PRCA CEO George Taylor joined Steve Kenyon and Amy Wilson on Western Sports Round-Up to talk about the shutdown of RodeoHouston and the PRCA’s plans for upcoming ProRodeo events.
Pointing out that the Houston rodeo has been held without interruption since 1932, Taylor starts by recognizing how devastating this is for rodeo fans and for the athletes, as well as thanking the many volunteers who have worked tirelessly up to this point and through the years “to make this a huge success and one of the most important rodeos that we have all year.”
When asked what the mid-rodeo cancellation means for contestants who have already won money in Houston, Taylor says: “We’re in the process of getting through, rather than be hasteful in our response to that. We’re going to, over the next 24 to 48 hours, get some answers out to the team. You know, at the highest level, the logical view of this would be that, without everybody being able to compete, you really can’t count some of those points in either the tour standings or our world standings at the end of the day for these guys, but we are going to go through and focus on communicating that as soon as possible.”
On the PRCA’s plans for the ProRodeo Tour moving forward: “… First and foremost, it’s about the safety of our athletes and officials and the committees and the fans that are involved, and we want to do what we have to do. And we will continue to partner with those committees to organize the events as planned until given a specific directive from public health authorities in the relevant regions that would indicate otherwise. So to be very clear, our objective is to continue to host the events as we go forward, and the cancellation of those events without directive from the public health authorities is discouraged.”