Chamber is 'elephant' in rodeo brouhaha

By Carolyn Wall
Connection Correspondent

What’s in a name?

Is the August Doin’s the Annual World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo or the World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo?

At this point, neither one is sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), and time is running out.

The PRCA requires a yearly application and does the work of signing up the cowboys for the event.

Lawyers for the Payson Rodeo Committee and the Payson Rodeo Preservation Alliance are sorting it all out before Judge Peter J. Cahill in Gila County Superior Court in Payson.

The PRCA denied the two applications submitted by the Committee and the Alliance until one or the other is recognized by the court as the rightful owner of the event that celebrated its 125th anniversary last year.

According to the official web site for the Arizona Department of State, Office of the Secretary of State Ken Bennett, the Annual World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo was first registered with the state on Aug. 1, 1954, with the owner listed as the Payson Rodeo Committee, Inc.

The Committee last registered the name Sept. 8, 2006. That registration expires Jan. 8, 2012 and was last assigned Dec. 1, 2009.

The World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo, under the ownership of the Payson Rodeo Preservation Alliance, has its beginning date listed on the web site as March 27, 2008.

The Alliance put on the August rodeo last year and had a one-year contract with the Rim Country Chamber of Commerce to do so. The Committee, which had been putting on the rodeo for 25 years, took no part in the event itself after negotiations broke down with both the chamber and the Alliance.

Although the Alliance only had a one-year contract, it also had first right of refusal to purchase the name from the chamber.

Chamber Manager John Stanton said, “We were told by the Alliance that they didn’t feel the name the chamber owned was worth anything.”

Stanton said the name, “Annual World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo,” was sold to the Committee in November “for an undisclosed amount.”

The Alliance registered the name, “World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo,” with the state on Jan. 13, 2010 and that registration is scheduled to expire on January 13, 2015.

Stanton said the Chamber is not involved at all in the lawsuit between the Committee and the Alliance.

But, during a telephone conference call Wednesday, April 7, in Cahill’s Payson courtroom, Mark Lassiter, one of the lawyers for the Committee, told the judge, “If everyone is being honest, we’d admit that the chamber is the elephant in the living room. No matter how you cut it, I think we’d both like to have the chamber involved.”

When told about Lassiter’s comment, Stanton replied, “I’ve been referred to as large before. There’s nothing I can say about it. We’re not involved in anything with the lawsuit – not at this point. Everybody’s got the best interest of the rodeo at heart. It’s just a shame that everybody can’t work together.”

At the hearing last week, Cahill asked the lawyers to work together and called the case “a real important issue.”

“A good compromise would benefit the community,” he said. “I encourage you to discuss how this matter could be solved - with good-minded, civic-minded people, perhaps a group of independent, non-involved citizens. I know I can rely on you to do your professional duty.”

Neal Bookstan, attorney for the Alliance said, “We definitely think we can agree to expedite a disclosure. We have somewhat of a short time fuse.”

Greg Miles, attorney for the Committee, said, “The biggest challenge we have is, we have an August rodeo. The end of May, we have a deadline.”

Cahill said he had a busy schedule in April, but would work to come up with a schedule for a non-jury trial.

“I’m not too busy to get this important matter to our community,” he said.