Ag Expo Answers “Three-Day” Myth with Record Setting 2025
Steve Hallstrom
Special to The Farmer
It was the question that many in McKenzie County were asking when the county’s Ag Expo was being built - Why spend millions on a facility that only gets used three days a year for the county fair?
Fast forward to January 6th, during a meeting of the McKenzie County Board of Commissioners, and Ag Expo Director Chris Kubal didn’t just address that question - he countered the narrative with a mountain of data, record-breaking attendance figures, and a prestigious national award that has put Watford City on the professional rodeo map.
Kubal, who has steered the 112,000-square-foot facility since it opened its doors 30 months ago, presented a 2025 recap that painted a picture of a regional destination rather than a seasonal fairground.
“We are just over 30 months of doors open out there. Last year, we had 220 events that spanned across 249 event days. We only had two full weekends last year that nobody had to come in and open doors out of 52. And 24 of those events were put on by the Expo Foundation.”
The “pipe dream” of the Ag Expo first took shape in 2019. At the time, Kubal served as the vice president of the McKenzie County Fair Board. The County Board sought to replace the aging, cramped fairgrounds, and what resulted was a 212-acre campus that has become a major hub of activity in western North Dakota.
Kubal explained to the board that the Expo isn’t just hosting events - it’s creating them.
“The only other places I’ve talked to, I think, was down in Arizona, where they actually put on 10,” Kubal noted regarding the foundation-led events. “Otherwise, these other facilities are only putting on 1, 2, 3, 4 of their own events. So (laughs) there’s probably a reason why we’ve got burnout out there. We’re doing it to ourself. And starting January 1st, we actually took on another oil field company that all their meetings will be held with us now this year. So, I mean, they’re all still slowly coming over this way and moving to Watford.”
Kubal said that according to Placer.ai data, the Expo saw nearly 60,000 visitors in 2025. While the County Fair remains the “biggest attraction” with over 15,000 attendees, the facility now ranks 15th out of 107 attraction venues in North Dakota - placing it in the same league, Kubal says, as the FargoDome and the Medora Musical.
Placer.ai is a location intelligence and foot traffic analytics platform. It essentially serves as “Google Analytics” for the physical world, providing businesses and government agencies with detailed data on how people interact with physical locations like retail stores, shopping centers, stadiums, and public parks.
Perhaps most significantly for the local economy, 46 percent of the people coming to the Ag Expo are coming from outside McKenzie County.
“I didn’t add it up, but I think it was, like, even 13 to 14 percent, roughly, that are actually from out of the state coming to us now. So, it’s kind of cool to see that people from around the region are actually taking us in. Our last weekend, we just got numbers pulled, and with Leather and Lace (The Ag Expo’s annual New Year’s Eve rodeo event), I want to say there was close to 60 or 70 people out of the Minot area that came down.”
Kubal said Leather and Lace filled every room at The Watford hotel and pushed overflow to the Roosevelt Inn. “We’re actually filling motels at these events now, and we’re filling them full,” he added.
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