A short distance from campus stand the William “Bill” Cherry Exposition Center. The building, which some students have never visited, serves the University community in ways many do not know.

Becky Ballard, director and lecturer of the William “Bill” Cherry Agricultural Exposition Center said the Expo Center is a hidden advantages of Murray State.

“Many students aren’t aware that the Expo Center is out here, let alone that it is affiliated with the University,” Ballard said.

Something Ballard hopes students and community members will get involved in during February is laser tag, which will hold its inaugural tournament Feb. 20-23.

Ballard said overall event attendance has been lower this year than in the past.

“Because we are the host in a lot of our events and we don’t sponsor the event ourselves, it’s difficult to control advertising and try to draw in a larger crowd,” she said.

The Mid America Arenacross, featuring stunts and races performed on dirt bikes and ATV’s, will take place at the Expo Center in early February.

The Expo Center also offers open riding nights to anyone who wants to work with their horses without being subjected to weather.

Ballard hopes to be able to market this service to the large number of horse owners in the nearby areas.

Feb. 14-15, the Expo Center will also host Bull Blowout featuring bull riding, barrel racing, calf scrambles and mutton busting for small children.

Ballard said one of her major goals as the newly installed director for the Expo Center is to generate the funds needed to perform a variety of maintenance tasks for the building. She said the page list of maintenence tasks is long and adds up to a considerable amount of money.

Ballard said this time of the year, right before the holidays until the middle of March, is what they call the busy season for the Expo Center.

She said she tries to book things in the cooler months so people can still enjoy entertainment usually found outdoors when the weather is too cold for those events to take place.

Said Ballard: “We’ve added some new events this year to try and compensate for the lack of attendance in other events at the expo center.”

Story by Alex Mahrenholz, Staff writer