Raise a Glass: PBR Storms Into World Finals to Cap a Triumphant Year
By: Andrew Giangola
Sports TV ratings are in the toilet.
So the New York Times had essentially proclaimed in a recent feature on declining viewership after sports shut down in March, then frenetically started up again to disappointing results.
The major stick-and-ball sports are mired in a steep drop in ratings, some at historic proportions, according to the Times.
The article neglected to mention one outlier shattering the narrative: PBR.
Buoyed by a few afternoons this fall in which professional bull riding was the second most viewed sport on television, trailing only the NFL, PBR on CBS ratings are up +8% this year, according to Nielsen.
On social media, PBR has increased its followers +18%. Total watch time on social media has jumped +27% compared to 2019. Hours viewed on RidePass are up +8%.
How strong and popular is the PBR brand?
Well, the Cordish Companies has just quietly hung the sign on a new PBR Country Bar – this one to open in 2021 at Live! Casino in Pittsburgh.
If an organization is planning new sports bars when roughly one in three such establishments are closing down, something’s clearly going right.
Fans won’t have to wait for PBR Pittsburgh to officially cut its ribbon to ride a badass mechanical bull.
The PBR Country Bar at Texas Live! in Arlington, a stone’s throw from where one real cowboy on a snot-slinging bull that will chase him down after a buckoff will win a gold championship buckle and million-dollar check on Sunday, will be the place to hang during PBR World Finals (Nov. 12-15).
The massive bar boasts a 7,000-square-foot balcony over a 5,000-person event space called Arlington Backyard to allow for easy social distancing.
Fans there can raise a glass to a truly unforgettable year, one of many proud PBR firsts.
While other sidelined sports were busy searching for the latest Zoom workouts, PBR was hard at work developing comprehensive protocols to become the first major sport to resume competition in late April in closed events at the Lazy E in Oklahoma, a mere 41 days after mass gatherings beyond 10 people were banned.
During the first broadcasts showing empty stands as the backdrop, a new stripped down experience debuted. It was as if fans were invited to privately watch the world’s rankest practice pen.
Nobody was there outside of the riders, stock contractors and crew. But this is a collision sport. It wasn’t exactly like watching golf.
Inside barren, empty arenas, clanging metal gates, grunting cowboys and chants of “hustle! Hustle!” from a band of brothers in the bucking chute replaced the usual noise of boisterous crowds.
After seven event weekends of PBR unplugged, the fans returned in mid-July, seated in socially distanced “pods,” each group separated from the other.
The intimacy of PBR unplugged was very good. Having the fans back was great.
While upon their resumption, sports like NHL continued from empty arenas, piping in canned cheers after each goal, the fan eruptions heard in PBR after every big ride have been completely real.
“We didn’t do anything to be first. The goal was to get our people back to work,” said PBR CEO and Commissioner Sean Gleason. “We could have packed up to ride out the storm from the safety of our homes. But we were driven by the desire put on events, keep our industry working and bring fans the sport they loved.”
How PBR wrote the initial return playbook for sports and live entertainment is a story of can-do cowboy grit, innovation and determination.
The virus had created a fog of fear and paralyzing uncertainty. Someone had to step up to implore the country to try to chart a path to normalcy in a bold yet sensible way.
Cowboys don’t do very well at sitting still, and that someone turned out to be the PBR.
“From the onset of the virus it was clear that nobody was going to give us a plan for what to do,” Gleason said. “We felt a responsibility to figure out a way to get back to business safely and responsibly.”
It helped that PBR is at its heart a solitary sport: cowboy vs. bull. Gleason’s team figured out way to socially distance, separate functional groups and administer a robust testing program.
Innovation came from all parts of the organization.
When it became clear that respirators for the crews operating the events should not be taken from doctors, nurses and first responders, IT man Brandon Reeves had the idea to use the league’s 3-D printer in Pueblo to produce PPE for PBR. Excess masks were donated to healthcare workers.
The first pro athletes seen on television wearing facial masks turned out to be professional bull riders. The ubiquitous masks were as essential as the riders’ protective vests: requisite for continuing to compete.
Masked cowboys are now a familiar sight amid a very strange year in sports.
In the fall, many arenas across the country would draw giant crowds — but as election polling places, not to host games.
Led by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem riding Old Glory into the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls for the new METC championship in July, PBR broke down the barrier for inviting fans into arenas with new safety protocols in place.
The sport had to go where governmental gathering regulations allowed, setting a completely new schedule for a 10-city second half swing to complete the regular-season. New premier series events came to cities such as Ft. Worth, Texas; Bismarck, N.D; Lincoln, Neb.; and Des Moines, Iowa.
On the dirt, Jose Vitor Leme appeared to be Krazy Glued to his bulls, winning seven events and 15 rounds. The former Brazilian soccer star was riding at a sizzling 70 percent, including eight 90-point rides.
Cooper Davis came back from a broken neck at the season opener in New York to win in Lincoln, propelled by scoring 92.5 points on Hocus Pocus. The 2016 World Champion is back in prime form as a championship threat.
In August, two-time World Champion J.B. Mauney returned from his career-longest stint on the injury shelf. Mauney won a few rounds, notched three straight top-four finishes and rocketed 157 places in the standings to ride into his 15th consecutive World Finals.
Steady and smiling Joao Ricardo Vieira, 424.59 points behind Leme, is in contention for his first PBR World Championship in a building where he has had great success, winning more than $895,000, including two Iron Cowboy PBR Majors inside Jerry’s World.
And so a twisting, turning, challenging season will come to a climax outside of Las Vegas for the first time in 27 years.
When the cherished gold buckle is presented, it will mark an accomplishment that seemed audaciously unreachable when the lockdowns began in March. Looking toward the World Finals, PBR will have delivered a near-full 2020 season to fans.
(The only Unleash The Beast cancellation, Pensacola, was due to Hurricane Sally, not the virus.)
Gleason may remind us the goal wasn’t to be first. Yet, by virtue of coming back when others waited, PBR set an important example.
It’s easy to forget, but seven months ago, as PBR was about to pioneer a return to competition, the ship was about to sail into completely unchartered waters.
The organization was privately (and sometimes publicly) second-guessed – not a surprise considering everyone was still learning about the virus, at the time, newer and more feared.
But this was no half-baked reckless venture. The team had done their homework. They had faith in their comprehensive protocols approved by all authorities with oversight. It was just a matter of responsibly executing the plan.
In being brave while being smart, showing courage and also discipline, the sport demonstrated a path forward.
Six weeks after the country shut down live sports, PBR began bucking bulls. And the canary made it out of the coal mine.
During the health crisis, the sport has now safely held 18 event weekends, 11 with fans in the stands.
If PBR needs a new expression for its slogan, Be Cowboy, it is in the full story of 2020.
None of this should be lost to sports fans. Or anyone who wants their old life back.
Of course, our lives have changed, maybe forever. Many questions and uncertainty remain about when things can return to “normal.”
There is one certainty for a group of cowboys, stock contractors, partners, crew and fans.
Whoever happens to raise the new championship buckle near the 50-yard line where the Dallas Cowboys usually play on Sunday, long after the bucking chutes and fences come down and the vacuumed-up dirt is hauled away, nobody will ever forget the significance of the 2020 season.
For when confronted with the daunting and potentially deadly challenges of a scary, invisible unknown and hearing the discouraging voices of skeptics who said, “you can’t,” a group of stalwart cowboys answered, “yes we can.”
They rose together, bold and brave, leading us from the bunker and toward the faint light at the end of a long tunnel.
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