National Finals Rodeo begins Thursday — without Las Vegas

The National Finals Rodeo began Thursday, and for the first time since 1985, it isn’t staged at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The reason: COVID-19.

Nevada’s health and safety rules are prohibiting large gatherings for sporting events, which presented a big problem for this year’s “Super Bowl of rodeo.”

Local rodeo organizers Las Vegas Events count on ticket sales from the roughly 17,000 seats for 10 nights to provide a $10 million prize pool for winning cowboys and $3 million for its stock contractor.

Las Vegas Events President Pat Christenson realized early that the health and safety rules weren’t going to provide an opportunity to sell enough tickets to cover the costs. He explained the problem to the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, and the solution became clear: For at least one year, NFR had to relocate to a place that had more relaxed health and safety rules in place.

That turned out to be Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, which this year hosted the 2020 World Series.

Historic irony

There’s a sense of historic irony to the decision to move to the baseball home of the Texas Rangers. The Dallas metroplex hosted the inaugural National Finals Rodeo in 1959. Since then, the event has been staged in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, before a group of Las Vegas tourism professionals lured NFR to the place most top-tier cowboys want to be every December.

Over the years, the National Finals Rodeo has grown to become the premiere attraction on the city’s special events calendar. The rodeo and its related events have transformed December from a time when resorts have three slow weeks to do maintenance to an anticipated boom time leading up to the Consumer Electronics Show in January — which was scratched for 2021.

Most of the thousands of people who come to Las Vegas for the rodeo never set foot in the Thomas & Mack Center.

Rodeo visitors commonly gather at more than 25 casinos across the valley to watch the rodeo on closed-circuit television broadcasts and then participate in rodeo afterparties or attend one of the country music concerts staged in casino performance venues.

While in the city, fans can also attend Cowboy Christmas, a free gift show retail event at the Las Vegas Convention Center that has been a part of the National Finals Rodeo since 1986.

There is also the Junior World Finals, which includes nine rodeo events and was scheduled to be held in Las Vegas for the fifth straight year.

Rodeo officials say the rodeo and affiliated events produce a $200 million economic impact for the city every year.

This year, Cowboy Christmas is operated from the Fort Worth Convention Center, about 20 minutes away from the rodeo venue site, while the Junior World Finals is at the Cowtown Coliseum in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Dallas could make pitch

While it’s possible the Dallas area would make a pitch to keep the rodeo, it isn’t likely to succeed. Las Vegas Events was able to add a year to its contract with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to keep NFR in Las Vegas through at least 2025.

“The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo is part of Las Vegas and a long-standing fixture for our visitors and locals since 1985,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

“Over the course of the 10-day series, Las Vegas transforms to the ultimate country western destination, with A-list entertainment, viewing parties, multiple cowboy gift shows and 24-hour excitement,” he said.

“While we will miss them this December, we understand the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association’s decision to move their championship events to Texas in 2020. We look forward to welcoming both the NFR and rodeo fans back for an Only Vegas experience in 2021 and beyond.”

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.