National Finals Rodeo

Premier rodeo event

The National Finals Rodeo (NFR) is the premier rodeo event by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). The NFR showcases the talents of the PRCA's top 15 money winners in the season for each event. The NFR is held each year in the first full week of December, at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in Paradise, Nevada, United States, and is aired live on The Cowboy Channel. Cowboy Christmas, a cowboy gift show, is held concurrent with the rodeo at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Since the rodeo uses 'special dirt', the dirt is stored on the UNLV campus for use in the next NFR.

The National Finals Rodeo (NFR), known popularly as the "Super Bowl of rodeo," is a championship event held annually by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). Said organization, founded in 1936 as the Cowboys' Turtle Association, then renamed the Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1945, and known as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association since 1975, established the NFR in order to determine the world champion in each of rodeo's seven main events. Bareback riding, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, and bull riding have all been a part of the NFR since the first one in 1959. Team roping was added in 1962, and barrel racing was added in 1967. The NFR showcases the talents of the PRCA's top fifteen money winners in each event as they compete for the world title. From 1981 through 2000, the NFR also had American freestyle bullfighting, where the top six bullfighters from the Wrangler Bullfighting Tour, which had the Wrangler jeans company as the title sponsor, competed at the event after a year of competing at numerous regular season events for the chance to qualify for the NFR and try to win the bullfighting world championship. The Wrangler Bullfighting Tour was discontinued after 2000, and freestyle bullfighting became largely obscured for several years, until being heavily revived in the 2010s. Today, freestyle bullfighting has its own organizations that specialize in the event and world championships are determined there. The world championship steer roping competition, the National Finals Steer Roping (NFSR), also held since 1959, has always been held separately from the regular NFR. The NFSR has been held at the Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane, Kansas since 2014. The National Finals Breakaway Roping (NFBR) has been held since 2020 to determine the Women's Professional Rodeo Association’s world champion breakaway roper. The event is held in conjunction with the NFR. The inaugural NFR was held in 1959 in Dallas, Texas, at the Texas State Fair Coliseum and continued at that venue through 1961. From 1962 to 1964, Los Angeles, California's Los Angeles Sports Arena hosted the competition. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, successfully bid in 1964 to be the host city. In 1965, the first NFR at the State Fair Arena drew 47,027 fans. The NFR remained there through 1978. From 1979 to 1984, the NFR took place at Oklahoma City's Myriad Convention Center, bringing state merchants an estimated annual revenue of $8 million. In 1984, Las Vegas bid for the event. Although the Oklahoma City Council considered building a new $30 million arena at the State Fairgrounds, the Las Vegas bid won. Since 1985, the NFR has been held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The NFR has become Thomas & Mack Center arena's biggest client, bringing in more than 170,000 fans during the 10 day event. The NFR has had a different number of rounds throughout its history. From 1959 to 1960, there were ten rounds; from 1961 to 1966, there were eight rounds; from 1967 to 1969, there were nine rounds; from 1970 to 1977, the event went back to ten rounds; in 1978, there were eleven rounds; and in 1979, the NFR reverted back to having ten rounds, which has been consistent since then. In 2001, a landmark sponsorship agreement was achieved and Wrangler became the first title sponsor of the National Finals Rodeo. The agreement, part of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's continuing effort to elevate professional rodeo to a new level, was made by PRCA Commissioner Steven J. Hatchell. Oklahoma has bid to return the NFR to Oklahoma City, but is always outbid by the deep pockets of Las Vegas. Starting in 2011, Oklahoma City hosted the National Circuit Finals Rodeo (NCFR), which is the Finals for the PRCA's semi pro series. This was seen as a step towards proving the crowds exist to bring the NFR back to Oklahoma City when Las Vegas' contract was scheduled to end in 2014. Following the completion of the 2013 rodeo, Dallas, Texas, and Kissimmee, Florida, made bids to become the host city starting in 2015. On January 24, 2014, the PRCA signed a contract extension through 2024 with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Because the Dallas area hosted in 2020 as a result of Nevada state restrictions, the contract extension was moved to 2025. However, just a few days before the start of the 2023 NFR, it was announced that the Las Vegas Events Board of Trustees and the PRCA Board of Directors had reached an agreement to keep the NFR in Las Vegas through 2035. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic and Nevada's state mandated health restrictions, the 2020 National Finals Rodeo returned to the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex for the first time since 1961 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, where the state's health restrictions were less onerous. The inaugural National Finals Breakaway Roping (NFBR) was also held at Globe Life Field. The NFR returned to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in 2021, while the NFBR moved to the Orleans Arena, also in Las Vegas, that same year. In 2022, the NFBR moved to Las Vegas' South Point Arena. Unlike the first two NFBRs, which took place on same days as the NFR, since 2022, the NFBR takes place two days before the start of the NFR. The 2023 NFR was scheduled to take place from Thursday, December 7 through Saturday, December 16. However, as a result of the UNLV shooting on Wednesday, December 6, which occurred at the Lee Business School, only a mile away from the Thomas & Mack Center, the first round of the NFR was postponed out of respect for the victims. Instead, the first day of competition was held on Friday, December 8. To ensure that there would be ten rounds, on Wednesday, December 13, there were two rounds; one in the afternoon behind closed doors (meaning those with Night One tickets were not given a makeup) and the next one that night with standard Wednesday tickets.

The NFR consists of ten days, each of which has a competition, or "go round", in each event with its own prizes. In addition, each event has a separate set of prizes for having the best combined results over the ten days, referred to as "the average." The payouts are based on the total prize pool. For every $208,000 in the prize pool, the top six in each go round receive $620, $490, $370, $260, $160, and $100, and the top eight in the average receive $1,590, $1,290, $1,020, $750, $540, $390, $270, and $150. In 2012, the prize pool was $6,125,000, so each go round paid $18,257 for first, $14,429 for second, $10,895 for third, $7,656 for fourth, $4,712 for fifth, and $2,945 for sixth, and each event's average paid $46,821 for first, $37,987 for second, $30,036 for third, $22,085 for fourth, $15,901 for fifth, $11,484 for sixth, $7,951 for seventh, and $4,417 for eighth. Between 2015 and 2020, the NFR paid out a total of $10 million; $8.8 million in competition prize money and $1.2 million in guaranteed prize money to qualifiers. The total purse increased to $10,257,048 in 2021 and $10,900,098 in 2022. Based on the updated purse in 2023, the increase saw round winners take home $30,706 per round and average winners earn $78,747. Each go round paid a total of $99,053, while the average total paid $297,159 per event. The stock contractor pay, which is 30% of the contestant payout, increased to $3,450,451.

The Thomas & Mack Center is the home court for the UNLV basketball team. By hosting the NFR, the basketball team plays a few of their away games for about 12 days every December while the NFR is in the Thomas & Mack Center.

The National Finals Rodeo has been televised consistently since 1974. From that year to 1986, the event was telecast through syndication. From 1987 through 2010, it was broadcast by ESPN, although its coverage was often tape delayed due to coverage of other events. From 2011 through 2013, the NFR was broadcast live on Great American Country (GAC). From 2014 through 2019, it was televised on CBS Sports Network. Since 2020, it has been televised live on The Cowboy Channel and RFD TV, and streamed live on the paywall subscription based The Cowboy Channel Plus application.