LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan State Fair is literally history.
The last publicly funded state fair in Michigan took place in 2009, the same year then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm line-item vetoed a bill that would have subsidized the fair with taxpayer dollars. Although the fair had been subsidized a small amount – less than $150,000 – the fairgrounds needed about $17 million worth of upgrades.
Ultimately, it didn’t get them. At the same time, Granholm cut any funding to the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) State Fair.
In Detroit, the fairgrounds were eventually sold and a strip mall developed on part of the 157-acre site, featuring a Meijer grocery store, gas station and McDonald’s restaurant. The rest of the site, including the historic Dairy Cattle Building and Coliseum, still stands but is unused much of the time.
The Joe Dumars Fieldhouse is still used for basketball activities. The large parking lot became overgrown with weeds, though it has been used as a way station for new cars in recent years.
Such indignities notwithstanding, according to an article in the Feb. 13 Detroit Free Press, the strip mall – dubbed Gateway Marketplace – has been extremely successful and another plan is under way to redevelop the rest of the site, with plans that may leave some of the historically significant buildings standing. A movie theater is reportedly being contemplated for the Coliseum.
According to the article, a developer that includes former basketball player Earvin Johnson, bought the fairgrounds property in 2013 for an estimated $4.65 million from the Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority.
The strip mall has been successful in part because the property lies on the outer edge of the city, with suburbanites north of Detroit having to travel only a short distance there to shop. In short, that’s part of the story of how it ended for Detroit’s 104-year Michigan State Fair.
Moreover, there is no publicly funded state fair in Michigan today, nor anything that’s allowed to call itself the Michigan State Fair; however, there are numerous other regional, county and municipal fairs in the state that thrive.
The most prominent of the new fairs to come along is the Fifth Third Bank Michigan State Fair LLC. This fair started in 2012. It’s held in Novi, at the Suburban Collection Showplace, an indoor/outdoor venue in a town about 25 miles northwest of Detroit.
Fifth Third Bank State Fair Executive Director Steve Masters said the closure of the old Michigan State Fair had "everything to do with" the rise of the new fair in Novi. People who’d been involved with the state fair in Detroit were upset there was no state fair in Michigan, he explained.
In 2012 the fair in Novi took place for the first time, under the banner Great Lakes State Fair, because it hadn’t yet obtained permission to use the term "Michigan State Fair." The fair seems to be going well. Since 2013 there’s been a 100 percent increase in ag and home arts exhibits, with livestock exhibits increasing 82 percent during that same time frame, Masters said.
"We’re experiencing steady growth," he stated. "We also give $31,000 away in urban and rural agricultural scholarships. We’re also adding an equestrian component. We’re bringing the horses back, with two outdoor arenas."
Masters said the fairgrounds property is unique in that it’s air-conditioned. Much of the space is insulated from the weather, though not all of it. Masters added fair management gives one-third of fair proceeds to the Moslem Temple Shriners, an organization that contributed a great deal to the state fair for many years. The Shriners operate the Shriners Hospital for Children and Detroit’s Shrine Circus.
The livestock director of the new fair, L.C. Scramlin, largely echoed Masters’ comments. He has been involved in agriculture in Michigan for the past 50 years, as a sheep and cattle rancher, a farmer who raised cash crops and today as the general manager of the Oakland County Fair, in addition to his activities at the Fifth Third Bank State Fair.
He said the new fair is making "great strides."
"Once we get it set up, everybody’s thrilled," Scramlin said. "It’s a beautiful expo center. But it’s not like the old fair, where the cattle barn is always the cattle barn."
When prompted, Scramlin talked about what happened with the old state fair, saying he "didn’t agree with" Granholm’s decision to close it, but given the budget problems he said he could understand it. He said, for example, that the wiring in most of the buildings at the old fairgrounds was pre-World War II. He added attendance had dropped off as well, so that made canceling the old fair easier.
"People are extremely excited about the new fair. The number of people who stopped by last year and thanked us for putting on the event was just amazing," he noted.
The Fifth Third Bank State Fair will be held Sept. 4-7. More detailed information about it is available online at www. michiganstatefairllc.com
To find out more about fairs in the state this year, call the Michigan Assoc. of Fairs & Exhibitions at 517-317-4544, or go to its webpage at www.michiganfairs. org
