page_title: Montana ExpoPark
section_title: Management
hierarchical_section_title: Montana ExpoPark / Management
caption_attribution_description: English: Fairgrounds at Great Falls, Montana; Montana Expo Park, home of the Montana State Fair.
context_page_description: The Montana ExpoPark is a fairground located in the city of Great Falls, Montana, in the United States. The 133-acre grounds contain 35 buildings, a horse racing track, grandstands, and the Four Seasons Arena—multi-purpose sports and exhibition arena. The site is the host of the Montana State Fair as well as agricultural shows, rodeos, basketball tournaments, and funfairs. The six original structures of the fairgrounds were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
context_section_description: Cascade County owns the fairgrounds. By 1987, the fairgrounds were more than $600,000 in debt and Cascade County's management of the Fairgrounds and Four Seasons Arena was heavily criticized.  In 1988, Cascade County signed an agreement under which the city of Great Falls took over management of the fairgrounds and Four Seasons Arena. This agreement expired after 15 years, and on November 12, 2002, Cascade County signed a formal agreement to allow SMG World to take over management of the fairgrounds and arena.
  The cooling system under the practice ice at Four Seasons Arena failed in April 2003, and a consultant estimated the cost of repairs at $450,000. This was money the county did not have, and the practice ice closed permanently. Due to problems with the ice cooling system and the extensive turnaround time need to transform the arena from an ice rink to other uses, SMG proposed closing the main ice rink permanently in 2005. The rink stayed open for a short period each year thereafter, but the ice rink finally closed in 2006.
  Cascade County renewed its contract with SMG in 2007.  The new two-year contract paid SMG $84,413 a year (about $4,000 less than the 2002 contract), and included a payment of 15 percent of operating revenues of all income over $2.5 million.  SMG also received 7.5 percent of all concessions sales (down from 10 percent in the old contract). Cascade County also agreed to subsidize the fairgrounds and Four Seasons Arena by $750,000 a year, and pay the wages of all SMG employees operating the facilities.
  But in 2009, Cascade County declined to renew SMG's contract, concluding it had learned enough to manage the fairgrounds and arena on its own.
caption: Merchantile building
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