PRORODEO Sports News - March 21, 2025

miles of each other. In addition to these record payouts during Pioneer Week in Utah, there was an additional bonus of $15,000 for the top earning female and male athlete each across these three rodeos. This program continued in 2024 with barrel racer Kassie Mowry leading the way on the female side winning an astonishing $37,172 at the three Utah rodeos during that week and Marty Yates was the top male performing athlete with $29,786. REACHING A WIDER AUDIENCE Whether playing at home or away, on any given weekend, an NFL fan can turn on a channel and find their favorite team. Same for most college programs or major professional sports leagues. But for rodeo fans, keeping track of the cowboys and cowgirls they saw compete in their community could be difficult. In the past, once they left town, the only way to monitor their exploits was through written or online coverage of events across the country. The Cowboy Channel changed that. Established in 2017 on the vision of the late Patrick Gottsch, The Cowboy Channel sought to make Western sports and lifestyle coverage mainstream. In less than a decade, it has transformed the rodeo experience, turning an often-isolated sport into an easy-to-follow year round competition playing 24/7. And that expansion, already at a rapid pace, shows little signs of slowing. “I think rodeo has the potential to grow huge because of media. As we’ve seen, The Cowboy Channel started a wonderful thing and now it’s our time to help expand that past the starting point,” said Leon Vick, Vice President of Rodeo, Horse and Livestock Operations at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver. “You know, everybody has a starting point but then it’s your job to take that a little bit further. Media, I don’t want to say it’s the last frontier,

Above : Record crowds are watching rodeo all over America ( PRCA photo by John Pyle ) Below : A fan favorite is Proctor prodigy Haley ( PRCA photo by Jessica Burns )

7