Rope Myers, Steer Wrestler

When I met with 2001 world-champion steer wrestler Rope Myers last month at the Windy Ryon Memorial Roping in Saginaw, Myers talked about how much he liked a rule that states he can compete in up to 50 rodeos this year.

Myers said the rule is helping him have more time with his family and to do fun things like watching his son play T-ball.

Myers was talking about a new in place in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association that says timed-event competitors can designate 50 rodeos toward a world title and that roughstock riders are allowed 75.

I'm with Myers and highly in favor of a rule that could keep competitors home more often, a rule that helps curtail travel and road costs. It is part of PRCA commissioner Steve Hatchell's savvy plans to create a format where competitors compete in fewer rodeos and earn more money.

I'm perhaps more mindful this month of the new rule because the PRCA has two major June events that world-title contenders will enter.

The first was the Pace Picante ProRodeo Tour last weekend in Las Vegas, a show where event winners finished with $15,000 to $20,000. In order to qualify for the Las Vegas show, a competitor had to finish in the top 12 in an event in the association's Winter ProRodeo Tour.

The tour consisted of 10 sizable rodeos such as Denver, Houston and Red Bluff, Calif., events that a title contender would designate under the new 50- and 75-rodeo rule.

The second is the Reno Rodeo later this month in Nevada. The Reno show traditionally ranks in the top 10 in prize money, and event winners earn from $10,000 to $20,000.

Reno is a stop on the association's 10-rodeo Summer ProRodeo Tour. The September finals in Omaha, Neb., will offer winners $15,000 to $20,000.

If that's not enough, the top 12 competitors from the winter and summer tours and their finales will advance to the November Texas Stampede in Dallas, where winners can walk away with $25,000 to $30,000.

For stars such as Myers, 23 of the 50 rodeos they enter could be the tour events: 10 from the winter tour, 10 from the summer tour and the three finales.

In other words, competitors have the potential to become a world-title contender after competing in fewer than 25 rodeos. That sounds much better than beating it up and down the road to 100 to 125 rodeos and enduring soaring road costs.

Granted, the 50- and 75-rodeo rule is not perfect and might need adjustments such as making both timed-event and roughstock riders compete in 75 rodeos. Or the association might want to add five more stops to each tour since tour rodeos carry so much weight.

But those are modifications that can be made next year. The competitors who are grumbling about the new format should get past being upset about the weaknesses of the rules.

The PRCA now has a commissioner and a board who are looking out for the sport in terms of increasing prize money and decreasing expenses for competitors, and they need to be applauded.

To contact Brett Hoffman, call (817) 390-7707 or e-mail him at hoffman@star-telegram.com

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
400 West 7th
Fort Worth, TX 76102