Indoor arena to be built
at Red Rock Park

The rodeo arena at Red Rock Prk will soon be joined by an indoor facility. [photo by Brian Leddy / Independent]

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — Red Rock Park will be getting a new indoor arena. Unlike the current outdoor arena that hosts the city’s rodeos and Inter-tribal Ceremonial, the new arena can be used year-round.

“It’s something the schools can use in the wintertime,” Mayor Harry Mendoza said.

The costs are expected to run $5 million to $7 million. The architects for the project, Wilson and Company, are currently drawing up plans for the facility. Until those are complete, exact figures for construction and annual operational costs are hard to come by, the mayor said.

The arena will be about 69,000 square feet and have 5,000 permanent seats with space for another 3,000 temporary seats.

The mayor hopes the new venue will attract a wide variety of events, including rodeos, concerts, horse shows, and car shows. These would be mostly winter events, so the park continues to draw tourism revenue in the off-season months.

“It’s an all-purpose arena,” the mayor said.

He said that the facility would be especially good for team roping events.

“Team roping is real popular in this area,” he said.
In order to be successful, the mayor said that a full-time promoter would have to be hired for the arena once it’s ready to hold events at the Churchrock facility.

“It’s something we’d have to promote, and we’d have to hire a professional to run the arena,” he said.