ProRodeo Sports News - February 23, 2018

GROWTH

Kennewick is powered by about 500 volunteers, including (from left) Joe Roe, Rick Daugherty and Duane Howard. Photo courtesy Horse Heaven Round-Up Rodeo

BY MATT NABER S tanding out in a lineup of iconic rodeos takes a big payout to attract the best competitors and larger crowds. Rodeo growth is usually slow and steady, but some rodeos made massive improvements in a single year. The Horse Heaven Round-Up Rodeo in Kennewick, Wash., saw the biggest growth of all PRCA rodeos from 2016 to 2017. The rodeo’s committee purse increased from $76,000 to $160,000 and the total prize money increased by $98,288. In 2016, Kennewick totaled $145,048. One year later, the prize was upped to $243,336 – placing it in the Top 25 for total payouts for 2017. “We’re in a region where we have a lot of great rodeos,” said Lori Lancaster, executive director for the Horse Heaven Round-Up Rodeo. “We’re an hour from Pendleton and a little bit longer than that from Ellensburg, and we’re in the Big Four withWalla Walla, Lewiston and Pendleton, so we’re in a great region for rodeo.” Just 75 miles up the road fromKennewick, the Moses Lake (Wash.) Round-Up’s committee purse increased from $48,000 in 2016 to $63,000 in 2017. Cowboys competing at the Moses Lake Round-Up saw total PRCA prize money increase by $35,021 – from $68,590 in 2016 to $103,612 in 2017. Big Bucks

Rodeo payouts on rise from ’16 to ’17

“In order to put on the best show we possibly could for our spectators, we decided we would increase our added money in all events – including doubling up for the team ropers,” said Tyler Brown, treasurer of the Columbia Basin Rodeo Association, which the Moses Lake Round-Up is a part of. “It gave us a large number of contestants for all three of our nights for all the events, plus it put on an incredible show for our spectators.” Before their massive increases, Kennewick’s payouts typically floated around $150,000-160,000 and Moses Lake was around $50,000-70,000. In 2016 and 2017, there were 537 PRCA competitions sanctioned for both years since some aren’t annual events. Of that total, 294 rodeos increased in total prize money. The other half stayed the same, or close to it, in total payouts, while a few declined a bit. Logistics are everything when planning rodeo trips, and late August is primetime for rodeo in the Northwest, so Moses Lake and Kennewick upped their prize money to stand out. “The contestants had a lot of choices to go to and the payouts were all the same, except for Canby and Caldwell,” Brown said. “It made a huge impact on the contestants that we got. They have an incredible job to do in calculating what their odds are in winning between the rodeo, payouts and the stock and who is going, and with the added money it brought a lot here who would have gone to a different region.”

ProRodeo Sports News 2/23/18

ProRodeo.com

36