10 reasons to become a PRCA rodeo

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has identified 10 ways in which your rodeo committee can benefit by becoming a PRCA sanctioned rodeo.

1. Experience
1. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is steeped in a colorful history that dates back to 1936. Calling itself the Cowboys' Turtle Association, a 61-member group signed a petition that year protesting unfair judging and small purses.
2. The PRCA, in addition to being the oldest rodeo-sanctioning body in the world, is also the largest with a membership of approximately 9,000.
3. In 2005, the Association sanctioned 662 rodeos in 4 states and four Canadian provinces.
4. Those rodeos paid more than $35 million in prize money.
5. The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the PRCA's premier championship event held each December in Las Vegas, offers one of the largest purses in professional sports. In 2005, the Wrangler NFR set a record, offering $5.25 million in total prize money.
6. During its annual 10-day run, the Wrangler NFR draws approximately 175,000 fans to the Thomas and Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
2. Top Athletes and Personnel
1. PRCA contestants are the world's finest rodeo athletes and they compete almost daily, year-round, for the largest purses in the sport.
2. PRCA cowboys compete against equally talented rodeo livestock, supplied by approximately 93 PRCA stock contracting companies.
3. A selection of the best contract personnel can help produce a rodeo efficiently and professionally. The list includes:
   1. 373 bullfighters, clowns and barrelmen
   2. 121 veteran announcers
   3. 106 professional secretaries
   4. 511 professional timers.
   5. 96 specialty-act performers
   6. 78 PRCA approved photographers.
3. Professional Support
1. The PRCA Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., operates year-round as a fully staffed, not-for-profit corporation that provides services equal to those of any major professional sport.
2. The PRCA has a full-time professional staff of 65 people who provide committees with assistance, guidance and information about producing rodeos.
3. Since 1976, the PRCA has provided a computerized central entry system called PROCOM. The system enables contestants to enter multiple rodeos with a single telephone call, matches contestants with stock, and enables secretaries to better manage and record their rodeos.
4. Professional Officials
1. The PRCA Pro Officials program is designed to ensure consistent, top-caliber judging at all PRCA-sanctioned rodeos.
2. The program is administered through the PRCA headquarters.
3. The PRCA schedules eight full-time judges and about 130 part-time reserve officials for the over 650 rodeos it sanctions throughout the United States.
5. Media Exposure
1. The popularity of professional rodeo is at an all-time high, and so too is press and other media coverage of the sport.
2. PRCA events, large and small, receive significant media exposure through local and national outlets.
3. The Wrangler ProRodeo Tour and subsequent Tour Finales on FSN and CBS keep rodeo in prime time for most of the year. Among other events broadcast annually are the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and the Dodge Xtreme Bulls Ride Hard Tour.
6. Media Support
1. A variety of free services are available from the PRCA's full-time communications department.
2. The department serves as a liaison between committees, photographers, contestants and rodeo fans throughout the world.
3. Free services include:
   1. Weekly news releases and radio reports
   2. Official PRCA Media Guides
   3. Mug shots of the Top 30 from the previous year and action shots of the world champions along with their bios in an electronic format
   4. Arrangements for contestant interviews
   5. Use of television commercials
7. PRORODEO Program
1. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's official souvenir program is designed to serve your rodeo's bottom-line interest by providing a low-cost, high-quality product with national appeal that you and your local advertisers can be proud to be associated with.
2. Filled with full-color photographs and captivating feature stories, the PRORODEO Program serves your rodeo's fans with entertaining insight into the world of professional rodeo while providing them the information they need to take home the best experience possible from your PRCA rodeo performances.
3. With three options to choose from, you can customize your program to suite your rodeo's individual needs.
4. Your customized information, including logos, can be featured in the space provided on the front cover, and your advertisers and sponsors can be included in the publication right alongside the national sponsors of professional rodeo.
5. It creates a greater impact for your local sponsors and advertisers, as well as providing a high-quality souvenir for your fans that they are more likely to take home to remind them of your event and its sponsors well into the future.
6. Whether you sell 500 or 5,000 programs, with or without local sponsors, this souvenir program will free your volunteers from tedious program production details.
7. The cost of producing the PRORODEO Program is subsidized by our national sponsors and advertisers, so the cost of the program to your rodeo is very low.
8. For more information on the PRORODEO Program call toll-free at 1-800-626-2899.
8. Professional Standards
1. The PRCA places great value on the integrity and professionalism of its members.
2. It enforces high standards of conduct by its members.
3. Violations of those standards are subject to fines and possible suspension.
4. See official PRCA rule book for detailed regulations.
9. National Convention
1. The PRCA annual convention takes place each year in conjunction with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
2. The convention brings together the PRCA board of directors, executive staff, national sponsors, major stock contractors, representatives from committees and hundreds of contract personnel.
3. The convention provides committee members the opportunity to make personal contact with the PRCA's board and administrative staff, to meet with one another, to make contact with contract personnel and stock contractors and to discuss problems and solutions inherent in producing a rodeo.
4. The convention also provides numerous seminars designed to provide committee members with the latest information about subjects such as media relations, rodeo promotions, rodeo security, sponsorships and other issues, all designed to enhance the quality of a committee's rodeo.
10. Identity and Tradition
1. When most people talk about rodeo cowboys, they usually cannot get through any discussion without mentioning PRCA cowboys, such as world champions Jim Shoulders, Casey Tibbs, Larry Mahan, Billy Etbauer, or Fred Whitfield.
2. When it comes to legendary rodeos, events such as the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days Rodeo, the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up, RodeoHouston and the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver often come to mind.
3. And when the conversation turns to the toughest PRCA livestock, bulls named Bodacious, Red Rock, Tahonta, Reindeer and Wardance often pass across their lips, while bucking horses named Commotion, Sippin Velvet, Five Minutes to Midnight, Grated Coconut, Rio Bravo, Cool Alley and Painted Smile often gain mention.
4. The heroism these legends represent is invaluable to the sport of rodeo and the lifestyle of the vanishing American cowboy. But in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the base of Pikes Peak, is the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy, the legends live on. With a larger-than-life bronze statue of Tibbs aboard a saddle bronc named Necktie, the Hall is conveniently located adjacent to the PRCA Headquarters just off Interstate 25 at Exit 147.