The UNLV air is redolent with horse excrement and parking is completely jacked up, which can mean only one thing: the rodeo is in town. If you don’t know what I mean, read this from the LVRJ:
Since professional rodeo’s biggest event came here in 1985, innumerable Southern Nevada residents and businesses, as well as visitors with links to the rodeo, have quietly cashed in on the collective presence of so many cowboys, urban or otherwise.
Last year, NFR events sold a record 176,575 tickets and attracted 37,375 out-of-towners during an otherwise slow stretch of early December.
Those guests spent $39.3 million on nongaming goods and services, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Ticket sales this year should come close to those of 2004, but trends suggest NFR will draw 40,000 visitors and approximately $43 million in nongaming spending from today’s opening round through Dec. 11’s championships.
Some of that money benefit local workers like Barbara Hanabergh and Michael “Cajun” Theriot, who eagerly anticipate NFR’s annual return.
Hanabergh has worked 18 years at two Boyd Gaming Corp. properties that cater heavily to the rodeo crowd: Sam’s Town and the Stardust. Tips from visiting cowboys and cowgirls double what casino workers would otherwise earn this time of year, she said.
“In the rodeo’s initial years, we’d have to take three or four days off a week because business was slow. Now, no one gets any extra days off during NFR,” said Hanabergh, a table games dealer at the Stardust for the past 12 years.
“The rodeo crowd gives everyone a Christmas,” she added.
Theriot, a local bartender for 30 years, said the same rodeo fans often belly up to his counter year after year.
“We’ve become like family,” Theriot said.
Rodeo fans typically buy a few drinks before the events, but business is best after 10 p.m. when fans return from the Thomas & Mack.
During the next few weeks, going around without cowboy boots and a hat will mark you as an outsider. And I have to deal with the pungent odors coming from the Thomas and Mack Center every morning. Still, the rodeoers keep room rates up in December, so everyone’s happy.
I’m off to Mandalay Bay and the Las Vegas Marathon expo to pick up my registration materials now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post on Monday about what happens in my day at the races.
I’m going to flout the official suggestions and not carbo load at Postrio or Spago. Instead, it’s probably a pasta special at Nevada Palace, Sam’s Town, or Sweet Tomatoes. I just can’t picture someone shoving down food at those Strip places.