Summerrain
12-09-2007, 03:43 PM
Women's rodeo association wins suit against PRCA
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By BRIAN GOMEZ
THE GAZETTE
December 7, 2007 - 6:18AM
The nation’s oldest women’s professional sports organization was awarded $6.875 million Thursday in a lawsuit against the Colorado Springs-based organization that runs U.S. rodeos.
A six-person Colorado Springs jury ordered the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to pay the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association damages after a nine-day trial.
The WPRA, which has twice been headquartered in Colorado Springs since its 1948 inception, alleged the PRCA’s formation of a women’s barrel racing league caused its revenues, membership and number of events to drastically decrease in the past year.
Before Professional Women’s Barrel Racing, a subsidiary of the PRCA with offices at PRCA headquarters, started last November, the WPRA had 2,000-plus members and sanctioned barrel races at 600-plus rodeos, resulting in annual payouts of more than $5 million.
The WPRA’s membership has dwindled to less than 500, its offices at 1235 Lake Plaza Drive have closed and PWBR has taken the place of the WPRA at most events, leaving it nearly broke, WPRA vice president Phyllis Wells said.
Wells called the judgment “the talk” of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the PRCA’s marquee event that began Thursday in Las Vegas without a WPRA-sanctioned barrel race for the first time since 1967.
“We just cannot let our organization go,” Wells said. “We’ll always feel like we were taken advantage of. It was not right what (the PRCA) did. We proved in court that they stole our association.”
WPRA attorney Dana Eismeier asked for a minimum of $5.5 million in damages, saying, “It wasn’t about what the WPRA lost. It was about the profit of the PRCA.”
In an e-mailed statement, PRCA attorney Lawrence Treece said, “We are obviously disappointed in the verdict but respect the jury’s decision. We do not believe the verdict will withstand an appeal and intend to appeal it.”
In the complaint filed in February in El Paso County District Court, the WPRA said, “PWBR has wrongfully appropriated WPRA business and interfered with contracts between the WPRA and rodeo committees whose rodeos the WPRA has sanctioned for years or decades.”
The complaint stated the WPRA found fault in the 7,000-member PRCA for withholding sponsorship money, inflating WPRA competition entrance fees, soliciting PWBR members through a confidential WPRA address list, using WPRA point standings to rank PWBR competitors and mirroring PWBR competition rules after WPRA rules.
The WPRA also questioned the character of former PRCA commissioner and PWBR founder Troy Ellerman, who pled guilty to four felonies after he leaked grand jury testimony in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) case Ellerman is serving a 2˝-year prison term.
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Comments | Recommend
By BRIAN GOMEZ
THE GAZETTE
December 7, 2007 - 6:18AM
The nation’s oldest women’s professional sports organization was awarded $6.875 million Thursday in a lawsuit against the Colorado Springs-based organization that runs U.S. rodeos.
A six-person Colorado Springs jury ordered the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to pay the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association damages after a nine-day trial.
The WPRA, which has twice been headquartered in Colorado Springs since its 1948 inception, alleged the PRCA’s formation of a women’s barrel racing league caused its revenues, membership and number of events to drastically decrease in the past year.
Before Professional Women’s Barrel Racing, a subsidiary of the PRCA with offices at PRCA headquarters, started last November, the WPRA had 2,000-plus members and sanctioned barrel races at 600-plus rodeos, resulting in annual payouts of more than $5 million.
The WPRA’s membership has dwindled to less than 500, its offices at 1235 Lake Plaza Drive have closed and PWBR has taken the place of the WPRA at most events, leaving it nearly broke, WPRA vice president Phyllis Wells said.
Wells called the judgment “the talk” of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the PRCA’s marquee event that began Thursday in Las Vegas without a WPRA-sanctioned barrel race for the first time since 1967.
“We just cannot let our organization go,” Wells said. “We’ll always feel like we were taken advantage of. It was not right what (the PRCA) did. We proved in court that they stole our association.”
WPRA attorney Dana Eismeier asked for a minimum of $5.5 million in damages, saying, “It wasn’t about what the WPRA lost. It was about the profit of the PRCA.”
In an e-mailed statement, PRCA attorney Lawrence Treece said, “We are obviously disappointed in the verdict but respect the jury’s decision. We do not believe the verdict will withstand an appeal and intend to appeal it.”
In the complaint filed in February in El Paso County District Court, the WPRA said, “PWBR has wrongfully appropriated WPRA business and interfered with contracts between the WPRA and rodeo committees whose rodeos the WPRA has sanctioned for years or decades.”
The complaint stated the WPRA found fault in the 7,000-member PRCA for withholding sponsorship money, inflating WPRA competition entrance fees, soliciting PWBR members through a confidential WPRA address list, using WPRA point standings to rank PWBR competitors and mirroring PWBR competition rules after WPRA rules.
The WPRA also questioned the character of former PRCA commissioner and PWBR founder Troy Ellerman, who pled guilty to four felonies after he leaked grand jury testimony in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) case Ellerman is serving a 2˝-year prison term.
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