CHEYENNE — There’s always been something a little bit sentimental about the south end of the Cheyenne Frontier Days arena.
The historic Chute 9 at Frontier Park has long been known as the best seat in the arena because it held court over some of the most intense timed-event rodeo action in the world.
To the casual onlooker watching it get torn down last August, it might have appeared to be little more than a weathered wooden box, but it has always been sacred ground to the cowboys and volunteers working there.
Now the humble wooden box has been reborn as a shiny, steel-spanned, multi-level VIP-ready cathedral to rodeo. The people who know it best say the new Chute 9 still has the same heart, and there’s a lot more polish now.
“It’s always been the best seat in the house,” longtime volunteer Kimberly Chernogorec told Cowboy State Daily.
And, in her opinion, it still is.
Chernogorec has spent her entire 30-year CFD Committee career at Chute 9, starting as its first female “toe” — one of the kids under the chutes who help sort and push the cattle through — back in 1997.
“It was a little bittersweet,” she admitted. “You always want a bigger, better thing. And then the bigger, better thing happens, and you’re like, ‘Well, now I miss the old one.’”
From Worn-Out Wood To Big-League Build
The old Chute 9 was, in frank terms, past its prime.
“It was not structurally sound,” Cheyenne Frontier Days CEO Tom Hirsig told Cowboy State Daily. “The Chute 9 that we had, the kind of square box up over the rope and chutes, had far outlived its life expectancy. So we had to do something.”
Fixing it was going to be a huge challenge, but a comprehensive look at long-range needs suggested a huge opportunity.
“One of the things that we recognize is the need for VIP experiences,” Hirsig said. “Those are the fastest things that go, if there’s some sort of a VIP area.”
Cheyenne Frontier Days has a substantial amount of deferred maintenance to handle, and much of it doesn’t directly generate revenue. An expanded VIP seating area, however, will generate revenue and can help pay for the improvements Frontier Park needs.
When Chute 9 is unveiled this year, the $8 million project will offer a full-blown experience that seats around 450 people in a mix of VIP boxes and individual seats. The previous structure had a rooftop terrace area for a VIP experience that could only hold about 70.
The first two levels of the new Chute 9 are boxes, most holding 22 to 30 people, with food and beer service. Above that, a third level of individual seating gives solo rodeo fans and small groups a chance to buy into the same elevated view, without needing to fill an entire box.
“Once you go up there, it’s going to be hard to go back to sitting in the stands,” Hirsig said. “It’s going to be one of the most incredible outdoor rodeo experiences anywhere in the country. I haven’t seen anything like this before. It’s going to be top-shelf stuff to come watch the rodeo.”
View from the timer's box in the old Chute 9 at Frontier Park. (Cheyenne Frontier Days Photo) 
Kids — called "toes" — sit on the old wooden rails at Chute 9 at Frontier Park. (Cheyenne Frontier Days Photo) 
One of the first jobs every Cheyenne Frontier Days season for volunteer Kimberly Chernogorec was unboarding the windows over Chute 9. (Cheyenne Frontier Days Photo) 
The last group photo taken in front of the old Chute 9 at Frontier Park. (Cheyenne Frontier Days Photo)
Under The Chute: Celebrities, Mud, Stories
To volunteers like Chernogorec, Chute 9 isn’t just a new build. It’s a name that has weight. It’s a legend.
She still remembers the time — and her dad still tells the story — when Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were climbing the back stairs to the old VIP deck. Faith was dressed head-to-toe in white.
“At the same time she was walking up the stairs, my dad was standing there and I pushed a steer forward,” Chernogorec recalled. “And it splashed her with mud and muck. Dad thought it was extraordinarily funny.”
Hill, not so much. But “such is wearing white to a rodeo,” Chernogorec said with a chuckle.
Chernogorec also remembers when Reba McEntire showed up at Chute 9 to watch her brother, a steer roper.
“She was just sitting down on the bleachers underneath the chute to watch her brother rope,” Chernogorec said. “And all of us kids kind of got wind she was around and we found that she went into the porta potty.”
When McEntire opened the door, she was greeted by a lineup of 10 “toes” hoping to get her autograph.
Chernogorec met many celebrities while working under Chute 9, she added.
“If a performer was like a rodeo type person, they generally would come under Chute 9 and we would get to meet them and just hang out,” she said.
But to Chernogorec, the real celebrities weren’t the stars who showed up at Chute 9. It was the older cowboys who would drift in to watch and sometimes talk about life.
“If you can get them to talk, they’ll tell you everything that they ever did or everything that they ever knew,” she said. “It’s really, really cool. It’s just amazing to hear the history, and it’s a lot of fun to be able to continue the history and the legacy from their end.”
How Chute 9 Became A Legend
Chute 9 has become an enduring legend. At first, its name was just because the arena had eight bucking chutes, so the cowboys and crew took to calling the unnumbered timed event chute, tucked at the south end, Chute 9.
Eventually Cheyenne Frontier Days expanded to 10 bucking chutes, but no one wanted to lose the name Chute 9 for the timed events. There was just something about it.
So, leadership made a deliberate decision not to call any of the bucking chutes No. 9. Instead, they gave the two new bucking chutes the numerals zero and double zero, leaving the legendary Chute 9 an enduring place in CFD history.
It was about protecting tradition, Hirsig said.
“It’s always been referred to as Chute 9 ever since I can remember,” he said. “It’s got a huge tradition.”
For all the glitz and glamour of the new build — stadium seating, bar service, television mounts so you never miss a second of the action — the basic layout for Chute 9 remains the same, Chernogorec said. That honors tradition and felt good to her during Thursday’s steer roping.
“Instead of wooden chutes, we have steel chutes,” she said. “It feels new and it’s not wooden slide gates anymore, but actual spring-loaded gates and stuff. But it still functions the way it always functioned. It’s just new.”
Underneath the chute, there will still be an army of 20 or so kids and 20 or so adults, sorting the cattle and opening and closing the gates, ensuring the whole timed-event machine runs as smoothly as it ever did.
To Chernogorec, under Chute 9 is the best seat in the house.
“You can see everything,” she said. “And there’s something about standing at the south end of the arena — when our arena is the largest outdoor arena in the world — and you stand at the south side and look to the north end and just see the expanse and how truly large our arena is.”
Everyone, she added, should absolutely get a seat in the new Chute 9 VIP areas if they have the chance at least once.
The bet Hirsig is making is that once won’t be enough. That’s the hope for building the future of the event for generations to come.
“After people see this and experience it, I think it’s going to be tough to get a ticket,” he said.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
