Ask five people on Main Street when The Sport is finally reopening and you will get five different summers. 2024. Definitely 2024. No, wait, someone heard June. Someone else swears the new owner walked away entirely. The building has been promising a comeback for so long that half the town has stopped believing it, which is exactly why the sight of a 7,000-pound grease trap going into the ground during a recent night shift is worth paying attention to. That is not a rumor. That is concrete and steel, installed by a crew working two shifts to hit a deadline, according to reporting from the Livingston Enterprise in December 2025.
Here is the short version of how a Main Street address with more than a century of history became the most re-promised reopening in Park County.
The building at 114 S Main St first opened as a pub called The Sport in 1903. Livingston-based realtor and historian Bruce Lay has described its early decades bluntly, calling it a smoke-filled card room and burger-grilling hangout for Livingston men until 1968. From there it changed hands and purposes repeatedly over the following decades, most recently operating as Elemental Kitchen before going dark in late 2023. In February 2024, Livingston attorney Karl Knuchel sold the building and its assets, including a stash of preserved taxidermy, to an entity called Massacre Hill LLC for less than $1 million. The property had been listed at $795,000. Chef Danny Rice relocated from Scottsdale with plans for a June 2024 opening built around a casual lunch menu, upscale dinners, and Sunday brunch.
That opening did not happen. As of the Enterprise's December 2025 story, the space was still under construction, now aiming for summer 2026.
Why the address has a reputation
Locals have a word for buildings like this one: cursed. It is only half a joke. Bruce Lay's line about the building's rowdy pre-1968 history gets repeated because it explains something real, that this particular storefront has swallowed ambitious plans before and spit most of them back out. A century-plus of ownership turnover will do that to a place's reputation, fair or not.
What makes this round different is not another announcement. It is the physical evidence that someone is actually building something.
The signs this time are different
Builder Chris Salacinski, a Livingston resident for more than 30 years and the owner of C&L Builders, told the Enterprise his crew is essentially constructing a brand new restaurant inside the old shell, preserving specific pieces for their history rather than gutting everything. The original Sport sign, a Main Street fixture for decades, was carefully taken down and is currently sitting in storage at C&L's Second Street warehouse, waiting to be restored and put back up once the space is ready.
That detail matters more than it sounds. Previous attempts at this address treated the building as a blank slate. This one is treating the sign as something worth saving, which tells you the plan is to reopen as a continuation of the building's identity, not a replacement for it.
Salacinski put the scale of the project in plain terms.
"This will probably be one of the most expensive buildings downtown when it's done."
That is not marketing language. That is a 30-year local contractor describing his own job.
The money behind the remodel
The person writing the checks is Russell Gordy, a Houston oil-and-gas businessman who has spent more than two decades as a part-time Montana resident. Gordy has accumulated roughly 200,000 acres of ranch land across Texas, Montana, and Wyoming, including the 44,000-acre Rock Creek Ranch in Springdale, the smallest town in Park County. Rock Creek Ranch is also home to Hunter's Hot Springs, a resort and music venue that hosted Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters for multiple shows.
Salacinski has described Gordy as genuinely invested in the area, someone who has done considerable work in both Big Timber and Livingston and who is not looking to cut corners on this particular building. Whether or not that turns into the barbecue-and-brunch concept originally floated in 2024, the pace of construction this year suggests the space is not sitting idle anymore.
What fills the calendar while you wait
Livingston does not need The Sport to have a full August. The town runs on its own rhythm regardless of what is happening behind plywood on Main Street, and this month has plenty already locked in.
| Date | What's Happening | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesdays through Sept. 16 | Livingston Farmers Market, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. | Miles Park Band Shell, on the Yellowstone |
| Now through Aug. 16 | Wishberry Hollow pop-up installation | Miles Riverview Trail |
| Through Aug. 6 | Pete Huttlinger Guitar and Fly Fishing Camp | Music Ranch Montana |
| Aug. 7 | Dean Miller's tribute to his father, Roger Miller | Music Ranch Montana |
| Aug. 28-30 | Creekside Revival | Pine Creek Lodge |
The farmers market is the most reliable fixture on the list. Western Sustainability Exchange has run it since 2002, setting up every Wednesday from the first week of June through mid-September at the Miles Park Band Shell between Sacajawea Park and the Civic Center. Produce, meat, flowers, baked goods, and live music are the constants. It is the kind of event that does not need reinventing, which is a different kind of stability than what The Sport's address has had for the last five years.
Music Ranch Montana is carrying a full slate this month too. The Pete Huttlinger Guitar and Fly Fishing Camp wraps up Aug. 6, and Dean Miller brings his tribute to his father, country legend Roger Miller, to the same venue on Aug. 7, backed by a full band and built around personal stories alongside the hits.
Down at Pine Creek Lodge, Creekside Revival closes out the month Aug. 28-30, giving the summer concert season one more weekend before it winds down. For a full rolling list of what else is on the calendar, Explore Livingston Montana keeps an updated events page worth bookmarking.
Where to eat downtown right now
While The Sport finishes its renovation, downtown has not exactly gone hungry. Campione Roman Kitchen has become one of the names locals bring up first when asked where to eat on Main Street. The Fainting Goat Pub keeps its fireplace seating and patio busy with an Irish-leaning menu. Neptunes Taphouse and Eatery has settled into downtown quickly enough that it reads as a fixture rather than a newcomer. Rice Fine Thai has built a following around its open-air feel and a menu built for regulars who know exactly what they are ordering before they sit down. Katabatic Taproom, a few doors down on West Park Street, rounds things out with its own brews and a wine list for anyone who wants a slower evening.
None of these replace what The Sport meant to the block for over a century, but they explain why the wait has not felt like a void. Main Street kept moving even with one of its most recognizable buildings closed.
The sign is the tell
A building can sit empty for years and still be a rumor. What changes that is a grease trap in the ground, a crew pulling night shifts, and an owner who paid to store a sign instead of scrapping it. Livingston has heard "opening this summer" before. This is the first version of that promise that comes with physical proof attached to it.
Whether or not the doors open by Labor Day, the town's actual summer, the market on the river, the music at the ranch, the crowded patios downtown, is already happening without it.
If you are watching Livingston's Main Street for reasons that go beyond dinner plans, whether that is a future move, an investment property, or simply keeping an eye on what a changing downtown means for the neighborhoods around it, The Hoffman Group has been tracking this market closely from both sides of the Colorado-to-Montana pipeline. Reach out anytime you want a local read on what's actually happening here, not just what's rumored.
