Cochrane Lions Event Centre mapping out the next 50 years

It may be up for the worst pun of the year, but Lions Club of Cochrane’s John Copithorne is definitely bullish on the future of the stampede grounds and the event centre in the middle of town.

One of Cochrane’s iconic locations, the Lions Event Centre, and the attached 15 acres, is going through a self-examination process to help chart its course through the next 50 years, as its lease agreement with the Town of Cochrane comes to a close later this year.

Lions Club spokesperson John Copithorne laid out the broad strokes of the kinds of issues being discussed in the negotiations with the Town at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Feb.3.

While there was no formal vote on anything, it was an opportunity to discuss some general direction with council, to make sure everyone was on the same page going forward.

Copithorne mentioned that in addition to the Stampede – which has become the highlight of the tourism calendar, other groups use the site as well, for things like karate, the butcher shop, and church groups, for a variety of events.

Copithorne said the Lions wanted to encourage more ‘non-stampede’ business activities.

“We’re trying to be an incubator space for these businesses to grow,” he said.

“We do not want to be in the retail business, let me get that straight, we want to help foster and get people up and running,” he said.

The area where they want to grow is in the land adjacent to the centre.

“The last one is a real, real important one, and one where we see lots of opportunity for growth, and that’s our recreation and park space," he added. "We have a large amount of land there, relatively speaking. We feel it’s underutilized, we feel we can do a better job of using that park space.” 

“We can have farmers markets, we can have all kinds of expos, we can have outdoor festivals, we can do all kinds of stuff throughout the year to utilize that outside property more efficiently,” Copithorne said.

Copithorne’s salesmanship skills as a well-known auctioneer were on full display throughout his presentation.

Mayor Jeff Genung referenced the fact that he was a little leery about raising his hand to ask a question because every time he remembered doing so in the same room as Copithorne, he “ended up buying something.”

“I’m not reachin’ and I’m not lyin’ that when we say we can do over a million dollars of direct or indirect economic impact to this community off that land, with the Lions Club and other community organizations," Genung said. "That land enables them to do. . . a million dollars is a conservative number.” 

“We have all kinds of room to grow and I think we can reach that $5 million expectation soon,” he added.

Events at the site currently bring in about $850,000 annually.

At this stage, ideas are being thrown around. There was no vote on any future direction.