NFR’s Final Night Brings 17,373 To Thomas & Mack Center Saturday, With 10-Night Total Attendance Hitting 169,539
Story by Alan Snel Photos by Tom Donoghue
They packed Thomas & Mack Center every night, with about 17,000 National Final Rodeo fans filling the venue nightly for the 10-day Super Bowl of rodeos. In all, announced attendance Saturday evening was the highest of the 10 days at 17,373, bringing total attendance from Dec. 2-11 to 169,539 — up from 168,289 in 2019.
It ended Saturday night with golden buckles handed out to the champion contestants after NFR’s return to its annual championship venue following a one-year detour to Texas because of COVID-19 venue restrictions here in Las Vegas.
There were still coronavirus protocols in place in Clark County and the Thomas & Mack — namely required masks, but those were ignored by the rural cowboy country folks who came from states ranging from Texas to Montana.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Here are your winners:
About 95 percent of the daily performance attendees were out-of-towners, who spent money on hotels like South Point and Mandalay Bay and generated hotel room tax revenues being collected to help pay off the public’s $750 million construction contribution to the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium.
Tonight’s 17,373 figure is the highest attendance for an NFR performance since 2014 when a night brought 18,095 to Thomas & Mack Center. But keep in mind that was before Thomas & Mack was renovated and lost some seating capacity. So Saturday’s attendance was the highest since then.
The all-time attendance record for a single NFR performance at Thomas & Mack is still 18,242 in 2013.
