This year it will be the same 11 guys in each event at the regular season tour events. Halfway through the season this year, the qualification system will kick in and anyone can enter a qualifying a rodeo and count their points towards the ERA Finals in Dallas. The top 2 guys in each event in the qualifier standings will be allowed to compete with the other 11 guys at the ERA Finals in Dallas.
Next year the qualification system is different. A 15 stop 2017 ERA Tour will consist of 10 athletes in each event and will have tour cuts before tour stops 1, 6 and 11 where the bottom 3 contestants in each event’s standings will fall off and the top 3 contestants from the Qualifying Race will be promoted onto the tour.
There is no payout for the average. It's 2 separate performances.
The guys competing, especially the ones that are stockholders of the ERA, realize this is a work in progress. It's not going to be an overnight success. Each rodeo can't payout $200-300k. The money is just not there right now to pay more than what it's paying. As it is, it's paying out $100,000 each night - $200,000 per weekend. Don't forget, these guys are only having to travel for 12 weekends a year this year. They are not incurring the expense as if they were chasing the PRCA dream 45 weekends a year. PLUS, the finals in November are going to pay out over $3m. So it's realistic for several of the guys to win over $100k this year and all of them will probably end up winning $40-50k. Here's another way to look at it. Between the regular season and the finals, there will be $675,000 paid out per event. That's allowing over $60k average per contestant.
Here is something for you guys to ponder and discuss. For a rodeo to be eligible to be a "qualifying rodeo" it must meet the following criteria:
-Must have all 7 standard rodeo disciplines, unless competition is an ERA approved event.
Bareback Riding
Steer Wrestling
Saddle Bronc Riding
Tie-down Roping
Team Roping
Bull Riding
Barrel Racing
– Must have a minimum of $5,000.00 added money in the event that you are declaring points in.
– The rodeo may not have limits less than 36 entries per discipline.
– Can be any organization or open rodeo whose results are public and verifiable.
There are very few IPRA rodeos that meet this. There are even less open rodeos that meet this. I would venture to guess there are no amateur (CPRA, UPRA, CRRA, etc) rodeos that meet this criteria. So this leaves mainly PRCA rodeos to use as qualifying rodeos. Most all of the contestants can't go to PRCA rodeos so how are they going to re-qualify if they get bumped off tour? I'm sure this is something they have already discovered. They have almost a year to get a system in place that will accommodate the ones that can't go to PRCA rodeos.
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