Known as the "super bowl of rodeo," the National Finals Rodeo is a 10-day long championship held annually by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). The event was first established in 1958 with a view to determining the world champion in six of rodeo's seven main events -- calf roping, steer wrestling, bull riding, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, and team roping (the world championship steer-roping competition has always been held separately) -- and to showcase the talents of the nation's top fifteen money-winners in each event.
The inaugural NFR took place in 1959 in Dallas, where it remained for the following two years before a move to Los Angeles for the 1962-'64 events. Oklahoma City then launched a successful bid to be host city, with the event taking place first in the State Fair Arena and then, from 1978 through 1984, at the Myriad Convention Center.
Then, in 1984, legendary downtown casino owner and Texan Benny Binion joined forces with long-time Sin City über publicist Herb McDonald, who the previous year had co-founded Las Vegas Events, a private, nonprofit organization tasked with attracting and presenting special events that promote tourism and raise awareness of Las Vegas, to launch a bid for Las Vegas to become the host city.
OKC didn't want to give up this money-maker without a fight, but McDonald and LVE guaranteed a prize fund of $1.8 million to the cowboys and $700,000 to the contractors – double, and more than triple, respectively, what the incumbent host was paying.
When the final pitches were made in December of that year, the vote by the PRCA Board of Directors was a 6-6 tie, so it was left to then-PRCA president Shawn Davis, a member of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, to cast the deciding vote. He cast it for Las Vegas, even though the rival bidder considered constructing a $30 million new arena in which to house the event, and the NFR has taken place the first full week in December at the Thomas & Mack Center ever since.
Oklahoma City has apparently never quite come to terms with losing the NFR, however, despite always being outbid by Las Vegas, and in 2011 became host city of the DNCFR (the Finals for the PRCA's semi-pro series), which was seen as step toward trying to recapture the main event.
Las Vegas' contract to host the NFR expires in 2014, but interestingly it hasn't been Oklahoma City, but rather original host Dallas, whose name has been most closely linked to a rival bid. The speculation started back in March 2010, with the debut of the new Cowboys Stadium and a private advance tour of the new mega-facility undertaken by Karl Stressman, boss of the PRCA, amidst rumors that Dallas was interested in wooing the NFR back to Texas.
In a December 2011 interview with the Las Vegas Sun, however, Stressman stressed that the tour had been more for reasons of personal interest than anything else and that he had had no further communication with anyone in Dallas nor actively pursued discourse with any other venue.
"The PRCA is very happy in Las Vegas. We’re treated very, very well the whole time we are here," he observed in the article. "From the cabdrivers to the card dealers to the waiters and waitresses in the restaurants, the casino owners — you name it, we’re treated wonderfully. I don’t think there is anyplace that would treat us the way we have been treated in Vegas."
The solidity of the relationship was also backed up by current Las Vegas Events president Pat Christenson: "We’ve had a contract agreement for 27, 28 years. We’ve never let a contract run out." And it doesn't sound like they're about to now.
So, to answer your question, while Stressman indicated that if it seemed in the interests of the PRCA and the NFR to investigate an alternate home, then the organization would be obliged to pursue that, the current plan remains for the PRCA to meet with Las Vegas officials in the spring of 2013 to initiate formal contract talks. With 250 consecutive sellout events at the Thomas & Mack, we don't anticipate the cowboys leaving Las Vegas anytime soon.
