SAN ANTONIO – The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association said a splinter rodeo athlete group is not welcomed at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.
Elite Rodeo Athletes, which left PRCA in 2014, sued the group on grounds of antitrust. But a judge recently ruled in favor of PRCA, which was founded in 1936.
"Plaintiffs have not made a clear showing that they will suffer irreparable harm absent a preliminary injunction, nor that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims," a PRCA spokesman said in a prepared statement.
Glen Alan Phillips, chief strategy officer for the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, said the legal battle between the two rodeo athlete groups will not affect the rodeo.
"We don't see any impact on our end at all," Phillips said. "We are a PRCA-sanctioned rodeo and have been a PRCA-sanctioned rodeo for many years."
But ERA president and CEO Tony Garritano said that the ruling prevents many of rodeo's top athletes from performing.
"In today's rodeo, what happens is you don't have all the stars of the sport competing on one stage during one performance," Garritano said. "They are spread out over the course of a season. It's more of a shotgun approach."
Garritano said the ERA envisions a mutually beneficial relationship between the two groups that benefits the sport, much like the relationship between the Professional Golfers' Association of America and the United States Golf Association and IndyCar and NASCAR.
The rodeo runs from Feb. 1-28.