pbr turns 20! - Professional Bull Riders

Andy Watson/Bullstockmedia.com
professional bull riders celebrates its 20th anniversary
pbr turns 20!
from a humble motel room meeting to the fastest
growing sport, professional bull riders is a
success-driven reality fueled by danger,
entertainment and fan passion
Andy Watson/Bullstockmedia.com
s business meetings go, this
one was quite unique. In
1992, 20 of the world’s
elite bull riders gathered in
a Scottsdale, Ariz., motel
room with a critical goal in
mind: Raise bull riding —
easily one of the world’s
most dangerous sports —
to the professional level it
deserved.
The visionary group
ranged from relative youngsters to hardened veterans, but apart from being the
best, they also shared that grassroots objective. As seed money, each rider ponied up
$1,000. Some of them could afford it; others had barely enough to cover their
checks or needed to borrow from reluctant
family members and/or friends.
That dream quickly morphed into Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Inc., the Pueblo,
Colo., entity that got its start in that crowded
motel room. As it has from the outset, PBR
delivers an exhilarating combination of raw
sport and quality entertainment, propelling
it to enjoy major international growth in live
attendance, a solid stable of world-class
sponsors and network television exposure.
As gambles go, this one has paid off in
a major way. With the 2013 season (which
resumes in August after the traditional sum-
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and rightfully so,” Haworth said. “They
wanted to ensure bull riding was given its
proper due, along with having the best livestock available. It is a fact that we have two
types of PBR athlete, the rider and the bull.”
In 2013, bull riding also enjoys a serious
international flavor. More than 1,200 bull riders from the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada
and Mexico hold PBR memberships. They
compete in more than 300 annual bull riding events on the elite tour (the Built Ford
Tough Series), the Touring Pro Division or PBR
International circuits (PBR Australia, PBR Brazil, PBR Canada and PBR Mexico). Haworth
said the ultimate goal for PBR athletes each
year is to qualify for the prestigious PBR Built
Ford Tough World Finals in Las Vegas, where
the coveted title of PBR World Champion is
decided (this year’s event is Oct. 23-27).
Top: Opening ceremonies of
the 2013 PBR event at Madison
Square Garden, the seventh
consecutive year at MSG.
Left: The KISS bull — PBR and
legendary rockers KISS have
teamed up to create the eightsecond KISS Kam, with couples
in the audience highlighted on
large, in-venue video screens.
See pbr, page 24
Andy Watson/Bullstockmedia.com
a
mer break) PBR (pbr.com), in fact, is celebrating 20 years of growth and success.
How far has PBR come? In 1995, about
310,000 fans attended PBR events nationwide. Today, PBR attracts more than two million live event attendees annually with its
multi-tiered event structure. Also, more than
100 million viewers watch primetime PBR
programming annually on networks around
the world. Money-wise, PBR has awarded
more than $120 million in prize money,
including a $1 million bonus to the annual
PBR World Champion.
“Celebrating 20 years of PBR competition is momentous for us,” said PBR Chairman and CEO Jim Haworth. “Two decades
of hard work and a unified dream have truly
altered the sport of bull riding. Of course,
PBR couldn't have done it without the support of our stock contractors, riders, sponsors and loyal, passionate fans.”
Haworth, who took over in 2011,
explained that bull riding has always been
a natural crowd pleaser with very dedicated fans — certainly one of the key factors discussed in that Scottsdale motel
room. Then there also is the notion of how
the cowboys in attendance planned to
control and boost their “risk vs. reward”
value proposition. After all, bull riding was by
far the most dangerous event in any rodeo,
yet the bull riders felt they were being shortchanged on several levels.
“The founders recognized their value
and wanted to control their own destiny,
2012 PBR World Champion Bull Asteroid makes
short work of Joao Ricardo Vieira at the recent
Last Cowboy Standing at Las Vegas’ Mandalay
Bay Events Center.
street & smith’s sportsbusiness journal
may 27-june 2, 2013
professional
20th
P R O F Ebull
S riders
S I Ocelebrates
N A L its B
U anniversary
L L
R
JUSTIN MCBRIDE
I
D
E
R
S
SILVANO ALVES
PBR World Champion 2005 & 2007
Highest-Earning Western Sports Athlete In History
PBR World Champion 2011 & 2012
First Back-to-Back World Champion in PBR History
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF BULL RIDING
Thank you to all of our partners for 20 great years of support.
This year, we honor the glorious past and boundless future of the toughest sport on earth.
1993
23
2013
Follow Us on Twitter: @pbr | Like Us on Facebook: facebook.com/pbr
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street & smith’s sportsbusiness journal
pbr.com
may 27-june 2, 2013
professional bull riders celebrates its 20th anniversary
1994 Adriano Moraes is crowned
PBR’s first World Champion at the
inaugural World Finals held in Las
Vegas.
1995 Las Vegas becomes sponsor
of Professional Bull Riders Inc.
1999 Friday night at the 1999 PBR
World Finals is considered by
many to be the “greatest night
of bull riding” ever. Chris Shivers
on Trick or Treat and Terry Don
West on Promise Land split the
round win with 96-point
scores. The pair was followed by
Ty Murray with 95.5 points on
Red Wolf, Jim Sharp with a 94
on Jim Jam Skoal and Jaron
Nunnemaker with 94 points on
Panhandle Slim to round out the
Top 5. There were 11 scores of
90 or better that night.
Andy Watson/Bullstockmedia.com
Silvano
Alves
captured
PBR’s
2013 Last
Cowboy
Standing
event, part
of the Built
Ford Tough
Series.
pbr world finals
in las vegas milestones
wacker and Asteroid for the required eight
seconds would have been worth an additional $80,000 (no one managed to do it
this year). PBR fans who could not make it to
Las Vegas saw the event on CBS on back to
back days — Saturday, May 11, and Sunday, May 12 — the first time any PBR event
has appeared on network television on
consecutive days.
“Strong fan interest motivated the network executives to respond with this great
commitment to our sport,” Haworth said.
all,” said Michael Gaffney, a PBR legend,
founder and 1997 World Champion. “Life
was so hard for riders back then. We all had
hope for a better situation.”
Gaffney, who won seven PBR events in
all during his career, says when he arrived
home that day in 1992, he was married for
just a year. His wife, Robyn, didn’t quite
believe what had transpired.
“When I got home she said, ‘You wrote a
2001 PBR rookie Luke Snyder wins
World Finals event title in Las
Vegas.
2003 The PBR began paying a
$1 million bonus to the World
Champion (the first $1 million
bonus was ultimately won by
Chris Shivers).
2006 Adriano Moraes becomes the
only rider to win three PBR world
Las Vegas cva
Recently, on May 10-11, PBR also held its
third annual Last Cowboy Standing event
from Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events
Center. Fans enjoyed the Top 50 cowboys
in the world battling over two days, not only
for the title of Last Cowboy Standing but
also for a minimum of $100,000 for the winner (Reigning PBR champion Silvano Alves
won his second straight LCS title). Plus, staying on top of World Champion bulls Bush-
Looking back, perhaps the key economic milestone for PBR came in early
2007, when Spire Capital Partners finalized
a deal with the PBR Board of Directors to
acquire the interests of many of the retired
founding riders and invest in the growth of
the organization. Those first 20 bull riders
had turned their $1,000 into millions. PBR
now is owned by 50 cowboys, management and Spire Capital.
“In Scottsdale, expectations were pretty
low. It really was just a pipe dream for us
Andy Watson/Bullstockmedia.com
pbr, from page 22
Adriano Moraes is
PBR’s first World
Champion in 1994.
The first $1 million
bonus was ultimately
won by Chris Shivers.
titles when he comes from
behind in the Built Ford Tough
Series points race.
2007 Justin McBride won his second
World Championship and broke
his own single-season earnings
mark with more than $1.8
million.
2009 J.B. Mauney becomes the first
and only rider to cover all eight
bulls at the PBR World Finals. In
the final round he covered the
bull Black Pearl for 93.75 points!
2011/ Silvano Alves becomes the first
2012 rider in PBR history to win backto-back world titles in Las
Vegas.
-
See pbr, page 25
TO THE BEST RIDERS,
FROM THE BEST IN ROAD TRIPS.
Happy 20th anniversary PBR, from Cooper Tire.
LIFE’S A ROAD TRIP. COME ON, LET’S GO.™
FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO COOPERTIRE.COM OR CALL 1.800.847.3777
COOPER_PBR.indd 1
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street & smith’s sportsbusiness journal
5/9/13 11:01 AM
may 27-june 2, 2013
Andy Watson/Bullstockmedia.com
professional bull riders celebrates its 20th anniversary
Michael Gaffney rides Berger/Teague/Taupin bull, Little Yellow Jacket, for 96.5 points during the
championship round of the Nampa Built Ford Tough Series PBR.
pbr, from page 24
check for what?’ ” Gaffney said with a
laugh. “I’m really glad it all worked out. She
is too.”
Currently serving as an “ambassador” of
sorts for PBR, Gaffney credits former PBR
CEO Randy Bernard as the major success
factor for PBR from a marketing and sponsorship perspective.
“When we hired Randy in 1995, that was
the day things changed,” Gaffney said.”He
So far in 2013, PBR has
been setting attendance
records from New York
City’s Madison Square
Garden to Anaheim, Calif.
is such a marketing machine, a visionary,
and had full support of the board. When he
presented to sponsors and brands, people
listened.”
Another original founder and bull rider,
Jerome Davis, was the youngest cowboy in
Scottsdale. For him, a rookie, the other cowboys in the room, men like the legendary Ty
Murray, Cody Lambert and Tuff Hedeman,
were his heroes.
“Whatever they wanted to do, I was
going to do it,” said Davis, today a ranch
owner (the PBR holds an outdoor event at
his North Carolina ranch), PBR stock contractor and part-time PBR event announcer.
“If they wanted to rob a bank, I would have
gone along. For them to ask me to be a
part of it, I was tickled to death.”
Davis said at the time he only had $500
as an initial investment. But he promised he
could win the $500 balance over the next
week or two in some upcoming bull riding
events. Of course, that’s what he did. Davis
also seconded Gaffney’s view that Bernard
was the catalyst who got the PBR headed in
the right direction.
“We were making things work, but the
PBR went to another level when Randy got
involved,” Davis said. “He planted the right
seeds to make it grow to where it is today.”
So far in 2013, PBR has been setting
attendance records from New York City’s
Madison Square Garden to Anaheim, Calif.
Its partnership with CBS and CBS Sports Netmay 27-june 2, 2013
work also has been fantastic.
“You won’t see any other western lifestyle
event covered as we are by network
sports,” Haworth said. “PBR has definitely
evolved to the benefit of our sponsors.”
Apart from Ford, marquee PBR sponsors
and advertisers include Jack Daniel’s, Wrangler, Las Vegas, Dickies, Cooper Tire, Stanley
Tools and Security and others, primarily what
Haworth calls “leading companies” within
their market sectors.
PBR offers sponsors its main circuit, the
Built Ford Tough Series (27 stops in 18
states), and a Touring Pro Division. The BFTS
is the nationally televised elite tour featuring
the top 35 bull riders in the world. The Touring Pro Division is the developmental tour of
the PBR and gives riders the opportunity to
compete in PBR-sanctioned events while
earning money to qualify for the BFTS.
With all that exposure, Haworth is especially proud of the fact that 96 percent of
PBR sponsors have renewed for multiyear
contracts, a clear indicator of the dedication and passion of PBR fans.
“Our sponsors don’t sign up because
they feel good about it,” he said. “Today,
you have to show ROI for any sponsor or
they will not sign on the dotted line. We can
show that ROI.”
las vegas and pbr:
a natural fit
Each season, PBR wraps up the Built
Tough Ford Series circuit with its World Finals,
held in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack
Center.
Rossi Ralenkotter, President/CEO, Las
Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (a PBR
sponsor), said the early PBR leadership had
a vision of showcasing bull riders in an
event designed exclusively for them. They
also realized that Las Vegas was the perfect setting for this one-of-a-kind event. So,
since the very beginning, Las Vegas has
been the one and only home of PBR’s
World Finals.
“The PBR series is a great event for the
sport and Las Vegas,” Ralenkotter said. “This
partnership of two great brands leverages
the pride and rich history of a sport deeply
embedded in American culture with the
excitement of Las Vegas. These elements
together truly create a winning combination.”
Where
of
BADGES COURAGE
Bull image ©Andy Watson
COME IN
and
Congratulations from the las vegas
convention and visitors authority
on 20 ass-kicking years.
LasVegas.com
See pbr, page 26
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professional bull riders celebrates its 20th anniversary
pbr, from page 25
He added that the blending of Las
Vegas and PBR brands offers an experience only available in Vegas. PBR is also
able to carry that excitement across the
world to millions of fans every year through
traveling events and television viewership.
Ralenkotter said it’s through PBR that potential visitors are able to see Las Vegas and
experience both brands together.
The formula is working. Over the past
decade alone, PBR has brought nearly
843,000 fans to the destination for a total
non-gaming economic impact of almost
$253 million.
“When we started 20 years ago, we
knew it would be a one-of-a-kind event,
and we take pride in being involved with
PBR since day one,” Ralenkotter said. “We
have an agreement with PBR through
2015. It’s been a great partnership and we
expect it to continue.”
Cooper Tire would seem an unlikely
sponsor for bull riding, but according to
Chris Pantani, the company’s director of
experiential marketing & motorsports, PBR
and Cooper Tire are proving a perfect partnership. Pantani explained that Cooper Tire,
a five-year PBR sponsor, was searching to
Cooper Tire
fan passion, brand
building with pbr
Emilio Resende, PBR 2012 Rookie of the Year, is part of Team Cooper, a six-rider contingent sponsored by
Cooper Tire.
find a non-auto-based sport with a very
strong, passionate fan base. When Pantani
looked at PBR’s live event attendees per
year data and its television exposure, the
decision was easily made.
“Bull riding is a very viable sport out there
right now and really illustrates our country’s
Americana heritage/culture,” Pantani said.
“When you look at the other sponsors —
Ford Trucks, Jack Daniel’s, Wrangler, Stanley
Tools — these are all American companies
and ‘feel good’ brands.”
Pantani added that Cooper Tire tries to
reach consumers on an everyday level
(knowing that most consumers may buy 5-6
sets of tires in their entire lives), and PBR
delivers a powerful brand awareness potential with the type of consumer Cooper Tire is
trying to reach.
“PBR fans are very brand conscious,” he
said. “We get letters from PBR fans who said
they bought our tire because of our connection to PBR. This sport is delivering the
ROI, which for us means driving sales to
dealers through fan engagement and
brand awareness.”
Cooper Tire sponsors six bull riders, using
that connection in everything from point-ofsale displays to radio buys, TV commercials
to personal appearances. It also supports
PBR’s exclusive entertainer Flint Rasmussen,
a legendary in-arena personality and official PBR “barrel man.”
See pbr, page 27
pbr at 20: fast facts
• Professional Bull Riders (PBR) trucks
travel an average of 32,000 miles
each year/season across the country,
equaling about 500 hours of driving
(not including stops).
• Brazil’s Adriano Moraes is the lone
three-time PBR World Champion.
• Two-time PBR World Champion Silvano
Alves has made an average of
$87,500 per month since he has been
in the United States for a total of almost
$3.5 million in 40 months.
• Luke Snyder, the reigning Ironman of
Professional Bull Riding, competed in
275 consecutive events, a streak that
began when he debuted on the Built
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Ford Tough Series in 2001 and ended
in 2010 when he was not ranked high
enough to qualify for the Iron Cowboy
Invitational. Snyder also earned the
most money as a PBR rookie in 2001,
almost $350,000, on his way to being
named Rookie of the Year.
• Two-time PBR World Champion Justin
McBride remains the current all-time
money earner with more than $5 million in earnings.
•P
BR is nearing $130,000,000 in total
payouts since it began in 1994.
• The PBR World Champion annually is
presented with his sport's coveted gold
buckle, the ultimate symbol of achievement in bull riding. The custom-made
belt buckle is valued at more than
$10,000.
•2
011 PBR World Champion Bull Bush-
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wacker’s “buck off” streak of 42 riders is
the longest of any BFTS bull.
Andy Watson/Bullstockmedia.com
• T he Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) has
visited 93 cities since it started in 1994,
having made the most stops in California, which has hosted 46 BFTS events.
• There have been over 200,000 outs
(attempted bull rides) since the beginning of the PBR.
• Approximately 120,000 pounds of bull
is brought to each arena on a weekly
basis (for a two-day event.) Bulls begin
bucking at 2-3 years of age. While a
bucking bull is often in his prime as an
athlete around age five or six, many
bulls buck past the age of 10.
Justin McBride breaks the $5,000,000 mark
during the first round of the 2008 Grand Rapids
Built Ford Tough Series.
• A PBR arena typically averages 85 feet
by 140 feet, with 600 tons of dirt
brought into each arena, packed 6-8
inches deep, for PBR events. The steel
bucking chutes, panels, gates and
posts that encircle the arena collectively weigh 50,000 pounds and, when
assembled, equal 1,800 feet or six foot-
• One of the most anticipated parts of
any BFTS event is its opening ceremony, a multimedia production that
incorporates elaborate props, stage
lighting, video, music and pyrotechnics. The production typically runs 15
minutes and costs roughly $750 per
minute.
street & smith’s sportsbusiness journal
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may 27-june 2, 2013
pbr, from page 26
cooper tire
“Flint captivates fans young and old every
night,” Pantani said. “He is a great ambassador for both the PBR and Cooper Tire."
When you look at the breakdown, PBR is
a perfect sweet spot for the company, he
added. It offers Americana and also gives
Cooper Tire a big push in the fast-growing
Hispanic market.
“Our dealers used to wonder why bull riding in the beginning. Now, they go once
and are hooked, and are always asking for
more and more tickets, which is always a
good problem to have,” Pantani said.
Another sponsor, HotelPlanner.com,
joined the PBR stable in 20l2 and is the PBR’s
Cooper Tire supports PBR’s exclusive entertainer
Flint Rasmussen, a legendary in-arena personality
and official PBR “barrel man.”
official hotel reservations company, said Tim
Hentschel, HotelPlanner co-founder and
CEO.
“We’re proud to be PBR’s official hotel
reservations company and plan on continuing our participation in 2014 and beyond,”
Hentschel said, noting that in addition to its
sponsorship the direct service the company
provides sources hotels for all the PBR
events.
“HotelPlanner helps the PBR team select
the right hotels at the lowest possible price
for all team members traveling to PBR
events,” he said.
As for the key drivers behind HotelPlanner
and its decision to partner with PBR,
Hentschel said the main reasons are that
PBR delivers an exciting sport and offers a
highly committed base of loyal fans. “We decided to partner with PBR
because of the similar beliefs each organization shares, which include a passion for
the work, a belief in delivering an excellent
service and the ability to enhance each
other’s brand,” he said. “Since HotelPlanner
is one of the top fifty travel websites, this
partnership allows us to work with a great
marketing and promotions team, plus get
our brand name out in front of a qualified
group of travelers.
“HotelPlanner brings the same level of
intensity to its core business of sourcing
hotels as PBR does to create thrilling and
entertaining bull riding events,” Hentschel
said.
In the end, Haworth says PBR has succeeded by blending an exciting, dangerous sport with related entertainment and
excitement, from music (PBR recently signed
an exclusive deal with legendary rockers
Cooper Tire
professional bull riders celebrates its 20th anniversary
Renato Nunes, 2010 World Champion and a member of Team Cooper, made history when he became only
the second rider to win both the BFTS World Championship and the World Finals event title in the same year.
KISS and have top musical acts at many of
their BFTS weekends) to all-important social
media platforms such as Facebook and
Twitter.
When PBR compares to other sports, in
fact, it has found that its fans are very social
media savvy. In 2011, for example, PBR had
104,000 followers on Facebook. So far in
2013, that number has skyrocketed to
500,000-plus. Internationally, PBR has
600,000 Facebook followers.
Finally, as part of its “high tech, high
touch” philosophy, PBR riders make them-
selves very accessible to fans, remaining
after an event and walking around the
arena to meet fans and sign autographs.
“Our riders are very humble guys and
share a willingness to interact with fans,
which you won’t see at other major sporting
events on a regular basis,” he said.
“Bull riding is America's original extreme
sport,” Haworth concluded. “Naturally, we
are very excited for the balance of the
2013 season and the future of PBR. Turning
twenty almost seems like a new start for us.
Sky’s the limit.”
-
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