{"id":314815,"date":"2026-05-30T01:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/314815\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T01:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:25:07","slug":"where-the-money-is-top-breakaway-ropers-embrace-finals-move-to-fort-worth-and-sharpen-the-push-for-equal-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/314815\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Where the Money Is’: Top Breakaway Ropers Embrace Finals Move to Fort Worth\u2014and Sharpen the Push for Equal Pay\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a span at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas in December\u00a0before the NFR, the\u00a0National Finals Breakaway Roping<\/a>\u2014now rebranded the Wrangler WPRA National Breakaway Finals\u2014will run December 18-19, 2026, at the newly remodeled Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The reaction across the top of the\u00a0World Standings\u00a0has been remarkably uniform:\u00a0the ropers\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0arguing about the zip code\u2014they\u2019re\u00a0arguing for the purse.\u00a0The move\u00a0is\u00a0a chance to\u00a0continue pushing\u00a0forward\u00a0the\u00a0fastest-growing event in\u00a0ProRodeo, and to finally close a gap that has\u00a0the\u00a0World\u00a0Champion\u00a0winning\u00a0less than a single go-round at the NFR pays the men.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

No one framed that vision more directly than\u00a0eight-time WPRA World Champion,\u00a0Lari Dee Guy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, breakaway roping needs to be at\u00a0the\u00a0Thomas\u00a0and Mack\u00a0with the rest of the events,\u201d\u00a0Guy said.\u00a0\u201cAnd until they can get it there and get the equal money, to me, Texas is the best place for it\u2014and I feel that we can get equal money for it in Texas. By doing that, I think it\u2019ll be hard to keep us out of the Thomas and Mack\u00a0if we can pack the stands in Texas and get equal money.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackie Crawford\u2014<\/a>the 2020 inaugural\u00a0NFBR\u00a0World Champion\u2014echoed the same emphasis on the payout, even while saying the Vegas dream\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0dead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be fun,\u201d said Crawford. \u201cI think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0going to be good.\u00a0All of the things surrounding the move, like the ability to make the payout better,\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0huge\u00a0part of the excitement that I hope comes in Fort Worth.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That sentiment,\u00a0echoed in conversations with reigning World Champion Taylor Munsell,<\/a>\u00a02021\u00a0World Champion Sawyer Gilbert<\/a>, and\u00a05x\u00a0NFBR qualifier Martha Angelone<\/a>,\u00a0frames the early reaction to a decision the WPRA called \u201ca new chapter\u201d for the\u00a0finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Quick History: Why Fort Worth\u00a0Isn\u2019t\u00a0Actually New\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0worth remembering that the\u00a0NFBR\u00a0was\u00a0born\u00a0in Texas. The inaugural\u00a0National Finals Breakaway Roping\u00a0ran Dec. 8\u201310, 2020 at Globe Life Field in Arlington\u2014the same year the NFR temporarily\u00a0relocated\u00a0from Las Vegas because of\u00a0the\u00a0COVID-19\u00a0pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Six finals later, the event has been hosted in Las Vegas at the\u00a0Orleans Arena and\u00a0South Point Arenas\u00a0and, most recently in 2025, at the Fort Worth Stockyards\u2019 Cowtown Coliseum after an\u00a0EHV-1 outbreak forced a last-minute move from Las Vegas. That 2025 contingency, by\u00a0nearly every\u00a0roper\u2019s account, was a happy accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Common Thread #1: Vegas Was Set Up to Fail\u00a0<\/p>\n

The strongest agreement\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0about Fort Worth\u2014it was about why Vegas never quite worked. The Finals ran in the days\u00a0before\u00a0the NFR began, which put the\u00a0finals\u00a0up against rodeo-committee meetings, junior back-number ceremonies, sponsor booth setup, and travel days for fans who\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0yet in town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201d\u00a0One of the things that I heard kind of\u00a0commented\u00a0was, \u2018You guys\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0even sell out the South Point.\u2019,\u201d said Crawford. \u201cAnd it is true. We\u00a0definitely did\u00a0not sell out\u00a0the South\u00a0Point. We had a great\u00a0crowd,\u00a0it was\u00a0pretty full. But\u00a0here\u2019s\u00a0the thing\u2014when you set up your event to\u00a0almost be\u00a0a failure,\u00a0in the sense of if\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0looking for crowd participation, you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0have it in the front of a major expensive place that people go. You\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0have it before an event ever starts\u00a0at\u00a0one of the most expensive trips people are going to take throughout the year. When you put the Breakaway Finals where it had to be,\u00a0in order to\u00a0be in Vegas, days before the NFR starts, you\u2019ve got people trying to set their booths up, you\u2019ve\u00a0got committee meetings so that committees couldn\u2019t even come watch it when they wanted to. You\u2019ve got youth events like the Johnsons put their mandatory back number ceremony over the top of the breakaway\u00a0finals\u00a0and you\u2019re not allowed to miss it\u2014you\u2019re almost set up to not have a crowd.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Vegas, the issue was just\u00a0with\u00a0it\u00a0being days before the actual NFR starts,\u201d said Munsell.\u00a0\u201cSo,\u00a0for anybody that planned\u00a0on coming\u00a0to Vegas, if they did want to watch the breakaway and watch a go-round at the NFR, they ended up having to be out there for several days. And then our finals\u00a0were\u00a0over the top of a bunch of the junior rodeo back-number ceremonies and a bunch of the rodeo committee meetings.\u00a0So,\u00a0we weren\u2019t really set up to draw a crowd in Vegas.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it was\u00a0at\u00a0Vegas,\u00a0there\u00a0was\u00a0always other things going on,\u201d Guy said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u00a0was hard to get all the fans that\u00a0actually wanted\u00a0to be there, there.\u00a0The hustle and bustle of everything happening took away from the crowd.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Crawford and Munsell pointed to the\u00a0arena\u00a0sellout in Fort Worth in 2025 as proof of concept.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to see how fast\u00a0Fort Worth sold out when it\u2019s set how it should be,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cTo see the crowd that came out and were really, truly fans of\u00a0breakaway\u00a0was\u00a0really cool in Fort Worth.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople really showed up for us down there last year, and I think that they\u2019ll do it again this year.\u201d\u00a0Munsell said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gilbert took it further, arguing geography no longer dictates\u00a0the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of people in South Dakota and Nebraska that would drive down to Fort Worth for the weekend to watch the Breakaway Finals because it\u2019s 12\u00a0or14 hours for them,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a long-weekend vacation\u00a0and\u00a0they could watch something they enjoy watching.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0not going to drive out to Vegas to watch the 45-minute concert that the Thomas & Mack does now.\u00a0I can think of probably 20 people off the top of my head that would just come down and watch the\u00a0breakaway\u00a0finals.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Common Thread #2:\u00a0Yes,\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0About\u00a0The\u00a0Money\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every\u00a0cowgirl\u00a0we spoke with steered the conversation back to one\u00a0topic: how much they\u2019re\u00a0actually competing\u00a0for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The math, frankly, is brutal. The 2025 NFBR paid\u00a0roughly\u00a0$6,000\u00a0per go-round and $17,000 for\u00a0the average.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0structure\u00a0some\u00a0compared, unfavorably, to amateur association finals\u00a0that\u00a0require far less\u00a0overhead to qualify.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe rodeo all year long to go to the finals and shoot at $6,000 go-rounds,\u201d\u00a0said Angelone. \u201cHalf the\u00a0rodeos\u00a0we go to all year pay better than our finals do. I still UPRA and CPRA rodeo, and those finals have three rounds and an average and their rounds pay $3,200 a lot of times\u2014that\u2019s crazy to think that an amateur association\u00a0that\u00a0you wouldn\u2019t have to leave your house for has a finals that pays at least half of what our pro rodeo finals do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be\u00a0No. 15\u00a0in the world, you have no chance to win the world that year,\u201d said Gilbert.\u00a0\u201cI understand that this year it\u2019s not going to be the same payoff as the men at the Thomas & Mack, but we can maybe add\u00a0something\u00a0and\u00a0then next year we can try to do something more, instead of just the same old thing and going for the trinkets.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest thing is we need to get more added money,\u201d\u00a0Munsell stressed.\u00a0\u201cWe need to be roping for more money at our finals.\u00a0That\u00a0way\u00a0there\u2019s more than just three or five girls that come out of the finals winning enough money to make it worth it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The contrast\u00a0Angelone\u00a0drew between the men\u2019s and women\u2019s payouts at the NFR is the kind of detail fans rarely\u00a0think about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys can go make a house payment or pay a house off or buy the rig they\u2019ve been needing,\u201d said Angelone. \u201cFor us, you can\u00a0go have\u00a0a\u00a0badass finals\u00a0and\u00a0maybe have\u00a0a down payment for a horse trailer\u2014not even a good down payment. Even if we\u2019re in the Thomas & Mack and only getting to rope for $6,000 a go-round, it\u2019s still not the same.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For reference,\u00a0Rylee\u00a0George led all 2025 NFBR earners with\u00a0$25,212\u00a0out of the building\u2014a sum the top NFR cowboys can clear in a single round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Common Thread #3: Fort Worth Is the\u00a0Bridge, Not the Destination\u00a0<\/p>\n

None of these ropers are giving up on Las Vegas,\u00a0or on the dream of breakaway eventually rolling into the Thomas & Mack alongside the NFR. They simply see Fort Worth as the most direct path to making that future financially worth chasing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like Fort Worth\u2019s going to give us opportunity\u2014I\u2019m not saying $30,000 go-rounds\u2014but I think they\u2019ll help us gradually add the money to the finals,\u201d said Angelone.\u00a0\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s in Vegas, it\u2019s in Florida, it\u2019s wherever. The fans and the contestants are going to want to go where the money\u2019s at.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil they can get [breakaway] in the Thomas &\u00a0Mack\u00a0with equal money, Texas is the best place for it,\u201d said Guy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, for its part, has the receipts to back the partnership. FWSSR earned the\u00a02020 WPRA Breakaway Trailblazer Year-End Award\u00a0for being one of the first\u00a0ProRodeos\u00a0to feature women\u2019s breakaway with\u00a0equal money\u00a0during its regular performances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Outliers:\u00a0Opinions Outside\u00a0the Numbers\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the distinct overall opinion is just that the cowgirls want\u00a0and deserve\u00a0equal money, there\u00a0were\u00a0a few unique outlooks that deserve their moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Munsell,\u00a0said her biggest gut-punch about leaving Vegas isn\u2019t where they rope,\u00a0\u2014it\u2019s that the Finals now sits\u00a0after\u00a0the NFR, which means the breakaway world champion won\u2019t share the championship stage at the Thomas & Mack with the rest of rodeo\u2019s world titlists\u00a0in Round 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the world, that was kind of the biggest letdown\u2014not getting to be a part of that,\u201d said Munsell.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve heard from some of the other world champs that have gotten to do that, that it\u2019s a surreal moment, and getting to be recognized on the same stage as the other world champions is awesome.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gilbert, who has\u00a0added experience on the production side of the sport, questioned why the WPRA didn\u2019t take the opportunity of a later, larger venue to\u00a0add a day\u00a0and reduce the punishing five-runs-a-day rotation that has defined the\u00a0finals\u00a0since 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard\u00a0roping\u00a0five calves in that situation a day,\u201d said Gilbert.\u00a0\u201cWhy did we not add a day if\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0going to have it a week later\u00a0in Fort Worth? Why is it not three days or four days, or run two calves a day or three calves a day, instead of the five-a-day\u00a0setup?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She described the operational reality from her last Finals\u2014finishing an interview while the arena is being raked, still tying her rope on as her name is being called, trying to remember whether the calf in the chute is her sixth or seventh\u00a0run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Angelone\u00a0framed the issue around something most fans\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0see: the financial reality of qualifying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou rack up your credit card bills, which everybody\u2019s different, but a lot of people have credit card debt\u00a0and\u00a0whenever we come home, we have to pay off,\u201d\u00a0said Angelone.\u00a0\u201cHalf the time you go to the\u00a0finals\u00a0and you can\u2019t even pay your credit card debt off.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crawford was careful not to oversell standalone events. A\u00a0standalone breakaway finals, even a sellout one, is harder than a full rodeo to fill, she noted,\u00a0but Fort Worth is rare in that it has a genuine, organic breakaway fan base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat brings the crowd is the entire rodeo together as a team, as a community,\u201d said Crawford.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bigger Picture: The Equal-Money Argument Already Has the Receipts\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case for an equal\u2014or at least\u00a0a\u00a0dramatically improved\u2014NFBR purse\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0have to\u00a0start from scratch. The numbers around\u00a0ProRodeo\u00a0breakaway have been on a tear, and the rodeos most willing to invest have been rewarded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few recent benchmarks worth keeping in mind:\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 500\u00a0ProRodeos\u00a0added breakaway roping between 2019 and 2024, a\u00a0roughly twenty-fold\u00a0expansion of the\u00a0discipline\u2019s\u00a0footprint inside the PRCA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Women bought 60% of rodeo and concert tickets and accounted for 63% of in-person attendance in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Top 20\u00a0ProRodeo\u00a0breakaway earners cleared a\u00a0combined $2.09 million in 2025, a\u00a0~37% jump from 2023\u2014and the 20th-place check alone jumped from $47,068 to $64,703 over the same period.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cheyenne Frontier Days\u00a0found $67,000 in 2021 to bring breakaway to equal money with every other event in The Daddy of \u2018Em All. CEO Tom Hirsig\u2019s reasoning was unsentimental:\u00a0\u201cWhy not?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Calgary Stampede\u00a0added breakaway with a\u00a0$310,250 equal-money purse\u00a0in 2025, and the\u00a0inaugural NFR Playoff in\u00a0Puyallup,\u00a0Washington\u00a0wrote breakaway into a $1 million payout with equal added money.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rodeo Austin\u00a0paid\u00a0$52,000 in\u00a0equal\u00a0added money\u00a0to its 2025 breakaway field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The PWR just paid\u00a0$62k to each event winner\u00a0at their finals at the Cowtown Coliseum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words: when committees treat breakaway as a featured event, the crowds and the dollars follow. Fort Worth, which has been doing exactly that since 2020, is now being asked to prove the same thing\u00a0again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next\u00a0<\/p>\n

The WPRA has said\u00a0additional\u00a0details on contract terms, ticketing, and added money will be released in the coming weeks. Tickets and presale\u00a0offers\u00a0can be tracked at\u00a0wpra.com\/2026nbf<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the women\u00a0who\u2019ll\u00a0be backing into the box at Will Rogers Coliseum on Dec. 18\u201319, the message to the WPRA, FWSSR, and Wrangler is unified.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that everyone\u2019s on board, and we can all just continue to work together to make it better for the future.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Jackie Crawford\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a span at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas in December\u00a0before the NFR, the\u00a0National Finals Breakaway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117,103191,113215,103181,113216,106734],"class_list":["post-314815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-jackie-crawford","tag-lari-dee-guy","tag-martha-angelone","tag-nfbr","tag-top-15"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}