Will Fort Worth’s ‘modern West’ niche be enough to bring the NFR back to Texas?
This year’s test run of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo at Globe Life Field — amid a global pandemic, no less — proved what happens in Vegas doesn’t need to stay in Vegas, Tarranty County boosters say.
When Nevada imposed COVID-19 safety restrictions that severely limited the capacity of the event in Las Vegas, Tarrant County was a natural choice to relocate. Gov. Greg Abbott’s 50% occupancy limit at stadiums meant the rodeo could still sell a large number of tickets at Globe Life and Fort Worth was eager to showcase its hospitality. In roughly 90 days organizers threw together the Super Bowl of rodeos in Arlington, a sizable cowboy convention in downtown Fort Worth and smaller events in the Cultural District and Stockyards that drew tens of thousands of people, mostly from out of town.
Now that it’s over, Fort Worth and Arlington officials say it’s obvious the National Finals Rodeo should be permanent fixture in North Texas. Tarrant County has played host to other big events, including Super Bowl XLV, the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, the 2014 NCAA Final Four and the first College Football Playoff National Championship.
“They just felt like they were in cowboy country, and that felt a little bit like home,” said Bob Jameson, President and CEO of Visit Fort Worth.
The Dec. 3-12 festivities showed how well Tarrant County agencies can work together, he said. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, they contend that hundreds of thousands of free masks and constant messaging on coronavirus safety made rodeo-related gatherings as safe as possible while providing a much-needed stimulus to the economy.
“That is not a matter of a little concern to us. It was foremost in all of our conversations all the way through until the last minute that they were here,” Jameson said of COVID-19. “But there is the other side of it, that is, you know, the (economic) impact on our society right now.”
Fort Worth and Arlington will offer stiff competition for the rodeo when the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s contract with Las Vegas expires in 2026, said Dave Appleton, the 1988 world all-around champion. Appleton is from Fort Worth and a frequent face on Cowboy TV.
Texas is cowboy country, he said, and a five-hour drive from Fort Worth in any direction contains the largest rodeo-fan base in the country.
“That’s no disrespect against the likes, of you know, the Wyomings, the Utahs, the Montanas and such, but just from a pure fan base, you can’t beat it,” he said. “Sure we don’t have the casinos, but there’s no shortage of stuff to do in Fort Worth.”
NFR in Texas
Tarrant County welcomed a large number of rodeo fans.
The slightly under 15,000 seats available at Globe Life Field sold out each night, though it’s likely not everyone who bought a ticket walked through the turnstile. Attendance across the 10-day rodeo was a little more than 66,000, according to Visit Fort Worth.
The visitors bureau estimated 10,000 would attend ancillary events in Fort Worth. Promoters likely weren’t far off: Cowboy Christmas, the large vendor exhibition, averaged more than 12,00 attendees over 10 days for a total of 126,422 and 400 attended the PRCA convention. Festivities in the Stockyards, which included the Junior World Finals and a Cowboy Carnival, drew 33,000 a day on average.
Tarrant County “checks all the boxes” needed to welcome sports fans, said Mike Crum, Fort Worth’s public events director. Both cities have a growing number of hotel rooms and world-class sporting venues, he said, and no shortage of other attractions.
But for the rodeo specifically, Crum said Fort Worth offers something unique.
“All you have to do is look at the numbers that went through the Stockyards to see how NFR attendees embraced our niche ... the modern West,” he said. “I think that coming to Fort Worth opens the NFR up to a very different audience that’s more family oriented and geographically drew on a population that would not normally make the trek to Las Vegas.”
Texas Rangers and Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau representatives both said the city would be glad to host the National Finals Rodeo in the future.
“Being in the center of the United States and having a very large western lifestyle population living in and around Texas makes us an ideal location for hosting rodeos and livestock events,” said Decima Mullen, an Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau spokesperson. “Our ability to host large numbers in one of our three sports stadiums gives us flexibility as well. Here, you have the best of both worlds, a western lifestyle and a metropolitan center of modern and world class amenities.”
Sean Decker, a Rangers executive vice president, said hosting the rodeo at Globe Life Field was a “success story.” In October, the stadium hosted the World Series and National League Championship Series. Decker said it was clear the Globe Life Field could be a multi-sport venue and turn around big events quickly.
“It‘s our intent to be aggressive and pursue, to try to go get, the biggest events in the world and continue to bring them to Arlington, and the DFW region,” Decker said.
Las Vegas will host the National Finals Rodeo for the next five years, but when the contract expires, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association expects to vet multiple locations, said Steve Rempelos, the association’s chief spokesman.
He called this year’s rodeo “highly successful” and said Tarrant County and Texas officials had been great partners, especially given the short notice. Rodeo and political officials, including Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, announced the relocation in September.
Las Vegas has the advantage of hosting the rodeo for 35 years, but Rempelos said this year showed the rodeo can be held anywhere.
“This is the first opportunity for the NFR to sell tickets outside of Las Vegas, and it showed that the event is portable and that North Texas, in particular, would enthusiastically support the National Finals Rodeo,” he said. “It‘s a beautiful facility, a great marketing area for our sponsors and a great geographical location for a core number of our fans.”
Officials for Las Vegas Events, which produces the National Finals Rodeo, did not return a call or email seeking comment, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last week that the rodeo’s success in North Texas has made Las Vegas officials nervous.
Las Vegas Events announced it would launch a campaign to ensure cowboys returned to the Thomas & Mack Center next year. It’s called “There is ONLY One NFR/There is ONLY One Vegas,” according to the paper, and involves a promotional video, a social media push and other marketing gimmicks. Current and past rodeo champions as well as Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman play a role in the pitch.
Though Las Vegas Events hosts many events year round, a massive banner ad for the 2021 National Finals Rodeo greets visitors to the organization’s website.
“This campaign is our most aggressive to date,” Las Vegas Events president Pat Christenson said in a statement, according to the Review-Journal.
Economics in a pandemic
People infected with COVID-19 were among the crowds at rodeo-related events and likely spread the virus.
Fort Worth procured 30,000 rapid coronavirus tests and made them available for free at stations at the convention center, Will Rogers Memorial Complex and in the Stockyards. Just 724 people took the rapid tests and 95 were positive for the virus. Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis speculated that most of the people who showed up for tests were either visitors or workers at rodeo events.
Benjamin Neuman, a Texas A&M University-Texarkana virologist, told the Star-Telegram last week it is unlikely anyone will know the extent to which rodeo-related events spread the virus without detailed contact tracing.
Jameson, Visit Fort Worth’s president, acknowledged the risk of hosting a large sporting event during the pandemic, but said he believed a balance was struck between safety and providing an economic windfall for businesses.
Visit Fort Worth has not completed an economic study to know exactly how much money was pumped into the economy over the 10-day period, but Jameson said it was likely significant. Hotel occupancy was about 70% in Fort Worth, up from an average of about 40% during the pandemic. About 45% of restaurants and hotels expanded employees’ hours during the rodeo, according to a Visit Fort Worth survey.
“This is a surreal time with an incredible number of hospitality workers unemployed,” Jameson said. He has said that 15 booked hotel rooms creates a full shift for a hotel worker.
“We’re pulling them off of the sidelines at a time when, you know, stimulus checks have not been issued for many, many months, eviction protection is about to expire and any kind of subsidy to unemployment is about to expire,” he continued. “All of that produces great anxiety and concern about how you put another meal on the table.”
About 60 businesses took part in the survey midway through the rodeo’s run. It showed strong positive reaction to hosting the events, with more than 85% saying they wanted Fort Worth to host similar sports.
Adam Jones, owner of Grace and Little Red Wasp in downtown, said he was thrilled about the rodeo crowd as both restaurants had “phenomenal business.”
At Grace, Jones has seen about half as many customers compared to pre-COVID while Little Red Wasp’s business has been 40% to 60% off, he said. Business grew about 20% at Grace and 60% at Little Red Wasp during the two weeks the rodeo goers were in town. Jones said he expects business would have been even better if the restaurants’ occupancy was greater than half.
“The staff that was on made money, which is fantastic,” Jones said.
Cowboy winners
If Las Vegas and Tarrant County fight over the National Finals Rodeo, the real winner will be the cowboys and cowgirls, said Appleton, the former champion.
Globe Life Field has the benefit of holding significantly more fans than the Thomas and Mack Center, which tops out around 18,000. Appleton said in a non-COVID world he thinks the Arlington ballpark could hold up to 25,000 rodeo fans comfortably. The stadium can seat about 40,000 for baseball, but he suspects the configuration for rodeo would make upper deck seats undesirable.
More fans means more money for contestants, he said. In 2019, the average payout was more than $67,000. That number dropped to about $40,000 this year because fewer tickets were sold. If the PRCA can sell 25,000 tickets, Appleton estimated the average payout could be “north of $100,000.”
Las Vegas will have to make a bid that is more lucrative for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and its contestants, he said.
“No matter what happens, going forward, the biggest beneficiary of this NFR in Texas will be the rodeo contestants,” Appleton said. “It’s now been proven what can be done.”
