Events and Attractions
Texas Motor Speedway lands outdoor expo
Ducks Unlimited will hold a three-day event at the track starting in 2020 that will feature everything from archery to ranching
The Ducks Unlimited Expo will use all of Texas Motor Speedway’s sprawling 1,500 acres.getty images
Wetlands conservation group Ducks Unlimited will hold a new outdoor expo at Texas Motor Speedway, continuing the trend of tracks landing major non-racing events to diversify revenue streams.
The deal between the Memphis-based nonprofit and TMS will create the three-day Ducks Unlimited Expo starting in 2020 and running there at least two additional years in 2021 and 2022. Financial terms were not released, but Ducks Unlimited will pay a rental fee to TMS and share part of the event’s sales revenue. TMS will help promote and sell the event with its own assets, and Ducks Unlimited will be purchasing activation assets at TMS for the track’s three major race weekends annually.
TMS, owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc., is located in Fort Worth. Ducks Unlimited was looking for a new place to hold the event after last holding a similar-but-smaller expo in Oshkosh, Wis., in 2007. Ducks Unlimited was focused on holding the event somewhere in Texas in part because that state and several nearby states over index in outdoor enthusiasts and Ducks Unlimited members.
“When people think about us, they think about three event weekends, but we host more than 900 events on an annual basis,” said Jason Wonderly, vice president of sales for TMS. “We’ve challenged ourselves to think about TMS in a more diversified way.”
The outdoor festival will have 12 “villages” that will use all of TMS’s 1,500 acres, with events and activities including archery, biking, camping, conservation, dogs, fishing/boating, golf, land management, off-road trucking, shooting and ranching.
Tracks have started routinely landing and hosting major events across sports and entertainment, with another notable recent win being Watkins Glen International landing the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival. Other examples include Bristol Motor Speedway’s Battle at Bristol college football game and several major concerts including Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Electric Daisy Carnival and Dover International Speedway’s Firefly Festival.
Steve Pacheco, a former marketing executive at FedEx, joined Ducks Unlimited as CMO in May last year as the nonprofit works to raise brand awareness. The organization has more than 700,000 members, including 78,000 across Texas and nearby states Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
The expo will be open to the public but will include perks for Ducks Unlimited members. Admission is $10 for adults, while kids age 12 and under are free. Pacheco expects tens of thousands of attendees over the course of the three-day event.
“More and more, people are craving experiences over things, and our members are no different,” Pacheco said.
