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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Dana White and his Saudi sports promoter partner may put on a boxing match at an NFL stadium in Las Vegas and Formula 1 turns the Strip into a fenced-off racetrack every November and Vegas Golden Knights announce crowds of nearly 18,000 strong for their home NHL games just off the Strip.
While sports promoters are always trying to push the wow envelope with more razzle dazzle and glamour in Las Vegas, there’s the ageless National Finals Rodeo, the self-proclaimed Super Bowl of rodeos poised to sell out 379 straight performances during its Dec. 4-13 run at Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus.
It’s year 40 for the cowboys and cowgirls, the horses and the bulls of NFR in Las Vegas after the annual event moved from Oklahoma City to Sin City in 1985 after 20 years in OKC.
The ten-day event is seven rodeo categories of 15 competitors in each category and the total payouts have reached the $18 million range in 2025 after NFR started with $1.8 million.
At Wednesday afternoon’s NFR welcome event at the Thomas & Mack, Nevada’s governor, Joe Lombardo, sat without a cowboy hat next to the man who has kept this event in Las Vegas — South Point owner Michael Gaughan. Former NFR champs from 1985-2024 were among the audience members today.
NFR is unabashedly un-politically correct and a celebration of the authentic country and western lifestyle. During the COVID-19 pandemic at NFR in 2021, fans blew off the local mask requirement. The pre-performance activities each day of NFR always include a prayer to Jesus Christ. And as downtown Las Vegas hotel-casino Derek Stevens put it during his talk this afternoon, the NFR fans and crowds are always “polite and patriotic.”
Stevens is chairman of Las Vegas Events, the LVCVA’s events promotion arm that works with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) to put on NFR. Named Las Vegas Events chairman in March, Stevens said the first half of December in Las Vegas used to be a slow time when hotels did renovations and laid off workers, but he noted NFR has juiced up the economy for the past four decades. Indeed, tens of thousands of rodeo fans descend on Las Vegas while the rodeo’s horses and bulls hang out on UNLV’s intramural fields during their December stay on campus.
UNLV Athletics Director Erick Harper quipped about the rodeo critters on campus, “People ask, ‘What that’s smell?’ I tell them that’s the smell of money.”
People may talk about the NFR moving to bigger venues around Las Vegas, but the fact is Thomas & Mack and its unique two bays design serve as the ideal setting for the big rodeo.
The seats inside the arena also are right on top of the action with excellent sight lines.
The daily rodeo performance typically averages about 17,500 fans a night, an impressive number for the old workhorse arena that also hosts the NBA Summer League every July, the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament in March and UNLV Runnin’ Rebels basketball.
Every seat is sold for NFR, but Las Vegas Events does sell a $70 get-in-the-door ticket for NFR fans to enter the building, soak up the rodeo atmosphere and hang out at a Thomas & Mack bar.
Each night’s competition is held with precision timing, as the national anthem and other pre-event activities start at 5:45 PM before the first category, bareback riding, kicks off at 6 PM. It lasts until 8:18 PM, leaving time for rodeo fans to party into the Las Vegas night.
A horse virus has led to other rodeo events to be canceled around Las Vegas, but the NFR is ready to go.
“Before the NFL, NBA, NHL and soon MLB, there was NFR in Las Vegas,” PRCA CEO Tom Glause said. “I hope the NFR played a small part in these other sports associations coming to Las Vegas. We love being in Las Vegas.”
PSA