The American Flop
by BAL123 on 3/4/15AT&T Stadium - ArlingtonRating: 2 out of 5I was very excited to attend this rodeo!! This is such a high caliber rodeo I had very high expectations. This rodeo did not meet any of them. I understand it is still a new event to the sport of rodeo, but it needs to be much more organized. Some of the events seemed "rigged" and no one knew the rules!! For instance, when there was a tie in the million dollar running they didn't give it to the kid because he didn't "earn it out right". I think that is bull crap and that was made up on the spot. The announcers did a poor job of covering that up! For a second instance, in the barrel racing you did not see the timer going on any run. Hell they didn't announce the names until the last 5 or so in the long go. Who is to say that the times were not manipulated if they did not display them?! For a third instance, the bull riding champion didn't ride the entire 8 seconds in the short go, nor should he have been given a score of 88 for such a poor ride!!!!! All of this and much more made this look just like a poor amateur rodeo not a multi million dollar rodeo!!! By the time the short go started half the people in the stands were gone, and by the time the bull rider made his victory lap in the finals there was no one left in the stands to wave at (even though technically I don't think he earned that tile "out right"!). I watched this event on TV last year and it looked poorly executed and organized, but I thought that they were in their first year and things were kind of thrown together. I thought for sure they would have their act together this year. I am a big fan of rodeo and I compete in many different rodeo sports, but the show they put on at the American was down right poor presentation. I have been to local shows that were much more entertaining than that!!! The main issues with it were:
1. Its too long (break it up into 2 days and sell weekend passes)
2. Announcers were not entertaining nor did they get the crowd involved or get several of the contestants names right
3. Rules need to be established BEFORE rodeo starts or issue comes up
4. Organization was terrible (if you have two arenas it should have flowed much quicker and smoothly)
5. Presentation was terrible
6. No one is going to sit 6-8 hours at a rodeo and not get hungry, bu no one is gonna pay $10 for a damn hot dog. They will just leave and go get better food somewhere more entertaining!
7. In general poor execution!!
I felt bad for the contestants to have to run in this event because many of them had other more important places/rodeos to be. Ya this rodeo may pay good but if it gets a bad rep or loses composure like it did this year it is going to be hard to draw a crowd, get sponsors, and keep contestants wanting to compete. For such a high caliber event it needs A LOT of work!! Get busy guys!!