With the PBR taking over MSG for its season-opening Monster Energy Buck Off At The Garden event this weekend, PBR CEO SEAN GLEASON remains a busy man, but still has time to stop and smell the roses and admire the success the league has had and what the new season will bring. “We’re coming off a series of years where we set records on top of records, so I’m always excited for the season to start,” Gleason said. “When I think through all the history we have and how we’ve established ourselves, it takes me back a little bit and it makes me very impressed with the team that we have.” Despite the hectic schedule leading up to PBR’s opening weekend, Gleason was able to find some time to speak with THE DAILY about his schedule for the league’s opening night Friday in the Garden.
6:00am: The alarm goes off and I’ll hit the snooze button at least once -- I’m a notorious snoozer -- and then get downstairs for 30 minutes on the treadmill before heading back upstairs to shower and get ready for the day. I’ve got a breakfast meeting that day with my production staff at the Renaissance Hotel, and since it’s the first event of the new season, we generally change up a few things and we come out with our new production plan. So, we’ll have a walkthrough and talk through the overall production plan and test the systems so we’re ready for Friday night.
8:30am: I’m booked for the New York Stock Exchange open -- this will be the fifth time I’ve opened the NYSE -- so our arrival will be at 8:30. You go through the introduction process that they take you through in the boardroom, which is spectacular and a pretty impressive site and special treat, then we’ll go up on the podium with our partner Boot Barn and some of our writers and other dignitaries to ring the bell and open the stock market at 9:30. Once we’re done ringing the bell, we’ll get a tour of the floor, we’ll get to meet some of the traders, and I’ll speak with different media outlets before heading out. I’ll head over to Endeavor's headquarters and two meetings there, one with our financing team to run through the '19 plan and the other to review a couple of different script ideas for some original programming.
12:00pm: We’ve entered into a new partnership with a company in Brazil called IMM, so I’ll be having lunch with them somewhere in Midtown, and then we have some Brazilian folks in from various aspects of Brazilian business from the tourism department, some potential promoter partners and others that we’ve invited up for the event. Lunch will last until roughly 1:00-1:30 and at 1:30, I’ve got a meeting back at the Renaissance with our TV production team. We produce all of our own television content, and it’s the first event for them, so we’ll just go over a few details. At 2:00, I’ll meet with the CBS folks somewhere close to the Renaissance. CBS is our TV partner so we’ll go over a few details of the season and what we plan to accomplish as well as other business we need to discuss.
Gleason will open the N.Y. Stock Exchange on Friday for the fifth time since joining PBRpbr
3:00pm: We have a riders meeting at MSG. Since it’s the first event of the season, we’ll go over any new rules as well as general business and other changes that we have going from one season and into the next.
4:30pm: I’ve got an interview with WILL CAIN of ESPN at their new studio at the South Street Seaport that will be simulcast for ESPN Radio and ESPNews.
6:00pm: We have the PBR Garden Party where we kick off our season with a welcome reception, a PR kickoff, and sponsor and other VIP guests and media there. We’re also retiring the first championship trophy and unveiling our new World Champion Trophy that was designed by Montana Silversmiths that will survive well into the future.
7:45pm: The season opener and first performance of the Unleash the Beast Series kicks off. We launched our own proprietary Endeavor-driven OTT called RidePass, so I’ll do a couple of live segments on RidePass where we’ll recap some of the prior season’s successes and lay out the new stories for '19 for the fans. The rest of the night is usually filled with sponsor and VIP tours, visits to the back of the shoots, and tours throughout parts of our production. There’s quite a few guests coming this year that we’ll have to entertain and give the PBR song and dance to. At the end of the evening, I’ll award the Round Winner Buckle on-stage and the event should be wrapped up by roughly 10-10:15. The next 45 minutes is usually for addressing any issues we ran into dealing with following up on any injuries that I need to be aware of and any other issues that came up with event productions.
11:00pm: I’ll make an appearance at the PBR Afterparty, I’ll crash around midnight and get ready to do it all over again.
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