Every rodeo committee strives to fill seats. The need to come up with something “different” year after year to sell tickets is on your mind constantly. The crowd that we cater to is changing over time. Granted, we will always have the wannbe cowboys and buckle bunnies that show up to every event no matter what kind of show you produce. But you know as well as I that bringing other demographics into your barn is the key to survival.
One population set I believe we are missing are the “young professionals” who view rodeo as a static event that happens in their hometown once a year. By static I mean an activity that is not interactive. Watching rodeo in person is not much different than watching it on TV. Rodeo is typically a unilateral monologue by the announcer or a scripted dialogue with a clown soliciting a canned reaction by the audience. There are no cheerleaders to bring the crowd to their feet and I’ve never seen the wave done in my arena. We don’t even have a seventh inning stretch unless you count a bathroom break on the way to the beer stand after tie down. This is in no way the fault of the announcer, clown, or anyone else for that matter; it is simply the nature of the beast. Let’s take a closer look at this group we are talking about.
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