Does the sports media dis rodeo?

How many televised first-run PBR events per week? One? Two? On how many outlets? One? Two?

How many televised NHL games every week? 60? 100? On how many outlets? 30? 40?

Apples and oranges. PBR concentrates its viewers on far fewer events on far fewer outlets. The NHL audience is atomized across a wide range of teams and outlets.

There are a lot more people watching hockey in this country than there are watching bull riding. Limited ratings information doesn't mean much.

NASCAR tries to make the same comparison, except with baseball. It sounds good, right up until the moment you compare the raw numbers of people who choose to watch baseball in a given week versus the raw number of people watching NASCAR. NASCAR gets its ass kicked. But then that doesn't sell sponsorships very well.

 

I want all to know that in my very early days working for an itty bitty PMs daily in Oregon, my job was to cover the handful of local rodeos. I took pictures, too, and because I was 18 and bullet-proof I climbed into the arena with the clowns. Once I was chased all the way across the arena by a bull that had quickly dispatched the cowboy on board. I escaped by leaping to the top of a billboard, my feet slowly sinking out of sight of the crowd, which of course roared with laughter.
Rodeos bore me to tears now but boy was it a big event in the little town where I grew up.
A bit hard to cover in terms of getting results, hometowns, etc. But it can be done. Pendleton, Cheyenne, Tucson all devote considerable resources to coverage of the large rodeos there.
And the pro cowboy who goes from rodeo to rodeo, sometimes hitting two or three a weekend, is a tough guy who loves what he does. Just listen to country music if you don't agree, but don't count on the good woman to wait forever for him at home.
And pity the calves in roping. They seem to get the worst of it, including the occasional broken neck.

 

I know it's Garth and all, but a cousin of mine who rode bulls in the PRCA for a coupla years loved, loved this song when he was riding. Said it was a fairly accurate portrait of life in the rodeo.

 

Actually, they call it tie-down rapingroping these days. I never knew the bondage crowd was into rodeo.

 

Save yourself listening to crap-ass Garth Brooks and listen to one (1) Chris Ledoux CD. He was a bareback world champ so he knows of what he writes. Garth should stick to ungodly breaking shit and exploding sliders.

 

Chris Ledoux RIP...God bless him.