When Joe and Harry Freeman donated this land to Bexar County in 1949, they did it with a purpose: to grow agriculture and give young Texans a platform to dream bigger. That promise still echoes through these grounds today.
The San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo began right here in the Freeman Coliseum, the same building that has hosted Elvis Presley, Lane Frost, and generations of families who have made this place a February tradition. More than that, this has always been the nucleus of a nonprofit built to develop the youth of Texas. That mission has not changed in 75 years; it has only gotten bigger.
A Nonprofit With a Purpose
At its core, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo is not a corporation or a private entity chasing profits. We are a nonprofit organization that reinvests every dollar back into the community. Our mission is simple but powerful: to develop the youth of Texas.
That development takes many forms. Sure, we award millions in scholarships, more than 12 million dollars in the last year alone, but our impact goes far beyond the numbers. We create opportunities for young people to grow through competition, leadership, and hands-on experience.
Every February, kids from across the state arrive here to showcase skills they have been refining all year: livestock judging, cooking, public speaking, robotics, and more. For them, the rodeo is a kind of Super Bowl, a moment to shine, compete, and be rewarded for their hard work.
That is what “developing youth” really means. It is about building confidence, character, and community, and using agriculture as the stage where those values come to life.
The Ripple Effect of One Month
Most San Antonians know the rodeo for its concerts, rides, and nightly competitions. What many do not realize is the scale of the economic engine it represents.
Every February, 1.2 million visitors come through our gates. Every single county in Texas is represented. On top of that, roughly 70 countries send competitors, vendors, and visitors.
An independent study found that the rodeo generates 330 million dollars in economic impact in one month alone.
To put that into perspective, when San Antonio hosts an NCAA Final Four, the impact is about 440 million dollars. The difference is that the Final Four comes here once every several years. The rodeo has been doing it every single year since 1949.
That consistency, year after year and decade after decade, is what makes us one of San Antonio’s most reliable drivers of tourism, hospitality, and small business success. Yet our ability to keep growing that impact depends on one simple thing: room.
Give Us Room
When I say “give us room,” I mean it literally. We have outgrown our current footprint.
The facilities we operate in today have served us well, but they are outdated. If we want to compete nationally and host year-round Western events, from cutting horse shows and training clinics to agricultural expos, we need facilities that can hold their own against our peers in cities like Fort Worth, Denver, and Houston.
The numbers speak for themselves. If we are able to expand our campus and operate on a year-round model, our projections show we can double our economic impact to more than 700 million dollars annually.
That means more scholarships, more youth programs, more visitors staying in local hotels and eating in local restaurants, and more momentum for the East Side of San Antonio, which has been our home since day one.
A District With an Identity
If you have been to the grounds outside of rodeo season, you know it is an asphalt jungle, functional but not inviting. Our vision is to change that.
We want to transform this place from a location into a destination, a district with restaurants, gathering spaces, and year-round activity. A place that welcomes both locals and visitors, not just for a few weeks in February, but 12 months a year.
The rodeo attracts a unique kind of visitor: competitors and families who travel long distances and stay several nights. They need places to eat, shop, and relax between events. Creating that environment means giving them, and our local businesses, a better experience.
This is about building a sense of place worthy of the legacy it represents. It is about creating something that future generations of San Antonians will look at and say, this is where tradition and progress meet.
Two Icons, One City
We cannot talk about the future of the rodeo without mentioning our longtime neighbors, the San Antonio Spurs.
Our partnership with the Spurs has been one of the best collaborations in our city’s history. When we joined forces to build what is now the Frost Bank Center, it elevated both organizations. Without that arena, the rodeo would not have grown into one of the top events in the nation.
Now both of us are ready for the next chapter.
The Spurs need a new home built for the future of sports and entertainment. We need the space and infrastructure to expand our mission and go year-round. Together, Propositions A and B on the November ballot make both possible and keep both icons thriving right here in San Antonio.
This is not about choosing one over the other. It is about recognizing that we have both outgrown the spaces that got us here, and that is a good thing. It means San Antonio’s success stories are too big to fit their old molds.
A Promise Worth Keeping
At the end of the day, everything we do, every concert, every calf show, every scholarship check, traces back to that 1949 promise: to grow agriculture and develop the youth of Texas.
We are proud of what we have accomplished with the community’s support. But if you have seen what we have done with what we have, imagine what we could do with a little more room.
That is what this next step is about. It is about expanding opportunity, not just for the rodeo, but for San Antonio’s families, students, and small businesses.
Since 1949, our community has backed us. We are asking for that same support again, one more time, so we can keep doing what we have always done: invest in our people, our youth, and the future of this city we all love.
November 4. Propositions A and B. Let’s build something that lasts.
THE VOICE:
Eleanora Morrison
Cody Davenport was born in Uvalde, Texas and graduated from Churchill High School in San Antonio. He earned a bachelors in Military History and a masters in Construction Management from Texas A&M University. Davenport has over 20 years of experience as a builder and developer in the Uvalde and Frio Canyon areas of Texas. In 2011, he began his career in the lodging and tourism industry after the purchase of Neal’s Lodges in Concan – a staple on the Frio River since 1926 Stemming from a lineage with agricultural ties, his family is rich in history not only in Texas but Central America. His father farms in Guatemala and his grandfather was a rancher in South Texas. His family is distinguished as one of Texas’ First Families and his mother is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Davenport is a sixth generation Texan. His passion for agriculture continued to flourish when he began volunteering with the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo in 1991. He served on multiple committees for the Rodeo including: Fajita Corral, Auction, Corral Club, Lamb and Ranch Rodeo. Davenport started and led the Bar-B-Que Cook-off & Festival for nine years, now an annual event that has grown exponentially. His leadership within the organization continued when appointed an Assistant Vice President (2005), a member of the Executive Committee (2009) and President in 2015. Davenport became the Executive Director & CEO of the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo in June 2018. His significant volunteer efforts led him to manage the business operations of the organization. He and his wife Yvonne (also an Aggie) have two children, Terrell and Seth, one attending Texas A&M University and the other a recent graduate.