Professional rodeo's "most prominent cowboys say they are defecting from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to form their own organization, but they are coy about their views on the future of the National Finals Rodeo or any other major rodeo event in Las Vegas," according to a front-page piece by Alan Snel of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The biggest names in rodeo, led by 11-time world all-around champion Trevor Brazile, "signed a statement posted on Facebook this week saying it's time for the sport's top contestants to be directly involved in the sport's future." Steer Wrestler K.C. Jones, one of the organizers, yesterday "confirmed the efforts to leave the PRCA and start a different rodeo cowboy organization." Jones said that cowboys are "already talking with rodeo committees and venues about events outside of Colorado Springs, Colo.-based PRCA." Team Roper Charly Crawford said that the sport's top cowboys "want a bigger voice in the PRCA's decision-making process." He added that big rodeos such as Calgary and Houston "breaking away from PRCA's governance" is a concern. The Facebook statement "does not address specifically why the cowboys want to leave the PRCA and does not bring up the topic of money." But Crawford said that the cowboys' proposal "asked for adding two more cowboy representatives to the PRCA's governing board, which currently has four cowboy reps out of the nine board members." The PRCA "rejected the cowboys' proposal for two extra seats at the board table" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 1/8).
