A Message From PBR Commissioner Sean Gleason

By: Sean Gleason

It’s been a challenging year for everyone, but rodeo athletes are bearing the brunt of shutdowns and COVID-19 related restrictions more than most. We at PBR know firsthand the impact that the restrictions are having on the independent contractor athletes in Western sports.

PBR has been fortunate to find a way forward in challenging times. I am extremely proud of our team for keeping our athletes working. No one sent us a manual for getting back to work during a global pandemic; our team went out and made it happen. We were the last professional sport to hold an event in North America in mid-March and the first one back to work in mid-April. We also successfully introduced and completed a new team series in June and July, including the first professional sporting event held in North America hosting fans in an arena. After we complete our World Finals at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, PBR will be the only sport in North America that completed its season – and prize money payouts – largely as scheduled, and in front of fans since July.

I am also extremely proud of the fact that we worked hand-in-hand to find a path forward for WCRA as well. PBR returned to the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie after nearly two decades to pair with and support a major WCRA rodeo. The August 2020 WCRA Stampede at The E paid out more than $400,000 and will go down as the seventh-largest rodeo in 2020 (a list which has two other 2020 WCRA events ahead of it). Essentially, we’ve partnered with WCRA to help produce three of the seven largest rodeos this year. We are also full steam ahead with the Women’s Rodeo World Championships (WRWC), which moved to Ft. Worth to coincide with the PBR World Finals as planned. Through our partnership with WCRA and the inaugural WRWC, we will have paid out more than $2.8 million to rodeo athletes in a year where the easiest path would have been to cancel all events and save the dollars.

Given my two-plus decades in the industry, I understand and respect the generally skeptical nature of those of us in the “Western lifestyle.” Many have come with big promises, only to fall short and leave a wake of problems and unpaid bills. However, PBR and WCRA are well-funded, experienced and well-positioned organizations.

We are proud to be investing in rodeo to provide athletes with incremental opportunities to earn prize money and make a better living as a professional athlete. We made the decision to invest in rodeo as a sport several years ago, and we’ve put up the money to back up the promises. We’re making the investments in rodeo because we see a long term opportunity to create a successful business that will offer incremental opportunities to rodeo athletes, not take away or replace your other opportunities.

We aren’t a nonprofit organization or a charity. We make investments – including more than $8.5 million in total WCRA payouts to rodeo athletes – where we believe we can build successful and sustainable businesses. We remain committed to making these investments and providing you more opportunities.

I hope to see all the female athletes at the Women’s Rodeo World Championships (WRWC), and hope to see all rodeo athletes at a WCRA event coming soon. Don’t forget, if any of you ladies thought you missed the books for WRWC, you can still enter this historic event, which pays three-quarters of a million dollars, today through November 6, 2020 at www.entrytool.com.

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