‘You have to be on your A game.’ New rodeo tournament increases stakes in Fort Worth.
Jake Brown knows his rodeo.
He grew up in the Hillsboro area where his father, Paul, is the longtime rodeo coach at Hill College, which features one of the better programs in the country. As a rodeo competitor, Brown, 30, has earned five consecutive trips to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in a bronc riding event.
While growing up in North Texas, the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo was the premier area rodeo in Brown’s eyes. Within the past year, he’s witnessed some big changes. For the first time, the rodeo is using a tournament format and the prize money offered to competitors is more than $1 million.
By making those sweeping changes, Fort Worth joins the Houston and San Antonio rodeos that use a tournament format and offer competitors a seven-figure purse.
“This new format is what rodeo is going to,” Brown said. “Houston does it. San Antonio does it. It’s a step in the right direction. I am an old school guy and I like tradition, but this new coliseum and this new format is just amazing. It takes Fort Worth to a whole new level.”
The new coliseum is Dickies Arena, a state-of-the-art, technologically advanced venue. Last weekend, Brown, who lives in Cleveland, Texas, about 60 miles northeast of Houston, was part of the new chapter in Fort Worth. He competed Friday night during the opening performance of the pro rodeo tournament.
Brown recorded a score of 89 in bareback riding, which was the highest score of the night as the rodeo began its 16-day, 18-performance run. Brown, who also competed in the Saturday matinee, earned $1,760 while advancing to the wild card round scheduled for Feb. 5.
Pressure on each ride
Like Fort Worth, other large rodeos are going to a tournament format to determine champions. It’s a radical departure from a traditional format that included a large field of competitors. The old format, used in the previous venue at Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum, decided event champions based on an aggregate score from three or four rides throughout the rodeo.
But this year, athletes compete in two performances in each event in the opening round. The top two money winners from each group (bracket) qualify for one of two semifinal round performances on Feb. 6 or 7.
The third place finisher from each group advances to the Feb. 5 wild card round where competitors will attempt to qualify for the semifinal. Eight competitors from the semifinal will advance to the Feb. 8 final round where no previous scores will count.
Ty Erickson, a Montana cowboy and defending world steer wrestling champion, advanced to the semifinals after earning $2,420 in Bracket 1 during the Friday night and Saturday matinee performances.
“It really makes a lot of fun for the fans because there’s a winner every night,” Erickson said of the tournament format. “For the fans who don’t follow [pro rodeo] that much, when there’s a winner every night, they can get into it a lot more.”
The tournament format features 56 credentialed competitors in each event. Some of them are wearing gold buckles and many of them have earned trips to the Las Vegas-based National Finals.
“You have to be on your A game every night,” Erickson said. “You have to bring it and make the best runs or rides that you can.”
Two-time world steer wrestling champion Hunter Cure, a former Texas Tech star who is from Holliday in the Wichita Falls area, said the tournament format forces competitors to ride more aggressively each time.
“It’s swing for the fences every time you show up,” he said.
Matt Brockman, the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo’s spokesman, said the field of competitors commands respect.
“It’s like going to the Colonial golf tournament and seeing the best golfers in the world,” Brockman said. “It’s like going to a Dallas Cowboys game and seeing the best football players in the world and I think it’s appropriate that it’s happening in Dickies Arena. In Dickies Arena, you want to feature the best.”
PBR update
On the Professional Bull Riders circuit, Jose Vitor Leme, a Brazilian who is from Decatur, clinched the title at last weekend’s Jan. 24-26 Unleash The Beast tour stop in Sacramento, California, and earned $41,845.
Leme turned in scores of 88, 84.75, 87.75 and 91 (during the finals round) and earned 157.5 world points.
Leme is ranked No. 2 in the PBR’s 2020 world title race with 304.5 points. Joao Ricardo Vieira, another Brazilian from Decatur, is ranked No. 1 with 311.75. Defending world champion Jess Lockwood is No. 3 with 285.5.
The PBR’s Unleash The Beast, the association’s top tier tour, stops in Oklahoma City this weekend. The Express Ranches Invitational is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1, at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
World class PBR competitors will be in Arlington on Feb. 15-16 to compete in the Global Cup, an international team competition at AT&T Stadium. For information, visit pbr.com.
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 6:00 AM.