Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

PBR moves into the Strip’s newest mega-venue

2015 PBR World Finals Round 1

L.E. Baskow

Cooper Davis rides Dakota Style’s Hy Test to second place during Round 1 of the 2015 PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals at the Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015, at UNLV.

2016 has been more than a banner year for the Professional Bull Riders organization, which charges into Las Vegas this week for the 23rd year of the PBR World Finals.

By most accounts, this is the most successful season in the history of the year-round, rodeo-spinoff league that began in 1992. Its TV ratings on CBS are up 12 percent as major-league professional sports, including the NFL, are weathering a ratings drop. PBR has set 13 local attendance records in cities visited by the Built Ford Tough Series throughout the year, and the bull-riding championship finale that will take place in Las Vegas is one of the most hotly contested competitions in years, coming down to reigning world champ J.B. Mauney, last year’s event winner Cooper Davis and 2015 Rookie of the Year Kaique Pacheco. Another attendance record is expected.

“For those of us who have been in this a long time, this is a really exciting year,” said PBR CEO Sean Gleason, in his 19th year with the World Finals. “How this championship story will unfold is one of the biggest drivers for World Finals Week because ultimately that’s what the fans are there for, to see the world’s best bull riders against the world’s best bulls.”

Of course, in Las Vegas, there is plenty more for PBR fans to see and do. And this year, World Finals Week already has a storybook ending before the competition has begun, because PBR’s big year culminates in its first event at T-Mobile Arena, which opened in the spring between MGM Resorts’ New York-New York and Monte Carlo properties.

With its proximity to casinos, restaurants, bars and other Strip entertainment, it almost seems as if T-Mobile was built specifically for PBR’s culminating event. That wasn’t the case, but it was one of a handful of annual Las Vegas events that the arena’s developers, MGM and Anschutz Entertainment Group, focused on maintaining and growing through the venue’s strategic planning, Gleason says.

In the past, World Finals Week events have been staged at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, from 1994 to 1998, and then at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center. The new multiyear agreement with T-Mobile Arena is ideal for PBR, providing a Strip location within walking distance to hotels — no more shuttles running from T&M to the Strip — and endless partnership opportunities with MGM and other venues.

“It’s nice to be a little agnostic in terms of the venue where we hold the event,” Gleason says.

World Finals Week is as big as it’s ever been this year, with nine days of programming including, for the first time, the BlueDEF Velocity Tour Finals Oct. 29-31 at the South Point, the season-ending event for PBR’s sister company, American Bucking Bulls Inc. The live music and entertainment component continues to grow, this year including concerts by country and rock artists such as Neal McCoy, Lita Ford, Rick Springfield, George Thorogood & the Destroyers and Dustin Lynch at South Point, T-Mobile Arena and the arena’s adjacent, outdoor Toshiba Plaza. The highlight is Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler performing at T-Mobile on Nov. 5; Tyler recorded PBR’s new theme song and will sing it live to cap the show.

Las Vegas and the PBR World Finals seem to have grown and adapted together to better suit each other.

“It’s a bit of both. The new arena is a great addition for Las Vegas to provide a new perspective, and we’ve built the PBR World Finals experience for our fans who love coming to Las Vegas because it’s a great destination,” Gleason says. “Having events at South Point, too, which has a very specific, cowboy-friendly tradition and environment with its events center, proves the kind of opportunities we have in Las Vegas. ... Las Vegas has a lot going on, and our fans love the experience.”

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