Bull Riders Return to Canvas With a Twist
Three-day event opens team season for PBR
Mike Brohard
With 2025 being a first for Canvas Stadium, Professional Bull Riders has made its return a first for the organization.
PBR Bulls & Beats will be a three-day event from July 10-12, the opening weekend for Team Series, bringing 10 squads of five riders each to the stadium, which once again will be transformed from a football field into a bull-riding arena and a concert venue.
Tickets are available for the three days with the first night opening with the Collegiate All-Star Rodeo (featuring members of CSU’s club team) and closing with a concert by Brad Paisley. Bailey Zimmerman will be the closing act for Saturday, with Sunday’s afternoon competition ending with a performance by Miranda Lambert.
Last summer’s two days of rodeo and concerts were not only well received by local fans, but additionally by PBR. Sean Gleason, its CEO and Commissioner, stated Canvas Stadium paved the way for future stadium events while becoming a place the organization felt it could continue to grow.
Based on those factors, his belief was Canvas Stadium was a great venue to open the team season, especially with the addition of the collegiate riders allowing them to highlight multiple levels of the sport.
“This is like the Daytona 500 that opens the NASCAR season – come out big to set the tone for the season and elevate our Teams season into a must-see national moment,” Gleason said. “This is the kind of stage that matches the intensity, scale, and momentum of our Teams league. Last July, the fan energy, the atmosphere, and the opportunity to bring bull riding into a major stadium environment with fantastic concerts made a lasting impression on our organization and our athletes.”
The event was a first for Colorado State, using the facility for a concert and a rodeo, and it was for PBR too – it was its first foray into making a football stadium become a bull-riding arena. Sarah Hannon, CSU’s assistant athletic director for engagement, admitted she was a bit mesmerized watching the transformation take place day by day.
About six hours prior to the first show, she was stunned to see what Canvas Stadium had become, as well as excited about future possibilities. The discussions for this year’s schedule began during last year’s Last Man Standing.
“This young relationship with PBR, and the trust that they put in us to pull off this amazing event and be their home opener, is something that we're really looking forward to. John (Weber, CSU’s Director of Athletics) and Scott (Sidwell, the deputy athletic director and chief operating officer), their vision for this is way beyond. There's so many cool things that come out of this partnership,” Hannon said. “But to know that PBR said we wanted to kick it off with you guys, where their relationship in the collegiate space started … Since then, they've been to Florida State and they're going to go to Air Force. They're kind of branching into that but knowing that we were the first collegiate stadium that they played in was awesome.”
Bull riding had long been an individual pursuit, with riders spending the season building points toward an invite to the World Finals and vying for the championship. In 2022, they added the Team Series, based off success from a pair of satellite ventures – the Global Cup (which had teams representing different countries) and then COVID, where PBR filled broadcast space with the Monster Energy Team Challenge.
It has grown to the 10 teams the league has now, each centered in a different city, each roster with a selection of protected riders and an injured reserve. Teams takes the concepts of what fans of other team sports come to appreciate, a group to cheer on and a roster competing for the good of all, not just one. With five riders at each event, the cumulative score of all of a team’s riders are pitted against those of another team.
A Teams event, to me, is the future of the sport, so if you're a bull riding fan, then it just gives you that much more reason to be excited.Cooper Davis
It was a change, but one the riders came to appreciate and embrace.
“It is a little bit of adjustment because whenever you get bucked off in the individual season, which is what all of us have been used to, you were frustrated with yourself, and you could kind of throw a fit,” said Cooper Davis, a former world champion and part of last season’s team champion in Carolina, a squad where he now serves as the assistant general manager. “Now as a teammate, you have to be able to keep the good vibes up because if you get your teammates down after you've bucked off or you've had a bad day, then it brings the whole team down with you.
“It's not based off of just one guy's success. It's based off the whole team, and if you buck off, you let the whole team down. There's a lot more riding on it now than what used to be.”
Behind the scenes, Davis notes there is a tremendous benefit to the riders themselves, particularly those coming up the ranks, which he knows from personal experience.
While he was the World Champion in 2016, he found the addition of the Team Series to be a boost in his riding as the teams provide a stable environment for practice, health care and mentorship.
“That's definitely a huge benefit. This is a sport that has been an individual sport forever, and you had to figure it all out yourself. Now it's more mainstream, and having the facilities to work out, 24-7 care as far as being able to take care of our body, and the right facility to get on the practice pools and coaching, it really has taken the sport to the next level.
“Clay Guiton being a prime example. I did a podcast with him, and he was talking about how beneficial it was for him to be on a team because he went from being a guy who was trying to make the PBR World Finals to a guy who was contending for a world title individually. He gave a lot of praise to the team for that, and I think that's a lot of the guys’ stories right now.”
Guiton, who rides for the Carolina Cowboys, was the Team Series Championship MVP last season. Just 19 at the time, he tied the Teams’ record of 10 consecutive rides during the season, then went five-for-five in the finals, including a decisive overtime ride in the first extra-outs game in Teams Championship history.
For fans new to the team concept, Davis feels it is easy to get hooked. There is still each ride to get excited about, but there’s also strategy.
“There's a lot more that you can relate to rather than just seeing one guy and becoming a fan. It's still the top bull riders in the world versus the top bulls in the world, but the coaches get to pair the riders with the bulls, how they see fit for the best matchups of the night, and it just seems to be a lot more successful bull rides that way,” he said. “A Teams event, to me, is the future of the sport, so if you're a bull riding fan, then it just gives you that much more reason to be excited.”
And no better place to kick up the dirt than at Canvas Stadium to open the campaign.
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