After the Party, it’s the NFR Party

Posted on by Patrick Everson

Perhaps the best thing that ever happened to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo was event officials deciding it would be a good idea to make the nightly go-rounds available on a live feed to hotel properties all over Las Vegas.

After all, for the last 32 of the Wrangler NFR’s 34 years at the Thomas & Mack Center, selling out the arena hasn’t been a problem. But there are thousands upon thousands of fans who don’t have tickets each night and want to see the rodeo.

The live feed has become a spectacle unto itself, creating viewing parties all over town, some quite large. And the viewing parties then turn into after-parties, where the cowboys and cowgirls really kick up their heels.

This intrepid reporter took it upon himself to hit five venues for viewing parties and after-parties on Friday night. Following are some of the best quotes and anecdotes from each stop, in chronological order.

6:05 p.m., Downtown Las Vegas Events Center

Tater and Courtney Wilbanks settle in at a table with a few friends, about an hour before the Wrangler NFR’s second go-round begins. They are regular attendees, traveling from Beebe, Ark., and their group has a great view of the big screens.

IMG_4748[1]Courtney decides her husband could use a good drink to get things started, and tries to surprise Tater by not telling him what kind of drink she’s brought back to the table.

But he quickly figures it out, with arguably the quote of the whole night.

“It’s Cherry Coke and rum,” Tater says. “Or as we call it back home, coffee.”

7:30 p.m., Gilley’s Saloon & Dance Hall, Treasure Island

The viewing party is well underway at this point, but Gilley’s provides more than just a place to watch the world’s best cowboys and cowgirls compete. Party attendees can try to show their rodeo mettle on the venue’s mechanical bull.

IMG_4787[1]And Heather Kisor of Kasota, Minn., is all in after watching husband Aaron Kisor take the bull for a spin.

“My husband’s boss got my husband on it. And I said, ‘Oh, the hell with it, I’m doing it,’” Kisor says. “I got on it, and I lasted four seconds longer than my husband!”

8 p.m., The Mirage sportsbook

The Mirage offers one of the most unique viewing parties/after-parties, as the Wrangler NFR takes over the sportsbook for 10 nights. The floor is packed with rodeo fans all night long.

IMG_4795[1]But over the past couple of years, Brandon Noel and Donna Collins figured out a way to make it almost like dinner and movie, albeit a movie of the world’s top cowboys and cowgirls, shown competing on the sportsbook’s massive big screens. You see, adjacent to the book is California Pizza Kitchen, and there are a few tables that offer a perfect view.

“This was my idea,” Collins says, as she and Noel munch on pizza and take in the rodeo.

Says Noel: “She’s the brains of the operation.”

No question.

8:35 p.m., The Orleans

When you see a guy with two fistfuls of Bud Lights, well, you’ve got to talk to him. That’s the case with Robbie Sutton, joined by wife Julie Sutton and friends Brittney Loosli and Justin Jensen at the Honky Tonk Saloon, which hosts a nightly viewing party.

IMG_4804[1]You’ll never guess what he likes best about this spot.

“It’s easy to get a drink,” Sutton says with a laugh.

11:20 p.m., South Point

After each go-round, many in the rodeo crowd crush into the South Point Showroom, for the buckle presentations to winners of each event in that night’s go-round, followed by a late-night country music concert. Seats become quite a hot commodity, so you tend to make new friends in a hurry if you’ve got any vacancies at your table.

IMG_4825[1]That’s how it works out for John Greco of Park City, Utah, seated in what’s become his regular spot, along with friends Scot Corbin and Melissa Williams – and six perfect strangers, all jammed into a booth.

“Until about 30 minutes ago, we didn’t know any of these people,” Greco says. “They all just showed up.”

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I remember it like it was yesterday. In 1992, just more than a year out of college at the University of Colorado, I was working at the Loveland Reporter-Herald as a sports writer. It was the midst of summer, typically the slow season for newspaper sports departments. My boss, sports editor Joe Cervi, approached me one morning and said some semblance of the following: “The Larimer County Fair is this week. You’re covering the rodeo.” To which I initially said to myself, “Man, I drew the short straw this week.” I’d never covered rodeo, never even been to a rodeo. You all know the cliché, “This isn’t my first rodeo,” right? Well, the Larimer County Fair was indeed my first rodeo, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. Football, basketball, baseball? I’m all in. Even track and swimming. Love covering those. But rodeo? That first night, I got to the Larimer County Fairgrounds about an hour before the first bareback bronc was scheduled to bust out of the chute. I had no idea where I was supposed to go to cover this event. I met up with a rodeo representative, who took me up a set of wooden steps to a somewhat rickety wooden press box. And it’s right over the chutes. As I’d learn by night’s end, the only way I could be closer to the action is if they strapped me aboard a pick-up horse and duct-taped my notebook to the hand rigging. (See how I just dropped those rodeo terms on you? Pick-up horse. Hand rigging.) I’ve covered some incredible college football games. I’ve covered Denver Broncos games. Big-time sporting events, to be sure. But I have never been closer to such dramatic action than at the Larimer County Fair. I saw feats of athleticism, dare and darn-near destruction. It was stunning, and at one point a bit shocking as a bull rider took a heavy hoof to the head.nfr-experience_blog It was also invigorating. I went back to Joe the next day and said, “I want to cover this as long as I’m here.” When I moved to Las Vegas to work for the Review-Journal in 1994, I let my boss, sports editor Jim Fossum, know that if there was any way I could help cover the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, I wanted to do it. And so I have, in some form or fashion, every year since arriving here. Over the next 10 days, I’ll be blogging in this space about all aspects of the WNFR, from the arena dirt to the fans in the stands to the press room, from Wednesday night’s Downtown Hoedown to blowout viewing parties at the hotel-casinos to Cowboy Christmas. You’ll get content that you won’t find anywhere else, as I bring you inside the entire WNFR experience.cropped-30400946704_1bdda56ef6_k.jpg After all, this isn’t my first rodeo.