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RodeoHouston President Joel Cowley says they had over 2.4 million visitors during their three-week run at NRG Park. That's RodeoHouston's third-largest attendance, just behind 2014 and 2015.
Cowley says in both of those years they had two weeks of Spring Break. This year, there was only one. There were also a few days where they got hit with some heavy rain but Cowley says that really didn't hold things down.
"As many have learned, the world's largest livestock show and the world's largest rodeo are both indoors," Cowley explains. "So there's still plenty to do out here even when it rains."
There were about 31,000 entries for the livestock competitions and horse shows. Cowley says some of the junior livestock auctions brought record-setting bids.
"Certainly with oil prices being where it is and what oil and gas mean to the Houston economy, we were overwhelmed with the support of our auction buyers," says Cowley. "And our auctions preliminarily look like they're going to be up over last year's."
Cowley says this year RodeoHouston will contribute close to $26 million for scholarships and other educational activities.