North Dakota to host largest one-head rodeo in the nation
Rough Rider Cup will “change lives” by offering chance to qualify for the Wrangler NFR
The largest regular-season one-head rodeo in the nation will be held in Mandan, North Dakota this month.
The Dakota Community Bank and Trust Rough Rider Cup will take place at Dale Pahlke Arena September 20-22, with over a half-million dollars in purse money to be paid out to the winners.
The rodeo will consist of 36 entries in each event, including WPRA barrel racing and breakaway roping. The top 32 contestants in each event, based on 2024 money won a week before entries close, will be allowed to enter.
The remaining four places will be filled by the champions at each of four rodeos: Dickinson and Mandan, N.D., and Aberdeen and Rapid City, S.D. (Range Days, held in August).
Sixty thousand dollars is added to each event ($120,000 in the team roping), the kind of money that can catapult a cowboy in 20th or 30th place in the world into the top fifteen, right before the PRCA season ends Sept. 30.
The N.D. Rough Rider Cup will be held ten days before the end of the PRCA rodeo season, which heightens the intensity: contestants will be able to win enough money to move them into the top fifteen in their event, guaranteeing them a spot at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in December.
That’s the kind of enthusiasm Chad Berger, award-winning PBR and PRCA stock contractor, and Mandan resident, wants for his rodeo.
“A guy could come here in twenty-fifth place and leave here in the top ten,” he said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
The Rough Rider Cup is one of four large-paying rodeos that wind down the rodeo season.
“You’ve got Puyallup (Washington) two weeks before our rodeo, Pendleton (Oregon) the week before ours, with huge payouts at those, then you have ours, which is a bigger payout than any of them, and then Sioux Falls, and then the season is over.”
The CINCH Playoffs in Sioux Falls, S.D. take place Sept. 26-28, with purse money of $144,444 in each event ($288,888 in the team roping). It is the largest regular-season rodeo, but it is not one-head, like the Rough Rider Cup is.
“There will be some huge moves in the last couple of weeks (of the rodeo season), and we’ll be where some of the moves are made,” Berger said.
Announcers Andy Stewart, Collinston, Louisiana, and Scott Grover, Camden Point, Missouri, will call the action; bullfighters Layton Woodbury, Carson, N.D., and Richard Ratley, Sharon, Kansas, will work cowboy protection. Pickup men will be Ryan Hanna, Berthold, N.D., Denton Good, Long Valley, S.D., and Brandon Hatzenbuhler, Solen, N.D.
Dakota Rodeo (Berger and Joe Simon) will provide the bucking bulls; horses will be provided by Dakota Rodeo, Macza Pro Rodeo, Smith Pro Rodeo, Harper & Morgan Rodeo Co., and Bailey Pro Rodeo.
Entertainment for fans will include the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, which will set up a village and have dancers, singers and drummers entertaining prior to the rodeo on Sept. 20. Sat., Sept. 21 is Military Appreciation Night, with guests from the Naval Special Warfare-US Navy SEALs.
The rodeo will be held at the Dale Pahlke Arena in Mandan which is newly constructed and has covered grandstands.
Berger is proud to bring a rodeo of this size and importance to North Dakota and his hometown of Mandan.
“I’ve always wanted to bring something this big to my hometown,” he said. As the fifth generation of his family to live near Mandan, he’s proud of where he lives.
“I’ve been a Mandan guy all my life. I wanted to bring something with significance, that will change people’s lives, before they leave here. The guy that comes in here twenty-fifth in the world in the steer wrestling could leave here in tenth place in the world. With one good run, that’s all it takes.
“I guess if anybody knows me, I like to do big things.
“This is like bringing the National Finals (Rodeo) to North Dakota. A lot of great things are going to happen in three days.”
Tickets are $25 for general admission and $40 for reserved seating (plus fees). Children 5 and under are free in general admission seating.
Tickets can be purchased at NDRoughridercup.com and Eventgroove.com.
Major sponsors for the ND Rough Rider Cup are ND Tourism, Dakota Community Bank and Trust, and the MHA Tribe.
