BY SAMI MCGUIRE
It’s more like the Roman Colosseum than a rodeo arena. The stands tower up over the rectangle of dirt that the cowboys and cowgirls are to compete upon. Crowds fill the stands, waiting for a show of man versus beast— a modern day gladiator fight.
Flames shoot out metal cylinders behind the chutes where the bucking horses dance anxiously. Cowboys fidget with their gloves and bareback riggings, waiting for the Days of ‘47 Cowboy Games & Rodeo to begin.
This is the richest rodeo of the summer, their chance to make $50,000 with two good rides at one rodeo. This will set them up to make the National Finals Rodeo in December for a chance to compete for a world title.
The cowboys in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association do not compete for points; they are ranked in standing based on money won. Although these are professional athletes, they do not receive a salary; they have to live off of their winnings.
That is where money and media come into play. The two aspects go hand-in-hand and have evolved over the years with the changing times to accommodate the cowboy lifestyle.
The Days of ‘47 Rodeo was a game changer for the PRCA world. It was held in Salt Lake City on July 19-21 and July 23-24. Each night cowboys and cowgirls competed against eight other competitors; the top two rides or runs from each night would qualify for the final round on July 24, which is Pioneer Day, a Utah state holiday.
Each qualifying round paid around $3,000 to win, and the final round paid out $50,000 along with gold, silver and bronze Olympic-style medals. Some rodeos with large amounts of money added do not let cowboys count the money toward their PRCA standings. The Days of ‘47 Rodeo did, making it the richest rodeos of the season to count toward standings.
Tommy Joe Lucia, Days of ’47 rodeo general manager, said “It was a very unique agreement with the PRCA this year, something that had never been done before.”
Going into the future, Lucia has plans to improve upon the Days of ’47 Rodeo by making it bigger and better each year.
“As time goes on, the prize money will increase,” Lucia said. “In order to increase the prize money, you have to increase the number of people who purchase tickets and the sponsor involvement. So we have to do the things that increase the butts in the seats. Consequently what will follow that are more revenues, which will trickle down into the competitors’ pockets.”
Days of ’47 Rodeo has raised the bar for rodeos, but not all rodeos have stepped up to this level at the moment. Although the payout has increased through the years, some aren’t sure that the payout has increased as quickly as the costs of rodeoing have.
Gary Ledford, a former PRCA calf rodeo, compared the costs of rodeoing in 1969 to now.
“The first time I went to the NFR [1969], the go round paid $365,” Ledford said. “I bought a new truck that year for $2,600. I won Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1971, and won $5,000. I could buy two new pickups. Today when they win Cheyenne, you get enough money for about half a [pickup]. So that gives you an idea. The money is a lot better, but it doesn’t buy as much.”
In 2016’s NFR, each round paid around $26,000. Lane Livingston, PRCA calf roper, won the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo this year and won $16,095 throughout all the rounds and the average. In comparison to Ledford’s win in 1971, Livingston would only be able to pay off around 23 percent of a new truck able to haul his trailer down the road.
Rodeo rigs have definitely risen in price, but it is hard to deny that money to be won hasn’t increased immensely through the years.
Rodeo publicist Ted Harbin said: “The fact that we are paying out more per night at the NFR than the average paid in 1990 is telling. Back in the 1990s, Calgary Stampede Rodeo was a $50,000 prize and now it is a $100,000. The Timed Event Championship when it first started, the winner earned $40,000, and now the winner is going to earn more than $100,000. Even at that level you are talking about life changing money.”
One cowboy who has experienced life changing money in the past few years is Sage Kimzey, a PRCA bull rider.
Kimzey recently broke the regular-season, money-earning records in the bull riding. To break the record he won several non-PRCA sectioned rodeos. He won the bull riding at the American Rodeo, in Texas, as a qualifier, and earned $430,000. He won $100,000 at Calgary Stampede Rodeo. He won the Championship Bull Riding, which paid $100,000 to the year-end champion. A PRCA sanctioned rodeo he won was Days of ’47 Rodeo, which paid $50,000. Heading into the first of September, he had won more than $850,000 in the calendar year of 2017.
Because of Kimzey’s bull riding resume, he is highly sought after for sponsorships. Many cowboys, rodeos and associations now have sponsors who help them pay to get down the road or put on events.
“Back in the 1990s when I first started, there were only a handful of contestants that had sponsorships,” Harbin said. “Now you’re not going to see many people at the NFR who don’t have some sort of sponsorship. Sponsors can see the opportunities that allow for more one-on-one exposure. The reality is, if you have a patch for Wrangler on your shirt and then they focus in on your face on TV that patch may or may not be seen, but it is that personal relationship because cowboys are seen to be more personable. Approachability is key for these sponsors in having their message come across [in] the voice of the contestants.”
Sponsors rely heavily on media in the rodeo industry to help get their brands out to the public. And in turn, rodeos rely on sponsors to help fund the events. The two aspects rely heavily upon one another and have both become a more influential part of rodeo as it evolves.
For rodeo to be a marketable sport the athletes need to be featured on media platforms. For the most part cowboys aren’t ones to want to do a lot of talking.
Guy Ferrell, former PRCA judge and announcer, said the rodeo committees noticed the need of media presentation in the early 90s.
“Rodeo committees said ‘we need to teach these cowboys how to present themselves, because it is good for the sport’,” Ferrell said. “From a marketing standpoint, rodeo needs people who know how to market themselves.”
Ferrell has experienced some of the training that cowboys received in learning how to present themselves to the media.
“When I was at the Pro Rodeo headquarters, the committee would bring in the world champions and interview them, practice with them and teach the contestant how to talk on TV,” he said. “That has made a lot of difference in the media coverage.”
Considering cowboys are the main focus of rodeo media it is no wonder the PRCA has taught cowboys speaking skills.
Justin Shaw, PRCA media director, said they mostly try to highlight competitors, rodeo officials, rodeo talent and people inside the arena besides just competitors.
“We want to give the public a view into their life,” Shaw said. “How they think, how they go about their business and what drives them to live this crazy, wonderful, rodeo, western lifestyle.”
Shaw has been with the PRCA in media positions since 2011. In just those six years he has seen many changes made to the PRCA’s media.
“When I first started we had to hand type the results for all 600 plus rodeos,” Shaw said. “It was time consuming and it was very hard to do. It is automated through a computer now, so the website is updated right away. In the past a story would sit for a couple days and the website wasn’t updated nearly as much as it should have been. Now we are keeping fresh content on our website daily.”
With access to internet constantly at our fingertips, PRCA media has learned that social media is an extremely important platform.
“We have built our social media platforms up to a very high level,” Shaw said. “We’ve expanded our reach in social media. We have a social media coordinator now who does a lot of creative things like memes, Photoshop and fun, light-hearted content, instead of just straight news reporting like we used to do on our social media.”
The purpose of media is to help grow the sport and keep everything moving forward.
“Just like anything, our media department is not taking any steps back,” Shaw said. “We are just moving forward and we are making sure we are up-to-date on all of our technology and the way we produce our content.”
As media moves forward, people in the rodeo industry hope the fan base increases.
Lucia said: “Fans care about a wild ride or a beautiful horse, and that is what we have to understand. There is a difference in what the fan wants and what the competition may dictate. There has got to be a balance that continues to allow for spectator growth.”
More fans mean more money for the cowboys, more sponsors and more media coverage. More money in the industry keeps the western lifestyle alive in hopes that a cowboy will get to live the American dream one swing, spur or barrel at a time. This is what media hoped to catch a glimpse of in the Days of ’47 Rodeo.
The media team surrounded the Days of ’47 Rodeo winners. Journalists, CBS sports, Fox News and other media outlets waited anxiously to hear what the cowboy or cowgirl planned to do with their $50,000 winnings.
Most said they plan to keep on rodeoing and living the life. Many journalists were upset by this seemingly meek answer, but a true reporter could see that this is the passion that makes rodeo a lifestyle rather than just a sport.