PBR: a bull market
Back in the early '90s, Ty Murray and 19 top bull riders had this crazy idea: Make their wild and wooly man vs. beast competition a true professional sport similar to the NFL, NBA or major-league baseball.
Rodeo traditionally had been presented more for its gee-whiz spectacle, sort of like the circus, but without three rings. It even had men dressed as clowns who helped protect the bull riders. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit always had had its stars, for sure, legends such as Jim Shoulders or Larry Mahan or later Murray (who excelled at all three of the "rough-stock" events). But at any given rodeo, particularly in the crowded summer months -- July 4th is called "Cowboy Christmas" -- the ticket-buying public had no assurance of whom of the sport's big names, if any, might show.
(Andy Watson)
What: The Cooper Tires Invitational, the 18th of 31 events in the Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough series.
When, where: Saturday (6:50 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.) at Allstate Arena.
Tickets: $20-$100 through Ticketmaster.
Format: First round with 45 riders on Saturday, second round with 45 riders on Sunday, top 15 riders in championship round on Sunday.
Series leaders: 1. Guilherme Marchi, 7,504.25 points; 2. Kody Lostroh, 5,713.5; 3. Valdiron de Oliveira, 5,025.25; 4. L.J. Jenkins, 4,859.256; 5. J.B. Mauney, 4,845.
Info: www.pbrnow.com.
"We knew that bull riding was the rodeo fans' favorite event," Murray said. "If you asked 'em, 95 percent would say they're there for the bull riding. You could ride bulls and even earn a living riding bulls in the PRCA, but 20 of us riders got together and believed it could be more than that.
"We wanted to make it a professional sport that the fans could watch and follow from week to week, with the best guys riding the best bulls. Everybody thought we were all nuts, but we were confident that if we stuck with our vision, we would have a product that people would pay to see.
"The rules are easy to understand even for the casual fan and no one, absolutely no one, can see one of these bull-riding events live without walking away thinking it's exciting, powerful, dangerous and absolutely thrilling."
Thus, Professional Bull Riders was launched in 1992. Its founders included Murray (who retired in 2002 and is PBR's president), Tuff Hedeman, Jerome Davis, Cody Lambert and Ted Nuce, a who's who of the elite riders of their day.
Unlike the PRCA, PBR "wasn't a club or an association that anyone could join," Murray said, "but a sports property. An association has to work in the interests of all of its members. We wanted this to be [a series] that would assure the best riders would be there. Like the NFL, if you can't run a 4-flat 40 and want to be a running back, too bad."
From modest beginnings -- the inaugural tour had eight events, the majority in the rodeo-friendly Western states -- PBR has blossomed into one of America's greatest sports success stories. Few figured an outdoor sport with rural-agrarian roots would make it indoors, or be able to compete for an audience in major sports markets. But included on its 31 stops in 2008 are events in New York, Anaheim, Oakland, the Boston area, Atlanta, St. Louis, Baltimore and, yes, Chicago. On Saturday and Sunday, Allstate Arena plays host to the 18th event on the Built Ford Tough tour.
"Ty, Cody, Tuff and the others laid the groundwork for what I've been able to accomplish in my career, and I appreciate it," said Justin McBride, 28, a former world champion and PBR's all-time money earner with more than $4.9 million. "I'm so glad that those 'founding fathers,' if you will, got fed up with the way rodeo was and that the courage and determination to do something about it."
Because its athletes tend to wear out quickly (the grim fact is, the career span of a professional bull rider might not be as long as that of an NFL running back), PBR operates a Challenger Series that ensures a steady stream of fresh, young faces for its elite field of 45 riders. The majority of its events are telecast on the Versus cable network, with NBC picking up selected stops. It also has affiliated tours in Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Canada. A $1 million bonus is awarded to its world champion.
Just as important to PBR's long-term success are the bulls. At traditional rodeos, a stock contractor provides all the animals and the top-to-bottom quality often varied wildly. PBR jettisoned that system by opening its doors to all owners: "If you've got a rank bull, we want him," Murray said. The group tracks the performance of its bovine athletes and awards incentives for those that buck the best. PBR also created a registry for bloodlines opened the door for a new industry.
"It used to be that all the rodeo stock came from a handful of big contractors," Murray said. "With the registry, the [points] competition for the bulls and the futurities we offer, it seems like everybody and his dog is getting into the bucking-bull business."
How hard is it to find a world-class bull? Murray tells the story of a friend who went to every bull auction he could over the course of a year and bought 500 head, "Anything that looked like it could buck. How many of them do you think made the PBR?
"Zero."
In the last couple years, a new generation of riders has come to dominate the standings, many of them in their teens.
"From where it came from to how it's grown in the 10 years I've been riding, it's only going to get bigger," said McBride, who is recovering from injury and will not ride this weekend, but expects to return to the tour in June. "Even now these real young kids don't realize how much they owe to the founders. They're riding for all this money at all these events, a million-dollar bonus and all, and they don't know where [bull riding] has come from, they just kind of expect it."
The rodeo clowns have become "bullfighters," and a backwater sport has grown big horns.
