Fair fights for share of shrinking pie

The days of record attendance remain a distant memory, but the Sonoma County Fair is still kicking and savoring its successes where it can find them.

A key factor will be how many people turn out for the annual two-week event that starts next Tuesday.

In the 1970s, total reported attendance for some years exceeded 400,000. The fair counts declined slightly before climbing back to more than 390,000 in 1991. This decade, the crowds haven't exceeded 340,000 and last year the count fell slightly below 320,000.

"Obviously, it's a tougher world out there for fairs than it was," said Les Perry, a Santa Rosa attorney and a fair board director for about 10 years.

One reason is that potential fairgoers have more choices than ever in terms of entertainment and attractions in the area, fair officials said. Another reason is that bettors no longer need to go to the track to wager on their favorite racehorse.

Also, many newcomers to the county don't have ties to the traditional summer venue off Highway 12 in southeast Santa Rosa.

"Our challenge is to get them to go there one time," Perry said.

The fair, with the theme "Star-Spangled Celebration," will keep its general admission unchanged this year at $7. The all-day carnival wristbands, good for unlimited rides Tuesdays through Thursdays, will increase to $25 from $20 last year, although a wristband coupon can be bought in advance for $15.

Despite the declines in attendance, the fair has distinguished itself in two areas that officials and others say bodes well for the future: the racetrack and the junior livestock auction.

The fair has a $3 million turf track, making it the only county fair in California with races on turf as well as dirt. Its racing revenues have stayed flat this decade, while many other fairs have seen declines. And it is poised to benefit in the next few years as some public and private tracks, including San Mateo's Bay Meadows, disappear.

"The fairs will begin to play a more and more important role in the future" of racing, said Tom Bachman of Petaluma, vice president of Thoroughbred Owners of California. In the coming shake-up "Santa Rosa will be a player."

In the livestock auction, the fair set a milestone last year by raising $1 million for 4-H and FFA youth who raised their livestock and sold the animals to the highest bidder. Fair officials said the record was set because bidders paid more per animal, not because there was a significant jump in the number of lambs, hogs, steers, rabbits and poultry at auction.

"That's a huge amount of money," said Stephen Chambers, executive director of the Western Fairs Association in Sacramento.

Most fairs in urban areas flounder in their efforts to gain auction supporters, Chambers said. He doubted the California State Fair raises even a quarter of the amount that Sonoma County does in its junior livestock sales.

Fair supporters said the community still sees a value in such a combination of offerings. And many who as youths learned to raise sheep or steers for auction want others to have the same chance.

"I think it really plants the seeds of understanding agriculture and the role that plants and animals play in everyone's life," said Lex McCorvey, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

This year, the fair has a new manager, Tawny Tesconi, a Sonoma County native who as a youth showed farm animals at the fair and who worked there during college before entering the fair business. She previously served as chief executive officer at Petaluma's Sonoma-Marin Fair, and she replaced Corey Oakley, who resigned last year after citing strained relations with the fair board.

Tesconi remains sunny about the fair's future, even expressing hope that a year of high gasoline prices and economic fears won't put a damper on the fair's outcome.

"I also think that people are going to be looking to stay closer to home," she said. "So I think this could be a good year for us."

The fair's total revenue climbed to $9.4 million last year from $8.4 million. But reserves, which exceeded $6 million five years ago, are expected to decline this year to $3.8 million.

The reason, Tesconi said, is largely due to capital investments, including the turf track and a massive $4.8 million solar electric system.

The 682,000-watt system, made possible partly by a $2.2 million grant from PG&E Co., was built to produce nearly half of the fair's electrical needs.

Tesconi said the turf and solar projects are good investments for the long term, and fair officials are working to eventually balance the budget without the use of reserves.

With the fair a week away, "everybody's been working hard" to prepare the festivities, said fair board President Ralph Bettinelli, a Petaluma dairy farmer. Still, he said, the outcome depends upon the fair-goers.

"If we don't have folks," Bettinelli said, "we don't have a fair."

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com.