Top rodeo competitors bolt for new tour

Coming off another year where he missed the "playoffs" in his sport of rodeo, Ryan Gray and some of his fellow cowboys are looking in a different direction for their futures.

The Elite Rodeo Athletes' League of Rodeo Champions will launch its season in 2016 with a series of events scheduled to be broadcast on Fox Sports, culminating with the championships at American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas from Nov. 9-13, 2016.

"We have not released the tour schedule for 2016, but our first event is targeted for the spring," Holly DeLaune, ERA's media relations director wrote in an email.

In joining ERA, Gray, who, because of injury, failed to qualify for the Pro Rodeo Cowboy's Association (PRCA) National Finals, may be blocked from participation in 2016 events. But he's willing to take the chance things will be better. ERA recently filed a class action antitrust lawsuit against PRCA.

"It's similar to what the PBR (Pro Bull Riding) did a few years ago," Gray said of ERA. "It will include all rodeo events."

Plenty of notable PRCA competitors - including bareback leader Kaycee Feild, Tuf Cooper, a three-time tie-down roper and barrel racer Fallon Taylor - have joined Gray at trying to make a living just a bit easier in a rigorous line of work.

"There's 80 guys who are committed to standing firm to be a part of it, having an interest in making rodeo better for the future," Gray said. "It's not just for us here and now, it's for the future of our sport."

PRCA is a member-driven organization, Gray explained. "They have to accommodate 5,000 members and there's (just) 1 percent (of competitors) that compete in rodeo for a living."

The format is not conducive to promote a high level of rodeo, like the NFL or any number of other sports Gray said. It could best be likened to having local racetrack drivers on the same track as NASCAR's elite competitors.

ERA will hopefully encourage kids to want to rodeo, just like they play football, because it will be easier to watch and follow, Gray explained.

Gray agreed that unlike other sports, one does not just have a rodeo tryout in a given city one day. It's something that it is quite generational - as it was with his father being a cowboy who instilled it in his sons.

Gray said he wants his son Ransom to want to follow in his dad's boot-steps if he chooses. But at this point in the current system Gray does not want his son to have to chase all over the country, going to 100 rodeos to try to make a living - and doing so without any guarantee. ERA will offer some of those assurances.

"At the end of the day, if I get hurt, no one's knocking on my door to pay my bills," Gray said.

It's not as if PRCA hasn't done a good job. "It's not that they (PRCA) haven't done the best that they can, but at the same time we feel like it could be better," Gray said. "We want kids growing up and wanting to do it but get something out of it."

There are more than just benefits to the participants. Fans will be able to follow events and participants much more easily, Gray said. Instead of trying to follow several hundred rodeos all season, there will be under 20 and all on television.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].