California Rodeo Salinas pours in more than $10 million dollars to local businesses

The professional bull riding event sold out Wednesday night and officials said pre-sale tickets to the California Rodeo Salinas are on track to sell more than last year.

“I believe we have people that bought tickets that are coming from Germany,” said Mandy Linquist , Marketing Manager for California Rodeo Salinas. “We get people, if they’re on their summer vacation, in California they wanna make a stop at the California Rodeo.”

Event coordinators said more than 60,000 people are expected to come to the Rodeo this year, having a big economic impact.

“We had CSUMB do an updated study,” said Linquist . “They found that just the five days of events that we have going on right now generate over $11 million dollars of economic activity in the city of Salinas.”

“We spend up to $100 just for one meal, for dinner alone,” said Andrea Taylor of Santa Maria.

“I have no problem going to a place if they have good food,” said Robert R Taylor from Santa Maria.

Taquitos Mexican Restaurant is right across the street from the Salinas Sports Complex. They’re expecting a profitable week and even hired extra staff to handle crowds.

“This is a family restaurant so we see a lot of families that come pretty much every year to try the food,” said Sandra Pierce of Taquitos Mexican Restaurant.

Businesses said the rodeo also helps give more exposure to restaurants and shops outside of downtown.

“We’re in a perfect location because we’re on Main Street and then the freeway is really close by,” said Pierce.

Local nonprofits said they can also raise more money. The rodeo lets them set up vending activities on site.

“We are trying to raise money to take the kids to Mexico for an international tour,” said Rosa Mederos with Gil Basketball Academy. “There are some kids who have never been out of Salinas and this is gonna be their first opportunity to be out of the Salinas area.”