, which will carry over to a predecessor likely to be named in summer 2025. It’s seen an enthusiastic response thanks to director Angela Lieurance and chairman Pete Coors (the Stock Show’s 2011 Citizen of the West), both of them well connected to Denver’s business and political worlds.

“I felt like the grand opening of the new buildings would be a good time to transition to a new CEO,” Andrews said. “Then they can start their career with a clean slate of buildings, no company debt, and a business model that’s sustainable.”

Within about a year of his start, Andrews had already wiped out the National Western Center’s $10 million debt and created positive cash flow. Despite drops in attendance during the COVID era, it bolted past 700,000 during the 16-day event in January 2024, with revenues “rising accordingly,” according to the Stock Show.

The tradition of it

Andrews is a hands-on CEO, and he typically strolls the grounds of the complex throughout the days that the stock show is in town. He likes to talk to as many people as he can and to make sure that events are going as smoothly as possible.

“I love the tradition of it,” he said, noting that last year’s stock show included 29 rodeos and 800 vendors. “We’re one of the top four rodeos in the world, and most shows are sold out. We have a livestock show you won’t see anywhere else. It’s absolutely historic.”

“From one minute to the next, Paul could be talking to a ranch hand, a top executive, or a political leader,” said Pat Grant, former National Western Center CEO, in a statement. “He worked directly with the mayor’s office and Denver City Council on the passage of ballot measure 2C in 2015 to fund the National Western Center, and also worked with the Colorado Legislature in 2021 during the pandemic to secure funding for operations and was successful on both counts.”

Andrews, who will still consult with the Stock Show after changing hats, is passionate about making it the end-all, be-all Western event. His mission is to grow the global brand into something that attracts not only support for its scholarships, art exhibitions, and livestock heritage, but the average European tourist looking for a taste of authentic western history and culture.

That’s ever-more likely. The number of National Western Complex’s year-round bookings outside of the Stock Show have more than doubled under Andrews, to 250 events. A 2024 Common Sense Institute report put the annual regional economic impact of the Stock Show at $171 million. That’s more than all of the home games for the University of Colorado Buffaloes, more than the NBA finals for the Denver Nuggets, and more than twice the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

“Paul’s dedication, energy, and business acumen have been of incalculable value to the National Western’s recent successes,” said Doug Jones, chairman of the Western Stock Show Association board, in a statement. “His successor has some big boots to fill.”

Andrews, however, constantly says “we” instead of “me.” A team made all this, he said, not just one person.

“You expose people to this and they very quickly embrace it,” he said. “But what it is, it’s is America at its finest. We’re bringing urban and rural together. We’re putting politics aside so we can enjoy each others’ company. To me that’s as American as it gets.”

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