James Trawick has already written the headline:
“Guy tries to compete professionally, fails miserably, and then starts his own rodeo.”
It is blunt, funny, and also pretty close to the truth.
Long before James became CEO and co-founder of Hondo Rodeo Fest, which debuted at Chase Field in Phoenix in 2024 and returns this month, rodeo was simply the family business. His father was into team roping. His mother barrel raced. They raised quarter horses in Chipley, Florida, and spent countless nights at jackpots that could stretch until 3 in the morning.
As a teenager, James wanted little to do with any of it.
“You’re rebellious. I don’t know what you want to call it,” he says.
He raced motocross instead, until he watched a friend crash and break both ankles. That was enough to send him back toward the horses his mother had insisted he learn to handle, whether he liked it or not.
“You don’t have to want to do this,” he remembers her telling him. “You’re going to know how to ride a horse. You’re going to know how to handle a horse.”
Once James turned the corner, he did not stop halfway. Rodeo carried him from junior high to high school, then college and eventually the professional ranks.
“I pursued it all the way to the top and got to the top and realized I didn’t have what it took."
There was no polished excuse attached. He did not have the horses. He did not have the resources. He could not get it done.
“It was a rough pill to swallow.”
But getting close enough to see professional rodeo from the inside gave him a clear view of what was missing.
The sport has more than 700 sanctioned professional events each year. Contestants pay to compete, and there are only so many spots available during the performance staged in front of the crowd. Everyone else competes during what rodeo calls “slack,” which can mean a world champion draws a 10 a.m. slot in a nearly empty arena.
“You may have seen world champions compete and not even known it. It's so sad for our sport.”
The problem was bigger than one missed moment. When the best athletes are scattered across hundreds of events and some never appear before the paying audience, rodeo cannot consistently deliver its best product. Fans miss the stars. Athletes miss the stage. The sport misses the chance to present itself with the intensity of a major professional competition.
James wanted to solve that.
After his own rodeo career ended, he went to work and spent approximately 15 years building a boutique film-production business in Fort Worth, Texas. He learned production, media and storytelling, then eventually found someone with an almost identical scar.
James met Blake Cody through his wife, Cody’s second cousin. James had pursued rodeo. Cody had pursued rock and roll, earning a record deal and opening for major bands before his career stopped short of where he believed it might go.
“We both got close, and we both got told no,” James says.
James had rodeo relationships. Cody had music relationships. Somewhere between tailgate talk, Sunday lunches, and a few beers, two failed pursuits began looking like one very big idea.
“At the end of the day, this was what the good Lord was working out. This was our path.”
By 2022, the dream had become a business. They started looking for investors, assembled a team and found the money. What they could not initially find were artists willing to take a chance on a first-year festival.
“Everybody’s gun-shy because of this Fyre Festival fiasco. Nobody wants to take a bet on the young up-and-comer or the new show.”
So they kept going.
“A lot of no-quit attitude."
They brought in an industry veteran who had booked talent for RodeoHouston for two decades, working with everyone from George Strait to Beyoncé. That relationship gave Hondo credibility with artists and agencies. The team was finally able to assemble a lineup strong enough for a stadium.
Phoenix became the home of Hondo because Michael Hilburn at Chase Field saw what others could not.
“He just got it. You can’t force people to see what they can’t see.”
Hondo Rodeo Fest debuted at Chase Field in 2024, but was never intended to become one more date on an already crowded rodeo calendar.
James and his team put up a combined $1 million purse and began handpicking eight of the best athletes in each discipline. No random field. No champion hidden in a morning slack session. Every athlete is there because Hondo believes that person belongs among the world’s best.
“This is a heavyweight matchup. An MVP classic.”
With that caliber of athlete, anyone can win. The money raises the stakes. The concentrated field raises the intensity. The result is a rodeo created for the athlete and the fan, without asking either to settle.
“We want the fan to have the best experience. We take the eight best in the world and put a million dollars on the line.”
Hondo surrounds that competition with the production of a major music festival. One ticket includes two hours of world-class rodeo followed by two live performances from some of music’s biggest names.
“Fans and consumers are looking for something more than just a ticket to a concert. You get the world’s best rodeo contestants competing for two hours before the concert. You cannot find that anywhere else in America.”
The presentation may be modern, but Hondo’s foundation is intentionally traditional.
"Cowboy culture is patriotic and family first. This is us. You can’t separate the two.”
Families have accounted for 68 percent of Hondo’s historical ticket buyers, a number James shares with unmistakable pride. His own parents have attended every show and remain actively involved, often helping James and his wife wrangle their three young daughters.
The son they raised around horses did not become the rodeo star he imagined. Instead, he built an arena where the stars show up, compete before a packed crowd and get paid like the elite athletes they are.
“It’s about the team, the mission, what we’re trying to accomplish, the athletes and the communities.”
Hondo Rodeo Fest returns to Chase Field November 13 through 15. Tim McGraw and Miranda Lambert perform Friday, Blake Shelton and Turnpike Troubadours take the stage Saturday, and Parker McCollum and Lynyrd Skynyrd close the weekend Sunday. A free Street Fest begins at noon each day, followed by the rodeo and concert series.
“If we can curate a show that allows families to get together and build core memories that will last generations, then we’re doing the right thing.”
TheHondoRodeoFest.com
“Guy tries to compete professionally, fails miserably, and then starts his own rodeo. We take the best in the world and put a million dollars on the line.”
“You get the world’s best rodeo contestants before the concert. You cannot find that anywhere else in America.”