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No Rodeo Champs in Springfield next Year
(IRN)-A national rodeo championship will be bypassing the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

Springfield has hosted four of the last ten years worth of National High School Finals Rodeo events. The Illinois Department of Agriculture, which runs the fairgrounds, has announced it's backing out of plans for 2012 and 2013.

"The general revenue portion of our budget is for lack of a better term what I would call the discretionary portion of our budget, if you will," said department spokesman Jeff Squibb. "And since the rodeo was last held here in calendar year 2007, which was fiscal year 2008, the department’s budget has been reduced 36%."

The 10 day event would have cost the department a million dollars a year to put on.

"The decision is certainly not a reflection of the rodeo's merits, but rather recognition of the state's fiscal condition," said Squibb.

Squibb says his department hopes to be able to fund the event in the future.

"It's regrettable, it's certainly not a decision that we were wanting to make, but the financial circumstances dictated that we do this," he said.

(Source: Illinois Radio Network)
01 29 11 by Newsroom
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