{"id":183989,"date":"2026-02-28T03:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T03:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/183989\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T03:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T03:35:08","slug":"buffalo-springs-lake-raises-gate-fees-to-pay-for-improvements-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/183989\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Springs Lake raises gate fees to pay for improvements for 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Buffalo Springs Lake has raised its daily adult admission to $20 for the 2026 season, one year after the lake lowered its gate fees for the first time in its history.<\/p>\n

Manager Greg Thornton said the board dropped prices from $16 to $12 last year<\/a>, after determining the lake was charging a premium price without delivering a premium experience. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was a half million to $600,000 deficit. This year, we\u2019re hoping to just make a little bit and give the people of Lubbock something really special,\u201d Thornton said.<\/p>\n

Thornton said a range of improvements are currently in progress at the lake, including a marina facelift, new volleyball courts, new boat slips, reclaimed shorelines, rebuilt nature trails, cleaned beaches with new sand, and new pavilions. He said some of the work addresses issues that have gone unresolved for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lived out here since I was five years old and some of the things we\u2019re fixing today in 2026 have needed fixing since I was five years old,\u201d Thornton said.<\/p>\n

He said partners like Gene Messer Ford and Pollard Friendly Ford have contributed to the effort, each sponsoring a new pavilion.<\/p>\n

Under the new fee structure, each adult admission covers two children ages 15 and under at no charge.<\/p>\n

\"20262026 Buffalo Springs Lake gate fees(KCBD)<\/p>\n

Thornton said the price increase is tied directly to operational costs, including staffing and equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase to $20 is just something that had to happen for us to pay people a decent salary, to give them good equipment, to have events, to have everybody safe,\u201d Thornton said. \u201cWe have four police officers out here full time, 7\/24, 365. That\u2019s not cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he hopes the higher admission price will not deter visitors. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe value is there. If I had a choice between going to the movies and coming out here and fishing with my kids, I\u2019m going to come out here,\u201d Thornton said. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to do the best we can for the people that do pay the $20.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Buffalo Springs Lake has raised its daily adult admission to $20 for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[13723,73611,66477,5294,7990,11351,15431,11209,2444,64,541,4563,66220,73612,2419,16763,988,18367,168,170,169,13443,985,73615,73614,35380,73609,69054,2351,73610,9738,73613,2555,23922,3731,13655],"class_list":{"0":"post-183989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-13723","9":"tag-admission","10":"tag-adult","11":"tag-beach","12":"tag-brittany-crittenden","13":"tag-buffalo","14":"tag-costs","15":"tag-daily","16":"tag-equipment","17":"tag-events","18":"tag-family","19":"tag-fees","20":"tag-gate","21":"tag-greg-thornton","22":"tag-history","23":"tag-improvements","24":"tag-kids","25":"tag-lake","26":"tag-lubbock","27":"tag-lubbock-headlines","28":"tag-lubbock-news","29":"tag-marina","30":"tag-nature-trails","31":"tag-operational","32":"tag-pavilion","33":"tag-pay","34":"tag-raised","35":"tag-raises","36":"tag-renovations","37":"tag-rise","38":"tag-season","39":"tag-shoreline","40":"tag-springs","41":"tag-staffing","42":"tag-summer","43":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}