Draper Special Event Arena Committee Meeting - July 30, 2025
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Draper Special Event Arena Committee Meeting - July 30, 2025
The Special Event Arena Committee met on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, at 6:30 PM in the Administration Conference Room at Draper City Hall. The meeting included introductions of new members, approval of previous minutes, a staff liaison report on Draper Days, discussion of the upcoming Monster Truck event, and planning for future events. The committee also addressed volunteer recruitment, committee term expirations, and the potential combination of the arena committee with the welcome committee.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of June 4, 2025, Meeting Minutes: A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes as presented. The motion passed unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made as no members of the public were present.
Discussion Items
- New Member Introductions: Two new committee members were introduced: Mark Vincent (retired, serves on Traverse Ridge Special Service District Control Board, active in Draper Days) and Oliver Herrera Schuster (city council candidate, HOA president). Both expressed enthusiasm for volunteering and serving the community.
- City Staff Liaison Report – Draper Days 2025 Summary: David Wilkes, city staff liaison, presented preliminary attendance data. Overall attendance was 3% lower than 2024, attributed to Friday rain. Thursday attendance increased to 6,000 from 4,000. The car show had 280 cars (up from 225). Friday attendance was 9,000 (down from 15,000). Saturday attendance was up. Rodeo attendance was excellent but income was down due to the absence of a large sponsor. Sponsorship numbers increased from 35 to 50, but total income remained similar due to lack of large donors ($30,000 donor in 2024 vs. none in 2025). No arrests occurred during the event; one arrest for brandishing a weapon occurred after the event. Police presence was improved with 300% more cameras.
- Staff expressed a preference for fewer, larger sponsors to reduce administrative burden.
- Monster Truck Event – August 15-16, 2025: The event is scheduled for two nights. Volunteers are needed for ticket scanning, waiver signing, and ushering. Committee members were asked to recruit volunteers and to sign up themselves. Discussion included liability waivers and the need for volunteers to complete online forms and background checks. Committee members shared challenges in recruiting volunteers and noted that the whole committee should ideally attend all events.
- Potential Future Arena Events: The planned demolition derby for September 2025 failed to attract any proposals due to a late request for proposals (RFP). Staff will try again for next year. Ideas for future events (e.g., strongman games, Scottish games) were mentioned, but staff noted the city is not currently able to take on new events due to limited staff and budget. Any new event would need to be self-sustaining with a sponsor.
- Committee Combination Discussion: Oliver Herrera suggested combining the arena committee with the welcome committee to increase volunteer pool. Staff clarified that the current ordinance caps committees at 11 members, and any change would require city council approval. No formal action was taken.
Key Outcomes
- Monster Truck Event Volunteer Recruitment: Committee members will use the group text to coordinate volunteer sign-ups. Volunteers must complete the online city volunteer form and background check if working with children.
- Future Meeting Schedule: The committee agreed to skip the August meeting and hold the next meeting on September 24, 2025.
- Committee Term Expirations: Several members (Mark Vincent, Katie Smith, Oliver Herrera, Patrick Clay Clayson) have terms ending July 31, 2025. Staff will confirm their interest in continuing and forward to the city for approval.
- Rodeo Anniversary: The committee acknowledged the 25th anniversary of the Draper Rodeo. Staff will consider capturing the history of the arena and rodeo for the city website.
- Shirts and Vests: Committee members without shirts were asked to provide sizes to David Wilkes for ordering.
Meeting Transcript
Well, it would be best for us. I gave mine away. Remember that? Oh, or somebody else. Yeah, yeah. Because we've had we've had a couple of members have family issues and they had the password for the guest. The ones that's names or means and then before you can get somewhere in this. Yeah. And we'll sleep. And at the end of the meeting should that work. Did that work? Thank you. Wow. I know. It is. The guest for the guests. I was thinking of shirts with the other. So we can certainly just get a month's sizes that we can do in that work. So you want to get started right now? Well, I'd like to welcome me to the special events arena board meeting. We have two new members that are here. Mark Vincent and Oliver Herrera. Correct, yeah. And last week I was not here. I mean the last meeting. Uh I'd like to there's some new more people here. Maybe you could just take a minute and tell a little bit about yourself and and stuff and uh and we'll just do that right now. Okay. As Joey Bear said, it's like deja vu all over again. So uh yeah, I'm Mark Vinson. Uh my wife and I uh moved here about six years ago, uh after we retired. And uh I serve on the Traverse Ridge Special Service District Control Board. And uh my favorite volunteer role here in Draper is uh with the Draper Days and working the community stage. Uh although I haven't been invited back next year yet. So we're gonna we're gonna see. I'd like to formally invite you. And uh yeah, we live up in uh hidden can hidden canyon estates up near Suncrest and uh we like being here in Draper, we're retired, so uh we've got a little bit of time on our hands and we sort of wanted to help out with the community and that's what we're doing. And so my name is Oliver Herrera Schuster. Um I'm I'm one of the uh uh city council um candidates for the two year election. Um my wife and I moved here last year in June. Um we uh we were looking for a place to like settle roots down because we've been married for eleven years and we've been wanting to start a family. And for the last seven years we've been trying and trying, and I can happily say that looks like my wife might be getting pregnant in the next couple weeks, so I'm finally gonna be a dad, so that's really exciting. But we wanted to find a forever home or a family home. And Draper was just the city. We fell in love with it with people with like just the community. Um became HOA president and doing well in that in my community. I live over by those homes that yeah, um you know what that Chick-fil-A and McDonald's is really close in here? Those homes right behind that. Oh yeah. Yeah, the old stuff yeah, right next to us, obviously.
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