The Cottonwood City Council discussed ideas for improving Thunder Valley Rally 2026 at its work session on Feb. 10.
Parks, Recreation and Library Director Jak Teel gave a presentation on TVR’s 2025 performance, the community input process and possible improvements for this year’s event. TVR is hosted annually by the city of Cottonwood and put on by the Parks and Recreation department.
Teel solicits community input primarily from the Thunder Valley Rally Committee members, which is made up partners from the motorcycle industry, business owners and community members. They report to Teel on what they see happening in the industry who then brings this information to the city’s executive leadership.
For the 2025 event, the city sold a total of 3,380 tickets and there were 32 vendors and 12 sponsors. The total revenues added up to $114,943.88 while the hard cost of materials and supplies, excluding staff time, totaled $159,246.22 for a net program cost of $44,302.34.
Teel likened this net cost to an investment, mentioning a loss of trust in the past event due to the possibility of the city transitioning away from motorcycles.
At a council meeting in March 2024, the council had discussed a rebranding of TVR and other options to recover costs. This discussion resulted in a loss of long term sponsors and many vendors.
The most revenue came in from ticket sales, followed by cash sponsorships, bar sales, vendor fees and merchandise. In-kind sponsorships totaling $19,000 were not included in revenue.
The largest expense was the musical entertainment, followed by production [stage, lighting and sound]. Teel emphasized that those two items alone put expenses over $100,000.
Comparing the event over the past five years, there is a drop-off in revenue from $142,472.58 in 2023 to $112,507.07 in 2024. Revenue from 2025 totaled $114,943.88. Despite this, Teel said there was a bounceback in 2025 following the 2024 event. In 2024, there were 9,600 visits by 7,600 visitors which increased to 13,100 visits by 10,700 visitors in 2025.
Teel said that while there was only a slight increase in income from 2024 to 2025, the overall event was more successful. The number of visitors actually increased but the city had lowered the cost per ticket. The year prior, the city had priced themselves out of their local market but reduced that cost again in 2025 which brought in more visitors.
Teel shared statistics on where people go prior to the event and after. The majority of visitors arrive from home [25.3%] and return to home [26.3%] following the event. After the event, 7.7% of visitors go to Main Stage, followed by Circle K at 6.3%.
Teel said the people that attend Thunder Valley Rally spend money in the community and usually at a higher level of spending than a regular tourist. He added that the hotels are always full.
Over the course of the event, around 3,500 visitors went to the Cottonwood Riverfront Park disc golf course, followed by the Riverfront softball fields at 3,000 visits. Circle K reportedly received a significant amount of traffic, followed by Walmart.
Teel shared potential options for improving the event. Staff had been under the impression that if they put a national act on Friday, then people would stay that night and book hotels, but their data says that Friday has been historically weak. Staff is considering the possibility of putting both national acts on Saturday night. Staff are also looking to see what vendors want, what activities are helpful for them, what hours of capacity, etc.
Teel said they want to continue to build local support.
“If we can get our community to buy in and support this program, that would go a long way to the cost recovery and sustainability of this program,” Teel said.
Councilman Chris Dowell suggested pulling in more of the local community on Friday by having local bands play that night, with both national acts on Saturday
