Sean C. Morgan
Final financial figures for the 2000 Oregon Jamboree are not available yet, Event Manager Peter LaPonte told the Sweet Home Economic Development Group Board of Directors Thursday night.
There are still a number of expenses to be made, LaPonte said. “I just hate to put those figures out because we haven’t had time to review them.”
Cautioning that the figures are far from final, he did tell the SHEDG board that the Jamboree may have made between $30,000 and $50,000 on this year’s event.
Jamboree and SHEDG officials counted tickets last week. On Friday, with performances by Charlie Daniels Band and Dwight Yoakam, attendance was 5,097. Saturday’s performances by Chely Wright, Kenny Chessney and Wynonna had about 6,200 fans. Sunday’s performances by Terri Clark and Sawyer Brown drew some 5,600 spectators.
In addition to those, there about 400 hundred volunteers and couple of hundred vendors.
The Jamboree also sold more than 800 camp sites this year around town, LaPonte said.
The attendance figures are similar to last year’s, but sunny weather helped push up soda and beer sales, SHEDG Director Gary Rasmussen said.
Cliff Oden, a member of SHEDG, said he kept hearing how the event keeps getting better every year.
“Peter, and the whole management team, is to be credited for a successful event,” Oden said as he led an applause.
“I think it was a successful event,” LaPonte said. “Certainly, being there, you saw that.”
With regard to field repair, an issue of contention between School District 55 and the Oregon Jamboree in recent years, “I think we achieved what we set out to do,” Oden said. “Basically, Dr. (Tom) Cook came out, and there was no major damage with fields because of stopped watering.”
Oden expected Thursday evening to have field repairs wrapped up by the next day, one day ahead of schedule. School District 55 planned on starting to use the fields by Aug. 21.
The Jamboree and school district formed a committee last year after serious disagreement on responsibility for field repair. The committee turned to Dr. Tom Cook of Oregon State University as a third party to assist in minimizing damage and assign responsibility for field repairs.
Among the damage prevention measures this year was the extension of the stage to allow equipment trucks to back up to the stage without driving on the grass.
“Everybody just saw eye to eye” on the field repairs, Oden said. “And you can just forget about it.”
The field repairs will cost the Jamboree some funding, but the amount was not yet available.