Ep. 124 - Season 6: A 2023 Recap & A 2024 Preview
PRCA Convention Recap
To kick off season 6, we wanted to dive into a recap of the 2023 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Every year, there is the State of the PRCA speech by the CEO Tom Glause. This is very similar to the State of the Union in the terms of U.S. government, but specifically for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. To start this episode, Rachel Owens-Sarno & Katie Surritt are going to interview Katie Schrock who attended the PRCA convention prior to the 2023 WNFR.
By The Numbers
“My first PRCA convention was the 2019 convention, when Rachel snuck me in,” says Katie Schrock with a laugh. “I’ve been every year since!” For these notes, we are looking at 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively. The 2020 numbers are removed because they are an anomaly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There has been an increase in 1,100 members in the PRCA over the past three years, including a huge increase in permit holders and rookies. Rookie numbers themselves, have almost doubled which shows an increase in competitors that aren’t having a barrier to entry for entering rodeos but are also seeing success as they fill their permit cards. After 2019, 150 new rodeos have joined the PRCA, which could have impacted these numbers as well.
The payout has had a 50% increase since 2021 and are on track and planning to reach $100 million paid out in regular season. That would be double! The entries have gone up exponentially as well; we can assume that these numbers include the WPRA’s Girls Barrels & Breakaway Roping. We have seen a lot of statistics from the Breakaway Roping Journal regarding the impact of breakaway ropers and we wonder the impacts of this.
The event struggling the most was Team Roping, which was confusing. “They honestly didn’t know,” says Schrock. When PRCA CEO Tom Glause heard that, he seemed equally as surprised. We can wonder if it’s the jackpot ropings that happen. To clarify, it wasn’t that it’s the smallest number of members, but the smallest in growth. We used to be most concerned about the rough stock events, but they grew at a higher rate than the team roping.
“I’m just throwing this out there,” says Surritt, “you make a great point that some of our rough stock events are growing and our timed events, like team roping, are staying stagnant. This might be because there are other avenues that are coming up… premier horse sales are advertising instead of cow horses as rope horses… Maybe people are funneling their money or time that way … or maybe it’s an economic decision.” A competitive string of timed event horses is hard to keep from hauling, to lodging, etc. costs a lot of money versus jumping on a plane to fly to a rodeo to compete rather than driving the distance with a trailer and horses that have to eat. The horse market is coming down, but not enough.
"I know that I personally keep the TV on for the team roping, I know some people use it as their break,” says Surritt.
The other notable number was that the top 10 rookie bareback riders made over a million dollars combined. Of this class, three were at the NFR and one of them set the single season record in the most money won which was Keenan Hayes. We’ve discussed before in our 2022 NFR Recap that Keenan Hayes, in his permit year, would have been top 5 in the world if he had only filled that permit and gone for his rookie year last year.
The PRCA’s Other Events Highlight: The Rookie Round Up
As rodeo continues to move towards mainstream, there has been a lot of conversation on the podcast that as we move that way, we have not given rodeo athletes the backing they need in PR, communications, and sponsor activations. The PRCA, The Cowboy Channel, and more sponsored the Rookie Round Up and hosted a multi-day media training.
We wanted to give an extra shoutout to Erika Frost, a rookie breakaway roper that was there, has been dominating the social media game on multiple facets as both as western fashion NFR-wife influencer to her bull riding husband Josh Frost, but also as a breakaway roping contestant. It was a great opportunity to train our next generation of rodeo athletes.
RansomeWare Attack on the PRCA
At the end of Cowboy Christmas, there was a ransomware attack that put ProCom, the PRCA entry system, went down. Here’s the timeline:
July 20th, Thurday - Ransomware Attack
July 24th, Monday - They had to start doing rodeo entries by phone
July 25th, Tuesday - Rodeos were being paid out
August 1st - 95% of the information was recovered.
It was an “encryption of data, not migration of data” and “they learned to be agile and flexible.” - Tom Glause at the PRCA State of the PRCA Presentation.
Rachel recounts when she walked through the ProCom office in 2016 and how archaic the system was even back then (not knowing if they have upgraded since then). A black screen with green text and the blinking underline of where you’re typing next, it’s “serious JC Penny status with my grandma.”
As understood, they had moved to analog phones and so the attack shut down the ability to make phone calls so you couldn’t contact the PRCA because it was shut down. One of the blessing was that all of the major rodeos were done taking entries and it was mostly smaller rodeos which was earlier to do by hand. Back to the tour in 2016, they hire local college kids who have no rodeo experience, so they aren’t aware of what is going on. Example would be when Fallon Taylor accidentally called two days early to enter the NFR and the ProCom representative had no idea what she was talking about because it wasn’t showing in her season.
Changes made included moving to a cloud so that they could remove it. They now do monthly IT training meetings and a Security Operations Center monitoring 24/7.
“Average recovery is 22 days in a ransomware attack but the PRCA fixed it in 11 days.” - Tom Glause, CEO of PRCA.
"On a hunch, I want to know what the median is over the average,” says Schrock. “What is the average of the average days?… If you’ve ever been in a position to try to make things prettier than they seem when speaking to your entire membership… a part of me felt like they may have been leaning into the fact that most rodeo people aren’t very tech savvy. I had the benefit to sit next to a cybersecurity person who [was shocked]… and they had a lot of questions, which made me have a lot of questions.”
Secretary System
They had to go back and build a new program that would be “actually useful” because they “forgot to ask the secretaries before creating the software.” They made an ad hoc committee for the secretaries and are now rolling out the new system to the secretaries.
“Remember when they were going to do bull stats and such?” Said Katie Schrock.
“It was supposed to be gnarly, but now it’s bad,” says Rachel Owens-Sarno.
Sponsorships
Sponsorship revenue grew 54% for the PRCA - an amazing number at the professional national number. Steve Rempelos runs this department and, with that being said, at the time we recorded the episode, was announced to have been let go of the PRCA.
“Who grows sponsorship revenue 54% and is then let go?” Schrock.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about Matt Cohen, former PRCA photographer, check out our podcast episode with him here.
At a time when the PRCA could probably get any sponsor they could ever want with the popularity of the western world, Schrock found it interesting that they didn’t chase new large mainstream partnerships. They focused, instead, on their Legacy sponsors:
Wrangler - 76 years
Justin Boots - 70 years
Reistol - 64 years
Ram Rodeo - 43 years
Coors - 43 years
Recently, Wrangler’s partnership with the PRCA was announced by the Sports Business Journal as the longest running professional sporting sponsorship. Keep in mind, this is one of the only times the SJB has acknowledged ProRodeo as a professional sport.
A 95% growth in TV and Media sponsorships - no surprise with the growth of The Cowboy Channel over the past five years. There were 68 rodeo performances in 2019, in 2023 there was 916 performances. That’s an incredible and huge growth in the age of streaming. There was 116 hours of TV coverage planned for 2023 WNFR and in 2022, 7 million fans watched the NFR Live!
Jeff Medders, a former podcast guest of TWL, announced that he was going to leave his position at The Cowboy Channel. It’s for sure not the last we will see of him and it took some detective work to find it. He recently took to his own social media to “address rumors.” Our friend Jordan Weaver with the Flatbed Podcast shared a clip during the NFR about Jeff retiring and that he was moving to Bosque Ranch Productions (www.Bosqueranchproductions.com). This is what Jordan tagged on his podcast and the followers include almost everyone we’ve had on our show on Instagram, has zero posts, only follows 110 accounts which includes a lot of guitars, the name says “Taylor Sheridan” and the profile picture is from a movie set.
“That’s all I got!” Says Schrock with a laugh, “If anyone likes investigative work - there you go!” And they’ve only gained nearly 10,000 followers in the past few weeks.
PRCA Media Awards
Former podcast guest, Karlee Peterson with The Cowboy Channel won the PRCA’s ultimate media award for their campaign on 100 Days of Rodeo in 100 Days. Congrats to Karlee.
PRCA Convention Breakouts of Note:
Carrie Ann Statler, the current Reno Rodeo president and former long time sponsorship director, spoke with their current sponsorship director about all things sponsorships. They are hosting a sponsorship clinic at the Reno Rodeo in 2024 where you get access to everything from their spreadsheets, flow charts, pricing, etc. It’s speedy but definitely exciting!
Animal Welfare Update
Animal Welfare was a large, recurring topic as you can imagine as the legislation was going in LA County. “What I found interesting… is the way they took the approach of cultural history and taking it from, ‘You’re getting into minority lifestyles with this’… not necessarily specifically rodeo, it’s the livelihood and tradition for the culture… that was almost what put the biggest stop on it because … they didn’t want to mess with the minorities… that approach interested in me very much,” says Rachel.
Strategy comes into play so much, the fact that it went to the hearing during the NFR was intentional because the opposition knew everyone would be at the PRCA’s NFR. They had to switch around a lot because of the hearing and of course everyone was very accommodating about this.
On this topic of California and Rodeo, at one of the break outs, two large Texas rodeos were complaining to the PRCA event reps and administration about turnouts. A gentleman stood up in the middle of the meeting and dropped all attention when he went on to explain his involvement from a young age at the Cow Palace in San Francisco as a multi-generation volunteer at that rodeo. Nobody contradicted this story or jumped in to defend it, but he stated that he had been trying to work with the PRCA in regards legislation with no help.
The county the Cow Palace is in, tie down roping got banned. Tie down roping is one of six mandatory events to be a PRCA roping. They asked if they could do their tie down roping outside of the county, if they could pay extra money to another rodeo’s tie down roping, they asked if they could do a one-day shootout before the California Circuit finals - all was declined. Allegedly, when they asked the PRCA to help them fight the legislation, said “you are no longer a PRCA rodeo, we don’t have to help you.” The Cow Palace has been a part of the PRCA for over a hundred years.
On the strategy for LA is that that is a former home of the National Finals Rodeo and the click bait line that they want is “Former Home of the NFR Bans Rodeo” - that is a win for them! We had former PRCA Animal Welfare Chair Cindy Schonholtz on the show to chat about what this has looked in the past for Animal Welfare. If you want to be in her group on Facebook, send us a message on social media.
It’s not fun, but pay attention.
Crisis Management
Keep in mind that the PRCA convention was prior to the NFR stopping, this breakout was a foreshadowing of what was to come on the UNLV campus on Wednesday. Contestants were in the Thomas & Mac for grand entry practice and they locked down the contestants into the arena before escorting them off site in an evacuation.
They cancelled the first performance of the rodeo on Thursday with Las Vegas Events and rescheduled it for “NFR Slack” that was a rodeo Wednesday morning. They offered free tickets to the UNLV staff and fans, as well as family members of contestants, but no other fans were there.
“I saw a lot of chatter on social media that people wished it was more standard practice so that families could come watch,” says Surritt. “I thought the students an distaff was a good way too, essentially, honor the situation.”
“The PRCA handled it well, but the keyboard jockeys - I was appalled! … I was horrified by the commentary that people had. You need to check yourself if you are one of the people if you are listening to this.. you should never wish ill on anyone,” says Schrock.
“In the seven years I’ve been teaching, I have been evacuated by SWAT twice due to active threats,” says Surritt. “It was 2022 in the fall when we had an active shooter on campus and I think it just shows that no one is immune to mental health issues.”
The shooter was an aspiring professor at UNLV who had been declined and then targeting out the people he felt had gotten the position over him.
“It really speaks to the gravity of not necessarily being a second amendment issue, but a mental health crisis issue and that our strongest communities, like rodeo, can be impacted by it. I personally liked how the PRCA handled it, I liked how they invited the staff, students and family to watch, and I though the way they handled it on social media was respectful,” says Surritt. “I thought that was a really great way to honor some of the fear with not only the rodeo community in the event, but also the fear and anxiety on campus.”
“Public universities are on open campus’… if you think about the UNLV campus, the rodeo is bringing in hundreds of essentially strangers to take over a huge part of their college experience. I don’t want to say it invites events like this because that’s not fair to say, but I do think that creates a sense of roller coaster of what could or can happen,” says Surritt. “I was happy to see the PRCA handled it the way they did.”
National Finals Rodeo
NFR Moments - Ky Hamilton
One of those iconic moments happened that Wednesday during the NFR Slack Round. In the round, the night before, Ky Hamilton, who was on a hot streak got knocked out and taken to the hospital for a concussion and broken ribs (and probably a lot more). He probably shouldn’t have rode, but after getting picked up at the hospital just moments before the round started, he placed for money. That night, he was the only bull rider that rode, he got ALL the money! At that point he had won the Gold Buckle by winning over $100,000 in one day by riding TWICE in one day, at that level.
It was amazing to see Ky come back after seeing the heartbreak of first Stetson Wright going out in the second round and not being able to compete in the NFR - he was our “Replacement Romeo of the Rodeo.” Traveling buddies Stetson & Ky have a team plan to go one-two at every rodeo. Ky pretty much said, “Stetson’s not here? Sorry bye” to everyone else. The bull riding kept everyone up all NFR.
World Champions 2023
Steer Roping (November in Kansas) - Cole Patterson
Breakaway Roping - Shelby Bosijili-Meged
All Around - Stetson Wright
Bareback - Keenan Hayes
Saddle Bronc - Zeke Thruston
Bull Riding - Australian Rodeo Romeo Ky Hamilton
Steer Wrestling - Tyler Waguespack
Team Roping - Tyler Wade & Wesley Thorp
Tie Down Roping - Riley Webb
Barrel Racing - Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi
Commentary on the barrel racing pattern that has changed twice in the Thomas & Mack regarding the size of the arena. “I think that totally skews the arena record, that doesn’t make sense at all!” Says Katie Surritt, offended.
“I don’t think you’re wrong,” adds Rachel.
“Once they start cooking, that’s it and I’m on the stove right now,” says Surritt. “This is the first I’ve heard of it and I’m actually a little upset about it because here I am idolizing all these times … thinking there’s no way that these are going to get into low 14’s and break 14’s… if you’re not a sub-14 [now] you don’t have a shot an did you can’t be consistent.”
“I feel taken aback by this, to find out on this podcast from people that I sent a group chat too,” says Surritt.
If you, too, have been victimized by the changing of the arena size for the barrel racing at the NFR, post a screen shot on your stories and tag us so Katie Surritt doesn’t feel so bad.
NFR Fan Experience
It seemed to be down this year as both Mandalay Bay and the Mirage had nothing to do with the NFR. “I saw so many people talking about the shopping and how the stores, especially those upstairs at the convention center, spent so much money and were drowning,” says Rachel, who was there for the All-In Barrel Race. Many people shopped downstairs at the convention center and got tired, leaving before going upstairs. There was genuinely just too much shopping so the vendors didn’t make their money back.
Mandalay Bay was the Roper Country Christmas was rumored to be rented out for storage to Amazon. Rodeo Vegas’ after party used to be the Mirage and that was purchased by Teton Ridge and moved to Resorts World.
In Vegas prior to the NFR, Surritt was there for a concert and thinks a lot has to do with the Formula 1 set up. The race made it hard to get around as a lot of sky bridges had to be rerouted and traffic was moved. The question is if Las Vegas is still a premier location or was the poor planning of Formula 1 extremely detrimental to the 2023 NFR - the only event that sells out the entire Las Vegas.
2024 Predictions
“I have a feeling that rodeo is going to keep growing,” says Rachel. Breakaway isn’t equal pay at the finals, but it’s interesting to see how many people are pushing breakaway but at what cost to barrel racing?
During the PRCA convention’s committee session with representative, the WPRA went first and discussed how rodeo committees, when applying to the WPRA are saying they don’t want to follow the new WPRA barrel racing rule to rake after every 5 runs, so they don’t want to have barrel racing and just want to breakaway rope. Additionally, there is a large group that don’t want to sanction with the WPRA at all which is possible because they aren’t a part of those six mandatory events for a PRCA.
“My prediction is that breakaway isn’t going to be added to the NFR next year because the tickets are still sold out and the seats are full,” says Rachel, “we see this at other sports, women don’t make the same amount of money at professional sports because seats aren’t as full … because they don’t bring as much money…. I wonder if, from the business side of it, is if that is what is happening. .. especially when they can make money at another event [National Finals Breakaway Roping] by selling tickets.”
This might be why the Breakaway Roping Journal stat line came out regarding breakaway roping numbers. With that being said, for example, St. Paul the largest 4th of July rodeo is the only one in their circuit that doesn’t have breakaway roping, arguing that the NFR doesn’t have it.
There is a lot that you could do to replace it and give the fans what they need but, it is working right now, do they need it? They just redid the contract with LVE and it’s not in there, but that doesn’t mean it won't change.
Schrock’s prediction is that it will be in before 2030, but pretty close to it. Her other prediction is that the pinnacle of country being cool is going to peak between 2024 and 2026 due to Post Malone and Elle King dropping country albums, Miley Cyrus with a potential blue grass album, and then Taylor Swift re-releasing her country album. We need to push breakaway roping in these next few years while it’s still popular - after that will be hard.
Surritt’s prediction is that there is going to be more Teton Ridge and they aren’t ever going to go away. They also might take over the world and we will be forced to wear team jackets. Their fingers are everywhere from the breeding shed to premier horse sales to every aspect of the equine industry. Teton Ridge also got involved with Sports Illustrated Rodeo - it has it’s own account - and the largest TV contract for rodeo ever internationally.
“I don’t see them stopping. I am seeing them as an umbrella title sponsor to everything,” says Surritt.
Season 6 of the That Western Life Podcast
Looking through our Google Analytics, we dove deep into the topics that people find our podcast by through their Google Searches. We are going to have our same guest features with leaders in the western and rodeo world from contestants to trainers to personnel. If you have someone you are interested in hearing from, please shoot us a DM on any platform whether it’s That Western Life or a co-host’s personal. We are going to jump into current events with animal welfare, following administration, etc.
Surritt is going to guide us through a fan-friendly historical educational pieces regarding rodeo. To start with, Surritt & Schrock have chatted a lot about the unique rodeo cultures that make rodeo it’s own unique subset of American culture. We are doing features on Hawaiian cowboys, convict cowboys & prison rodeos, continue talking about PRCA Legacy Partners and their histories, a deep dive into some iconic rodeos, and fan input as well. If you have topics that you want to know more about, don’t hesitate to reach out.
“We tend to nerd out about topics we go down rabbit holes on, but we never know if that is what you want to hear,” says Surritt. “The history features and the podcast is really hear for the fans, to not only get them involved in history but also western history and lifestyle. If you have suggestions for topics or question that is history based, please leave a comment so we can hopefully fit it into the podcast.”
Some of the educational pieces that we are going to dive into are going to be the futurities, associations, more about breakaway, PRCA administration and organization, and a deeper insight into how things work in rodeo. We want to give you a platform of how we can get into it with expansion in the future for rodeo, our podcast and the western life.
We are leaning into the educational portion because rodeo rules can be so convoluted. We had just over 1 million hits across all sites regarding how to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in an episode we broke down with Cody Cabral and Joe Harper. It’s interesting to see that people don’t know a lot of the bit-by-bit pieces that help you understand rodeo and get more involved.
Rule Change - Katie Surritt
“Well now that I’m enlightened about the apparent changes in the barrel pattern on the Thomas & Mac, I believe that the PRCA should institute individual records, not in the arena, but per size of the pattern.”