ProRodeo Sports News - Feb. 17, 2023

EDITOR’S LETTER TRACY RENCK

Dickies Arena in Fort Worth a gem for rodeo contestants

R odeo committees work tireless hours trying to make their rodeo the best it can be. During my time at the PRCA, I have made stops all over the country fromColorado Springs to Guthrie, Okla., Mulvane, Kan., Kissimmee, Fla., and Salinas Calif., and countless places in between. Like every cowboy, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo is the place I love most, whether it is Arlington, Texas, like it was because of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 or the Thomas &Mack Center in Las Vegas where the NFR has been held every other year since 1985. It’s a 10-day Super Bowl. Yellow bucking chutes, cheering spectators and the crowning of world champions. However, I must say, Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, can hold its own as one of the best venues on the PRCA trail. The state-of-the-art Dickies Arena opened Oct. 26, 2020, and hosted its inaugural PRCA event –a Division 1 Xtreme Bulls Tour event – to a sellout crowd of 9,300 spectators on Jan. 21 of that year. Dickies Arena was the vision of Edward Bass, a businessman and philanthropist who headed up the charge to build the arena. The 14,000-seat venue – 9,300 for rodeo configuration – was conceived and developed by Bass and a public-private partnership between the city of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, the state, and a group of private-sector participants, including foundations, individuals, and organizations.

The PRCA Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo officially moved to Dickies Arena in 2020. Prior to that, since 1944, the FWSSR was held at the Will Rogers Memorial Center on the west side of Fort Worth. After paying a visit to Dickies Arena, Feb. 2-4, to cover the 2023 Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, a stop on the Playoff Series, the arena is still as amazing as ever. There is not a bad seat in the house to watch the action. The hospitality room for the contestants and media is top-notch. The stalls for the horses are great to say the least as is the warm-up area. The rodeo participants also have locker room accommodations that rival NCAA Division 1 college football teams. There’s also sizeable room for the Justin SportsMedicine team to utilize. When cowboys log long hours traveling down the road, nothing brightens their day more than when a rodeo – like the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo rolls out the red carpet. That’s part of the reason the FWSSR won the PRCA’s 2022 Large Indoor Rodeo of the Year. Sellout crowds are commonplace and, the rodeo, with its $1-million-plus purse, is one cowboys mark their calendars to attend. “Oh man, it is a huge rodeo,” steer wrestler Will Lummus said. “I won $7,000 coming into the steer I had (in the finals) so I won $27,000 here and man honestly, $27,000

Tracy Renck is the editor of the ProRodeo

Sports News . He previously served more than seven years as a media coordinator at the PRCA. He has three decades of experience in sports journalism with the last several consumed by ProRodeo.

is a good winter to have going into Reno (Nev., in June).”

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ProRodeo Sports News 2/17/2023

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