Family, friends and lots of drinks make for fun nights watching NFR at casinos

Every night throughout the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the Thomas & Mack Center packs ‘em in, running its sellout streak to 300 by the time the 2016 event wraps up Saturday. But those 17,000 or so folks in the arena represent just a fraction of rodeo fans here this week.

So where are the rest of those people while the riding, roping and racing takes place?

Thanks to viewing parties scattered up and down Las Vegas Strip, on Fremont Street downtown, at the South Point and many points beyond, thousands upon thousands of cowboys and cowgirls are right in the thick of the action, every night. The live, commercial-free feed provides sightlines you can’t even get from inside the Thomas & Mack Center.

And as a trip around town Tuesday night demonstrates, there are all sorts of ancillary benefits to the way the overwhelming majority of fans experience the 10-day December run each year. Here’s a timeline of how that trip unfolded.

7 P.M., THE D

Smack in the middle of the Fremont Street Experience lies the D Las Vegas, but head a block south to the hotel’s nightly viewing party, and that’s where the real action is during the NFR. A humongous enclosed tent provides seating for hundreds, who can view competition on two huge big screens facing out in each direction from the center of the room, with a full bar set up between the two screens.

There are even tables along each side with smaller monitors above them. So wherever you end up, you’re right on top of the rodeo. On this night, a big group fills out a huge round table to watch the action on one of the big screens. As the bareback riding breaks out of the chute to open the sixth go-round, everyone at the table is already revved up and ready to go.

Sharon Salvator and husband Jamie Salvator are appointed as group spokespeople, which proves smart, especially in Sharon’s case. She and Jamie have been coming to the NFR for 18 years, so they’ve seen this event from many different venues.

“This is by far the best viewing if you’re not actually there,” Sharon says. “Live television broadcast, great bar, big glasses, good ice, rock on!”

If you’re willing to go so far as to compliment the ice, it must be a pretty good party.

Sharon and Jamie, who raise rodeo bulls in Wright City, Mo., were particularly impressed when Derek Stephens, owner of the D, chatted them up last year as they first checked out this viewing party.

“We met him on the second night, and we told him how great it was,” Jamie recalls, noting Stephens made a point of asking what he could do to make the experience better, taking suggestions to heart and making one small request himself.

“He said, ‘The only thing I ask is that you bring more people.’ By the fourth night, we had about 20 people, and he came over and personally thanked us for bringing them.

“Derek is great. You’ll see him in here a lot.”

The Salvators and all their friends show up around 6 to grab dinner – Road Kill Café has a setup adjacent to the bar; Sharon describes the food as “excellent” – and they make a night of it until long after the last bull rider dusts himself off.

“One night, we didn’t leave till midnight,” Sharon says. “All the people were just in here visiting. We’ve got friends from all over, from different states. We all meet here.”

As bareback riding ends and steer wrestling kicks into gear, the table is rollicking with stories, laughter and drinks – lots of drinks. Alan Clark, from Jonesburg, Missouri, decides to chime in, too.

“It’s gonna get a lot funner,” Clark says, to which another at the table joked: “He’s an English teacher back in Missouri!”

8:05 P.M., THE MIRAGE

Arguably the biggest transformation to make way for the NFR occurs in the sportsbook at The Mirage. Gone are the couches and huge chairs and race seating for the horse players; in are rows of seats set up for the nightly viewing parties, with the NFR taking over the giant screen that would normally be loaded up with football and basketball this time of year.

In the elevated stadium seating area at the back of the book, below the big electronic betting board, all the couches are gone, and in their place is a huge stage for the nightly post-go-round country music acts. And in front of that stage is a sizable dance floor, where patrons kick up their heels after the dust settles on another night of rodeo.

A group of Minnesotans is gathered around one small countertop table, sipping drinks and taking in barrel racing and bull riding, the last two events of the night. Byron Louwagie, from Cottonwood, Minnesota, gives the place a pretty high rating.

“Eight out of 10,” Louwagie says. “The atmosphere is great, the broadcast is right on time, in actual time, with no commercials. An hour-and-a-half, two hours of rodeo, then you’re done and can do whatever you want.”

Louwagie is joined this night by wife Keisha and friends Brandy Lanning and Erik and Dani Stonestrom; Lanning’s husband, David, is somewhere out in the casino trying his luck. All of them are rooting for contestants who hail from their home state, particularly Tanner Aus, whom they know well and who is having a great week in Vegas, with two go-round wins so far.

“It’s nice to see a couple guys from Minnesota here. I love it,” Louwagie says, noting he’s particularly impressed with how well he can see them on the live feed. “You’re close behind the chutes. They got big screens. You don’t have backdrop noise from the TV announcers.”

Indeed, you’re just getting the arena rodeo announcers.

“It’s like you’re actually there,” he says, adding the drinks and service are great too. “Nine out of 10. I can’t complain.”

Keisha is enjoying the NFR telecast, for sure, but is also looking forward to the concert coming up on the big stage – Glen Templeton, followed by Chancey Williams.

“We’ve got backstage passes, so we’re gonna meet Chancey Williams,” she says. “That’s pretty cool, because I’ve never seen him.”

Will there be dancing?

“Us girls will dance,” Keisha says. And what about the boys? “We get enough alcohol in ‘em, we’ll get them out there.”

To which Erik replies: “There’s not enough alcohol in Vegas to get me out there.”

9:30 P.M., SOUTH POINT

The South Point is an outstanding nightcap to the NFR, no matter where you take in the action. That’s because the South Point hosts the nightly go-round winners buckle presentation in the showroom. Flint Rasmussen and Randy Corley don’t start recounting the action and doling out buckles – and commemorative bottles of Pendleton Whisky – until 11 p.m., but the party is well underway long before that.

One table full of drinks looks particularly inviting. And indeed, the people seated behind those drinks are quite hospitable, all of them related in one way or another to Toni Carlson of Ellensburg, Washington. There was Toni’s son Tug Carlson, with his wife Kelly and son Coltyn Rope (yes, Coltyn insisted on using his middle name in all instances); Toni’s sister-in-law Lisa Carlson-Oien; and Kelly’s niece Britni Harrington.

And that half-dozen is a small night for the Carlson family and friends, who have about 18 total in their party for Wrangler NFR week. On this night, the crew is all from Ellensburg – home of standout team roping brothers Brady and Riley Minor, and their cousin Jake Minor – except for Harrington, who has moved around a bit in her line of work as an airplane mechanic.

In fact, she just took a job in Rome, New York, about as far away from Ellensburg as one can get and still be in the United States, so she’s particularly excited to be back with family.

“I come here every year for my birthday. I turn 26 in a couple days,” she says, noting the big day is on Monday – 12/12. “So we all come here and have a good time.”

They’ve all just come from the South Point’s monster viewing party, spread among three ballrooms upstairs. Harrington raved about that scene.

“It’s way more laid-back, there’s free food, alcohol is cheap and close, and I’m with my family,” she says.

Toni compares the viewing party quite favorably to anything fans might take in at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“We about had a front-row seat,” she says. “You see everything going on. You can critique all the contestants. It was like being there.”

But perhaps the best part is yet to come: that go-round buckle bash, which we’re all ready for, but is still an hour from starting. So the rambunctious Coltyn Rope orders up another round. He turned 21 in March and is really feeling it this evening, downing Red Bull-and-vodkas with youthful reckless abandon.

Coltyn Rope most enjoys the up-close-and-personal with the NFR contestants.

“You see them at a far view, but once you come here, they’re real people. You realize they’re just like you, humble and as friendly as can be,” he says. “They’ll reach out and shake your hand and thank you for your support.”

Coltyn Rope could specifically draw from his interaction a night earlier with big-bearded team roper Jeremy Buhler, who partnered with Levi Simpson to win Monday’s go-round.

“I appreciated that he took the time to accept congratulations from a guy he didn’t know,” Coltyn Rope says. “He took the time to ask where I was from and was actually interested in having a conversation. He’s humble, real nice, doesn’t take anything for granted. It’s a cowboy thing. It’s a good environment to be associated with.”

After the Carlson crew orders up another round, 11 o’clock finally hits, and the awards party starts. A familiar face is up first, bareback rider Jake Vold, who earlier won the go-round for the third straight night as he continued piling up WNFR earnings in pursuit of a world title.

These presentations aren’t like your typical awards ceremonies. The stage is full of family and friends of the winners, and of course we all get the great commentary and back stories from Rasmussen and Corley.

“I just love the part where it’s a family thing, where they tell stories about the contestants,” Toni says. “It’s like a personal experience.”

That’s pretty much how it is every year here for the Carlson crew – a family thing, telling stories. A personal experience not to be missed.