PUEBLO – Professional Bull Riders chief executive Jim Haworth calls the 20th anniversary season of PBR one of the tour’s most rewarding, helped by one of the closest title chases in tour history.
Among the highlights:
Mooreville, N.C., cowboy J.B. Mauney went 6-for-6 on rides in last month’s world championship in Las Vegas to overtake two-time defending champion Silvano Alves for the 2013 title. Mauney collected more than $1.8 million in prize winnings for the year.
The tour’s telecasts on CBS and CBS Sports drew between 1.5 million to 2 million viewers at their peak. PBR programming also airs on RFD TV and, over the summer, the tour announced a deal with Rural Radio on SiriusXM to carry live events and daily reports.
The tour’s Facebook and Twitter followers continued to grow with millions of hits recorded during world championship week, PBR executives said.
An August article in Forbes declared bull riding as “America’s Fastest Growing Sport.” The article compared the emergence of PBR to sports franchises ranging from Ultimate Fighting to the Dallas Cowboys.
“We just had a fabulous year,” said Haworth, a former top Sears executive and PBR board adviser who was named chief executive of the Pueblo-based organization in February 2011. PBR’s good run shows no signs of slowing.
In January, another year of sellout crowds are expected at Madison Square Garden in New York for the tour’s 2014 season opener.
In March, a stop at the lavish AT&T Stadium in Dallas will feature a special $1 million challenge featuring top 2013 bull Bushwacker.
Looking out further, February 2015 will bring the movie premier of Nicholas Sparks’ “The Longest Ride.” The best-selling author (“The Notebook,” “Dear John”) used PBR as the backdrop for the story.
The movie “is one of those things that gains exposure to a wider audience. That broader exposure is good for our fans and good for our sponsors,” Haworth said.
The Forbes article delivered an unexpected anniversary gift to PBR.
“If you were one of the original 20 cowboys that invested $1,000 to fund the start . your seed money would now be worth over $4 million. That works out to a 48 percent compound annual return.
“. As best I can tell, no U.S. sport has produced a return close to PBR over a similar period,” it said.
Forbes writer Mike Ozanian estimated the tour’s value at $70 million. It is now owned by 44 cowboys, management and investment firm Spire Capital. John Elway, Wayne Gretzky and other celebrities are investing in the bulls.
Haworth declined to comment on Forbes’ dollar estimates, saying PBR does not publicly disclose its finances.
“We are a profitable sports property and we still see a lot of opportunity for growth,” he said.
Ticket sales this year were up about 11 percent, he said.
Overall prize money approached $10 million with Ford Trucks continuing as the title sponsor of the tour’s premier Built Ford Tough Series. Ford’s sponsorship of PBR goes back to 2000.
“We had a great year on a lot of fronts,” Haworth said.
