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Professional Bull Riders will be back at World Arena next year [Gazette, The (CO)](Gazette, The (CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) PBR will be back at World Arena next year Professional Bull Riders chief executive officer Jim Haworth told a roaring crowd of 3,585 Sunday afternoon that the tour will return during the first weekend of May 2015. Attendance was strong for all three sessions with 11,907 combined. The top night was Saturday with 4,395 in attendance followed by Friday (3,927) and the matinee finale at The Broadmoor World Arena. "After being away for nine years (2005), it was wonderful to see the fan base return," he said. Other future possibilities may be with the Touring Pro Division tour and the Blue Def Velocity Series, which both serve as minor leagues for the main tour. Many PBR riders compete in those summertime events since they win money and pick up some points toward the big tour's season standings. Blue Def is managed by the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which signed a marketing agreement with the arena last month to book acts for the venue. Bye bye to these bulls Legendary bulls Bushwhacker and Smackdown will retire after this season. The bulls are rated by how many riders they buck off each season and Bushwhacker is the two-time defending world champion in that regard. He set a PBR record with 42 straight buck-offs. Smackdown has bucked off 77 percent of his riders in his career. He is nearing his 100th buck-off, something only 68 out of 31,175 bulls used in PBR events and pro rodeos have accomplished. Bull chips The Pueblo-based PBR was founded 21 years ago by 20 bull riders, including the legendary Ty Murray, who contributed $1,000 apiece to start up the tour. Now, PBR has minor-league circuits in Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico. Those also count toward the big-league world standings. In all, PBR holds 300 events per year. . Rider Luke Snyder is the Cal Ripken Jr. of bull riding. He competed in 275 events in a row starting in 2001 until he did not qualify for an event in 2010. The previous record was 197. He retired last season. JOE PAISLEY, THE GAZETTE (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |