As the Professional Bull Riders heads into its three-month summer break, the series is spicing up one of its signature events.
PBR has positioned its Last Cowboy Standing competition, held Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas, as one of its four “major” events on the Built Ford Tough Series schedule and has planned a massive “spring break” festival around it.
Following the example of horse racing’s Triple Crown or golf’s four majors, PBR’s four featured events — outside of the year-ending World Finals — award more prize money and more points in PBR’s world standings than other events. The other “major” host sites are Arlington, Texas; Nashville; and New York City.
“We think this really will create some extra excitement for our fans around the U.S.,” said PBR Chairman and CEO Jim Haworth. “These will build up exposure even more for the sport.”
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The Las Vegas event on Memorial Day weekend will include a “spring break” festival.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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PBR officials said that while the concept of having the majors on the schedule isn’t new, they began discussing in weekly meetings at the start of this year how they could better take advantage of that platform.
In the case of the coming Las Vegas event, specifically, the rollout of the spring break theme means Last Cowboy Standing this year will feature outdoor competition — along with pool parties, an outdoor marketplace for shopping, and performances by country artists including Montgomery Gentry and The Band Perry, all within the MGM Resorts Village. Also performing will be Gary Allan, whose songs are featured on PBR broadcasts.
The two biggest events annually in Western sports — PBR’s World Finals and the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo — are held in Las Vegas, in October and December, respectively. Dave Cordovano, PBR’s chief global events officer and Casey Duggan, special events director, wanted to give fans a shot in the spring.
“We’ve never had anything for our fans and the Western lifestyle fans to do in the spring and really take advantage of the sun,” Cordovano said. “This is so much larger from a layout standpoint to what we do week to week.”
PBR partnered with MGM Resorts International for the spring break extension of Last Cowboy Standing, the last event on PBR’s schedule before its summer break. The series resumes in August.
PBR’s core fan base will always make the trip to Las Vegas for its biggest events, Cordovano said, but the spring break concept offers another opportunity.
“The incremental fan will come out for the music acts and all the other things we have going on, which will allow us to introduce them to PBR,” he said.
PBR sponsors are playing their part with the extension. An interactive fan zone will be set up where companies will look to connect with the expected increased number of fans.
The outdoor aspect means the competition portion of the weekend will be on a much larger scale than in the past, as well. Duggan said PBR uses enough dirt to cover about 17,000 square feet at a typical BFTS event but will bring in enough dirt to cover more than 55,000 square feet for this year’s Memorial Day weekend showcase.
“Our goal is to develop this into the next big Western lifestyle event in Las Vegas,” he said. “We know it will take a few years to grow it into the size that we really want it to be, but I think it’s still going to be a successful endeavor for us and MGM this year.”
Josh Carpenter is a staff writer for SportsBusiness Daily.
