FORT WORTH, Tex. – The World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA) has announced they will join forces with PBR (Professional Bull Riders) for the revolutionary new Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo, a reimagined rodeo produced by PBR in partnership with Kid Rock. Six teams, each led by a legendary rodeo head coach, will compete in bracket-style competition at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on May 17 for a $1 million purse.
To form the six teams in the new rodeo, five will be drafted by the coaches from any and all eligible rodeo contestants. The only path for non-drafted contestants to compete is by declaring eligibility through the WCRA’s state of the art Virtual Rodeo Qualifier (VRQ) and earning a leaderboard position in the top 20 at Rodeo Corpus Christi on May 8-11, 2024.
The 2024 WCRA Team, “The Free Riders”, will qualify to the team as the first and second place athletes from Rodeo Corpus Christi. The draft for the remaining five teams will take place in February-March 2024.
The six teams comprised of two athletes per discipline will go head-to-head in barrel racing, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, and breakaway roping in a team format, competing in a bracket-style competition featuring Kid Rock live in concert. Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo, scheduled for Friday, May 17, will lead into PBR World Finals – Championship at AT&T Stadium on May 18-19.
“Our latest move to introduce a team format will open more opportunities for any rodeo athlete to compete as part of a team for a $1 million payout,” said WCRA President Bobby Mote. “Our goals when launched were to improve rodeo, increase the payouts, and increase the sport’s exposure. After five years and nearly $17 million in payouts, we believe this new direction with our major events can continue to do just that and introduce rodeo to a whole new market and mainstream media.”
The $1 million purse for Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo will be broken out with $450,000 going to the winning team, and the remaining $550,000 will be paid out to competitors in various ways.
“The new teams format will benefit more athletes than the Triple Crown, while the payout and competition at WCRA majors will remain great,” said Mote. “This reimagined vision of rodeo and rock and roll will be a rodeo experience like no other. The rodeo format features simultaneous head-to-head competition in AT&T Stadium in a tournament-style bracket for a million-dollar purse.”
Each discipline will be showcased as the teams battle through the first three rounds of competition. All teams will go head-to-head in a randomly seeded Round 1, with the winning team from each showdown automatically advancing. The top performer of the three losing teams will earn a Wild Card berth in Round 2. The four advancing teams will then compete head-to-head in Round 2, with the winners earning a spot in the final round, determining the discipline victor – each discipline finish earns points for each team to qualify to the ultimate TEAM SHOWDOWN – the Top 2 Teams competing one final time for the Team title.
WCRA will also announce four last-chance qualifiers for the 2024 event in the coming months.
Nominations for the May 8-11 Rodeo Corpus Christi are open now and will close on April 7, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. For information on how to nominate and earn a position, visit wcrarodeo.com.
WCRA will change its focus from The Triple Crown of Rodeo format to the teams rodeo format beginning in May 2024. All athletes currently eligible for the Triple Crown of Rodeo will qualify until their TCR run ends at 2024 Rodeo Corpus Christi. No current TCR-eligible athlete (event champions from WCRA Rodeo Carolina) has more than one win.
Looking ahead to the 2025 Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo, a nomination process on the VRQ will be used, similar to the qualification process for the Women’s Rodeo World Championship and The Cinch World Championship Junior Rodeo. The 2025 Free Riders will be made up of the champions from the 2024 WCRA Rodeo Carolina on October 3-6 and 2025 Rodeo Corpus Christi.
Since launching in May of 2018, the WCRA and its partners have awarded more than $16,800,000 in new money to rodeo athletes.
ABOUT WCRA
WCRA is a professional sport and entertainment entity created to develop and advance the sport of rodeo by aligning all levels of competition. In association with the PBR, WCRA produces major rodeo events, developing additional opportunities for rodeo-industry competitors, stakeholders, and fans. To learn more, visit wcrarodeo.com. For athletes interested in learning more about the WCRA Virtual Rodeo Qualifier (VRQ) system, visit app.wcrarodeo.com
