Entering the 57th National Finals Rodeo, which opens its 31st annual 10-day run in Las Vegas today at the Thomas & Mack Center, six reigning world champions are poised to repeat as champs this year.
National Finals Rodeo
In 1987, when I was the new guy on the sports staff, I was assigned to cover the National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center, because that was what the new guy did. A quiet man from Utah named Lewis Feild was awarded the gold buckle for being the best all-around cowboy.
Two years ago, the threat of major change loomed over the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. All parties involved were trying to hammer out a deal to keep the event in Las Vegas, but the prospect of a cross-country move to Orlando, Fla., loomed thick.
As much as the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo has become a staple of Las Vegas’ December calendar, so too has Cowboy Christmas. The shopping, entertainment and interactive bonanza has provided a great way for rodeo fans — and even regular folks interested in Western lifestyle — to fill up their daylight hours while waiting for the next go-round of the WNFR.
Wrangler NFR Schedule
Rodeo and country music fans gathered under the lights of the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas for the 29th annual Downtown Hoedown
It’s fitting that Evan Jayne will stay at the Monte Carlo with the rest of the world’s best bareback riders during the National Finals Rodeo, which returns to Las Vegas for its annual 10-day run today through Dec. 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
As the toughest cowboys and girls from across the country make their way to Sin City this week to compete in the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) here are five facts about the world’s richest rodeo that you may not be aware of.
The most talented cowboys in the country are returning to Las Vegas in two weeks and this time they’re going to make a lot more money at the National Finals Rodeo.
You wouldn’t know it from his name, or from the songs he sings, or from the way he styles his hair that Chadwick Johnson is a singing cowboy.
Las Vegas Events, the promoter of the National Finals Rodeo held every December in Las Vegas, has extended its deal with Thomas & Mack Center to hold the popular rodeo event at the arena through 2024.
They divvied up the last of the $6.3 million purse at the record-setting National Finals Rodeo following Saturday night’s final performance. Load up the livestock and alfalfa bales, pardners. Y’all come back again, ya’ hear?
The National Finals Rodeo has set an attendance record at Thomas & Mack Center, drawing 177,565 fans during the 10-day run and breaking the record of 176,558 in 2013.
The loud crowds and big-name cowboys were over at the National Finals Rodeo. But the business of rodeos and horses was being conducted in places such as the South Point arena, where rodeo stock contractors scouted for that next great bucking horse.
Kaycee Feild became the only cowboy ever to win four straight bareback riding world titles and National Finals Rodeo average championships. As the rodeo wrapped up Saturday, Feild also became only the second man ever to win four consecutive average crowns, joining team roper Leo Camarillo.
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