Calistoga Fairgrounds: Fall 2026 Leases and What's Ahead

Two calendars are running at the Calistoga Fairgrounds this fall. One is the town's usual run of autumn events on the grounds. The other is a pair of deadlines that will decide who runs the speedway and the Mt. St. Helena Golf Course, and on what terms. Both calendars will finish before the city has a master plan for the property. The commitments that shape the grounds for the next 25 years, or as many as 50, are being made through operator leases, and the fine print of the city's requests for proposals already lays out how those spaces will be shared with everyone else.

The Lawn Is Booked While the Leases Are Drafted

Fairgrounds Director Sheli Wright told the Fairgrounds Advisory Committee in September that every October weekend was booked for rentals and that RV park occupancy was rising through word of mouth and group bookings, Calistoga Currents reported. That busy event calendar now sits alongside the procurement schedule, often in the same weeks.

The city has not published a 2026 route for the tractor parade, and the bazaar's organizer and hours had not been posted as of mid-October. Interest from operators is real but still unnamed. At the Oct. 6 council meeting, City Manager Mitch Celaya said up to four developers had toured the golf course and about three had toured the speedway, according to Calistoga Currents.

What the Hunts Carried In on Trucks

The speedway request exists because a long run of racing just ended. Tommy Hunt announced that the Sept. 5–6 Louie Vermeil Classic would be the last one promoted by HMC Promotions, the Sacramento company he runs with his wife, Jeanie, their son, Tony, and their daughter, Laurie. The family has staged the race since reviving it in 2008. More than 3,000 people came on Saturday night by the promoter's count, Calistoga Currents reported. For the whole Labor Day weekend, the acting city manager reported about 10,000 visitors.

The same article shows what one race weekend costs. Hunt put the cost of staging the Classic at $250,000 to $275,000, with $125,000 of that in purse. Because the speedway is not an operating facility, everything arrives by truck. The restrooms have not worked in years, so Hunt rents 58 portable toilets. There is no fencing, so he brings it in. Last year he rebuilt the infrastructure under the grandstands.

"If you're only doing one event a year, it's very cost-prohibitive to do all that. It's not like a regular running facility." Laurie Hunt, to Calistoga Currents

The city's request asks the next operator to do more. The city released it on Sept. 4, the night Hunt said goodbye at the Hall of Fame dinner. It seeks an operator to "promote, operate, improve and maintain" racing, with at least three sprint car weekends a season, an American motorcycle flat-track weekend and one more city-approved motorized event. Bids will be judged on best overall value, not simply on the largest cash offer. Operations would begin Jan. 1, 2027, or on a negotiated date.

The city's answers from the Oct. 5 site tour show what a race weekend at the grounds looks like now. Parking has been $10 per car. In 2026 the fairgrounds required a four-night minimum for event campers, which the city said worked "better for everyone." Alcohol sales at the races belonged to the fairgrounds, which contracted with Native Sons of the Golden West, Calistoga Parlor 86, to hold the license. The city also said it is open to a new promoter's ideas on how camping and bar revenue get split.

The Golf Course Comes With the Town's Water

The Mt. St. Helena Golf Course has been closed since 2019. The city's page describes it as a Jack Fleming design that opened in 1952, with seven par-4 holes and two par-3s looking out at Mt. St. Helena and the Palisades. Running a golf course here also means taking on part of the city's water system.

City answers from the first golf site tour state that the course must accept reclaimed water, which costs nothing, and that an operator could not irrigate with city water. Fall and spring are usually when the city has to disperse it. The course has historically been the city's largest user of reclaimed water. The pond that holds it is fed by the treatment facility near Dunaweal Lane. The city also uses the center of the track and the Great Lawn for dispersal, which is why those areas stay "lawn green." Asked whether the course gets soggy in winter, the city answered, "It can be depending on the area."

The golf lease is also tied to the speedway's. The golf request reserves parking for 12 large fairgrounds events a year, and the fairgrounds has asked to use two fairways behind the pavilion for parking. The city told speedway bidders that it will have to build a working relationship between the golf and speedway operators to handle large-event parking. During two seasons of racing with the course closed, that was a smaller issue, the city noted. With a golf operator in place, a race weekend and a tee time could compete for the same ground.

Fifty Years for Some Parts, Twenty-Five for Others

The lease terms depend on the purchase. Calistoga bought the roughly 70-acre fairgrounds from Napa County in 2024 for $2 million. Under the sale terms, any lease longer than 25 years triggers the county's right of first refusal to buy the property back. At a Sept. 28 town hall in the Tubbs Building, Supervisor Anne Cottrell read from a letter by county CEO Ryan Alsop. In it, the county waived that right for leases of up to 50 years, but only for a golf course and an RV park, along with the buildings and amenities that support them, Calistoga Currents reported. The waiver does not cover the speedway.

Celaya explained the reasoning at the same event. Prospective developers are "willing to make investments in the property, but they need a return on investment, and that takes years." He said a buyback under the original terms would return the property to the county for the $2 million purchase price plus the city's investments. Any lease, he added, goes to the City Council. The city's Oct. 1 answer to golf bidders confirms the waiver for leases of up to 50 years for the golf course.

That leaves the parts of the grounds on different time horizons. A golf and RV operator could sign for half a century. A speedway operator, under the same deadlines, is limited to 25 years.

The Plan That Hasn't Been Written

Committee member David Gates, who describes himself as a master planner, put a figure on the stakes at the committee's September meeting, as Calistoga Currents recounted it. He said the golf course, raceway and RV park together make up roughly 78% of what he called a "72-acre campus." If the two requests produce operators the community accepts, he said, the committee's job shrinks to the remaining fifth of the grounds and how the pieces connect.

The committee still has not said whether the city should hire a planner first. On Sept. 24, for the second month in a row, it let the consultant question die without a motion, Calistoga Currents reported. Its report to the council offered three paths: a comprehensive plan in the "$600,000 range," a deferral to the next budget cycle, or a narrower consultant study. The report cited the city's 2025 resident survey, which ranked a master plan 10th at 2%, behind events and festivals at 45%, golf at 27%, the speedway at 18% and a fair at 17%. The survey firm's own presentation puts the first two figures at 43% and 25%. Member William Squire questioned whether the requests would draw any responses, saying they ask for "so much stuff."

The council has now asked for the committee's answer. At the Oct. 6 meeting, according to Calistoga Currents' council report, Councilmember Irais Lopez-Ortega asked the committee for formal recommendations: a prioritized list of uses such as golf, the speedway and RV spaces, a plan for soliciting master plan designs, and advice on running the grounds in the meantime. Councilmember Cooper asked the committee to present to the council, and Vice Mayor Lisa Gift asked that the presentation include the committee's approved work plan. Smaller projects are moving ahead in the meantime. A new RV park design subcommittee is drafting at least two improvement concepts with cost estimates for public review. A $4,000 Rotary grant will replace damaged wood, repaint and add privacy screening along North Oak Street at the Nolasco Fiesta Court.

The committee's next meeting, on Oct. 29, falls four days before speedway proposals are due on Nov. 2. It is at 6 p.m. in the Tucker Building, five days after the Trunk or Treat cars leave the Great Lawn.

At Spratling Real Estate, we watch how decisions about Calistoga's shared ground, from reclaimed water to event parking, play out on the properties around it. If you would like to talk about what the fairgrounds leases could mean near North Oak Street, we welcome you to request a confidential consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.