“It’s Just Not December without Vegas and the NFR”

Posted on by Patrick Everson

By Patrick Everson

There’s no question that the atmosphere at the Thomas & Mack Center is through the roof during the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The energy is pretty hard to top.

But don’t sleep on the more than 20 viewing parties that take place at hotel-casinos all around Las Vegas. Honestly, you couldn’t sleep if you wanted to. It can get pretty raucous during the rodeo, and even more so once the go-rounds end and the party really begins.

I jumped in the car Friday night and made my way to three parties over the course of the Wrangler NFR’s second go-round. The three parties – one downtown, one on the Strip and one where all the cowboys and cowgirls congregate – were quite unique from one another, though there was one overriding theme: a whole lot of people who love rodeo, easy access to good food and drinks, and the camaraderie that comes with the NFR crowd.

Front row, seated, are Marty VanDenEykel and Toni Thellmann. Back row from left: Shawn Rafftery, Tara Rafftery, Ginny Olson, Micki Jay. All from Minnesota.

Toni Thelmann of Pine City, Minn., certainly put it best as she and her crew settled in at one of the huge, round wooden tables at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center viewing party.

“I love it. You can see everything going on at the rodeo. I like the way they set up the screens. I love the decorations,” Thelmann said. “And I love that it has food. I’m an eater!”

Indeed, moments after our discussion, Thelmann had a robust piece of beef on her plate.

On the Vegas Strip, The Mirage has arguably one of the more unique viewing party venues. When the Wrangler NFR is in town, the massive sportsbook converts into a cowboy/cowgirl congregation. Rodeo takes over the sportsbook’s giant screens, there are a couple hundred individual seats, and many people just like to stand up at the high-top tables and enjoy a drink while taking in the competition.

Oh, and a sizable chunk of the room is devoted to a dance floor, for post-go-round activities – the sportsbook VIP area is converted into a massive concert stage. It’s pretty hard to top.

Lisa Berg of Chaffee, North Dakota, said she and her crew are pretty easy to please, and The Mirage hit all the targets.

“As long as you can watch the rodeo – they have these big screens – and if you can get your liquor, we’re good. We’re not hard to please,” Berg said.

Berg was with husband Todd Berg, and they were joined by friends Jerry and Lynn Hennessy of DesLacs, North Dakota. They’ve all been to several Wrangler NFRs, taking in go-rounds at the Thomas & Mack and at the viewing parties. There were very disappointed that Vegas didn’t host the NFR in 2020, and they were thrilled to be back this year.

“This is the only place to have it,” Todd said, to which Lisa replied, “Amen!”

Down Las Vegas Boulevard a few more miles, the South Point Showroom was packed for its viewing party. A group of California rodeo representatives crammed into one booth and made a great time of it Friday night. Among that group: Brandy Marquez, who proved just how much of a Vegas NFR fan she is, while explaining why she wasn’t in Arlington, Texas, where the NFR was held last year due to the pandemic.

“I was here in Vegas when they were in Texas. It’s just not December without Vegas and the NFR,” she said, before raving about the South Point party. “Oh my God, I missed it so much last year. Being able to watch it here in Vegas is amazing. The energy in this room is great. We can all be ourselves and enjoy it.”

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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.