Bareback rider Bradlee Miller, who made his RodeoHouston debut last year, said the paychecks from the total payout increase to $2.5 million during the upcoming season would change a competitor’s year.
RodeoHouston announced Thursday its four first place finishers will now receive $65,000, up from the $50,000 they received last year. Second and third place finishers will also see increases.
According to Katelyn Scates, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo director of sports and event presentations, athletes in every event can earn $281,500 over the 20-day period. These events include tie-down roping, bareback riding, team roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wresting, barrel racing, breakaway roping and bull riding.
“It’s always been one of the biggest rodeos and biggest paying rodeos of your year,” Miller said. “But with that increase, it definitely moves it up the ladder, and it makes you that much more grateful to have a chance at it.”
Miller, a Huntsville native, calls RodeoHouston the “closest he’ll get to a hometown rodeo.” He attends roughly 100 to 125 rodeos yearly and says Houston always has a different feel.
“It’s a really cool experience,” he said. “It’s a really large arena with a ton of people, and it’s only about an hour away from home.”
He joked that it makes his life as a full-time pro rodeoer and college student at Sam Houston State University a lot easier, as he can drive down the morning after he competes to make it to class on time.
Miller noted that the proximity keeps expenses minimal, as most competitors fly in, stay at hotels and rent cars.
“The expenditures for rough stock riders are a bit different. For ropers, they are maintaining horses and have trucks and trailers going down the road,” Miller said. “We get to fly around a lot more. Our expenses are a lot heavier during the summer because we have a lot of days where we’re at two rodeos a day.”
“You’re having to try to make it everywhere you can to win the most money you can to compete at the national finals at the end of the year,” he added.
RodeoHouston is the world’s richest regular-season rodeo. The only rodeo that pays out more money than the organization does is the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, which Scates described as the “Super Bowl” of rodeo.
“In 2023, we paid down in places, the fifth and sixth spots,” Scates said. So, we had addressed the lower end of those place payments, but we hadn’t touched on the top part of this in quite some time.”
“I think since 2015, second, third and fourth places haven’t been touched,” she added. “It was really when we were looking at it, we were like, it’s time we look at these numbers and see what we can do for them.”
RodeoHouston worked with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to pick the numbers, find a good spot for the increase to count and put additional funds in the athletes’ pockets.
“I was one spot out of making the finals [last year],” Miller said. “My week got cut short, but I’m hoping for a better year this year.”
RodeoHouston runs from Thursday, March 4, to Sunday, March 23, 2025.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
