Randy Bernard knew how to look the part.
When a Professional Bull Riders event was in session, Bernard wore a hat, boots and jeans. When he needed to connect with sponsors in an informal setting, the former PBR chief executive officer slipped into golf attire. And when it came time to negotiate a TV contract in New York, it was a suit and tie – the cowboy hat stayed at the hotel.
“I carried so many clothes that I could fit in anywhere,” said Bernard, who led the PBR from 1995 until early 2010. “If I needed a suit, I had it. If I needed to go hunting, I had it. [Businessman and key PBR organizer] Tom Teague would always make me laugh when he would say that I carried more luggage than any woman he knew.”
Adaptability was one of Bernard’s greatest strengths, helping the PBR rope in thousands of fans without western backgrounds. Today, massive crowds show up to watch the PBR at the most respected sports arenas in the country, including Madison Square Garden and Cowboys Stadium.
Bernard, who now heads up the Indy Racing League, will be honored for his savvy leadership this weekend. He and two-time world bull riding champion Jim Sharp are scheduled to be inducted into the PBR’s Ring of Honor on Saturday during ceremonies in Pueblo, Colo.
The induction will be held at the Pueblo Convention Center from 12:00-2:00 p.m. Individual tickets to the ceremony are $25 for general admission seating and $75 for a reserved seat and lunch. For Ring of Honor ticket packages, please contact Brenda Pachino at (719) 242-2850 or at brenda@pbrnow.com.
The Induction will be held in conjunction with the second annual Wild, Wild West Festival. The festival, scheduled for Friday through Sunday, will also feature live entertainment, street vendors and pancake breakfasts, and a three-day, four-round Built Ford Tough Series event.
In previous years, the Ring of Honor was restricted to former bull riders only. This year, through special dispensation from the board of directors, Bernard will become the first and last non-rider so honored.
And when his record is examined, there’s no doubt about why. Bernard has done more for bull riders than almost any other single person in history.
One on hand, he was reared in the cowboy lifestyle on a California ranch. But on the other, he could play the part of a city slicker – a high-level executive who could represent a bunch of bull riders to the urban elite. He played the part so well that many bull riding fans grumbled that he couldn’t possibly identify with cowboys, because he wasn’t one.
Nothing could be further from the truth. When interviewed for this article, for example, he was preparing to return to California, to witness his father receiving a cattleman’s award.
“When you’d go to the PBR Web site, you’d read the comments saying that I’ve never been a cowboy and I don’t know what it is to be a cowboy,” Bernard said. “They didn’t know that I came from a ranch. I was a cowboy before I ever became a businessman.
“But to me, it’s almost a compliment, even though it’s irksome. No. 1, I had to be a businessman. I couldn’t walk into a New York City office and ask for money with a cowboy hat on. I had to walk in with a suit, and give a plan and have a strategy as to why we were better.”
Bernard did just that. In the last year of his one-and-a-half decades with the PBR, Built Ford Tough Series regular-season attendance increased 12 percent, and ratings with television partner Versus increased nearly 30 percent.
This season, an estimated 100 million-plus viewers are expected to tune in to PBR broadcasts on CBS, NBC and Versus, and on numerous foreign networks. The PBR has approximately 450 hours of primetime programming annually, and the live events could draw at least a half-million attendees in 2010.
Bernard said the PBR’s growth meant taking risks from time to time.
“The first risk-taking that we did was in the late 1990s, when we had our first $1 million World Finals,” he said. “Nobody thought we would sell enough tickets to raise the prize money. Several years later, we said ‘We’re going to make it to where a rider can win $1 million in one year.’ Again, people asked, ‘Can we afford it?’ We weren’t sure. But we did it, and it paid off.”
Bernard said a huge defining moment was moving some of the broadcasts from cable to major network TV in the early 2000s, a maneuver that resulted into the departure of a half-dozen staff members who opposed the decision. However, the broadcasts drew good ratings, and the PBR has since broadcast some of its tour stops each year on major networks.
“It was risk, but it was calculated risk,” Bernard said.
Today, the association has more than 1,200 competitors riding in more than 300 competitions in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico. Prize money exceeds $10 million annually, and the Ford Series consists of more than 30 shows.
Those numbers impress legendary cowboys like six-time World All-Around Champion Larry Mahan, who said Bernard can face “any situation and he's going to be able to talk the language. It doesn't matter if you are behind the chutes at a team roping in New Mexico, or in a high-rise office building in New York.”
They also impress PBR founding father Michael Gaffney, who said the PBR’s success “can be summed up in two words: Randy Bernard. He was the guy who said we can do this if we all stick together.”
Since 2003, the PBR World Champion has received a $1 million bonus. In 2010, the PBR will reach $100 million in prize money paid out to riders since its inception in 1992.
“The PBR was made for the cowboy,” Bernard said. “We never lost sight of that. Even when Spire Capital Partners bought the PBR [in 2007], the cowboy still remained the No. 1 priority. Though these are recessionary years, the PBR has continued to grow, and the next CEO has something great to look forward to. He’s not coming into a sport that’s hurting or needs help.
“But he needs to take the reins and run with it – spur it a little bit and run – because this sport still has a long way to go.”
Though the sport has grown over the years, and riders now are earning big bucks, Bernard said cowboys have not changed.
“People used to ask me 15 years ago, ‘Do you think when the sport gets money in it, will the cowboys change and become prima donnas like star athletes in other sports? I said I didn’t think so, because you never know when your last day is in the PBR.’
“Fifteen years later, cowboys are even more concerned about making sure they showcase the sport well.”
Bernard said the greatest achievement he witnessed in his tenure as CEO was the elevation of the cowboy and the western lifestyle.
“There’s so many things that happened, but when you try to single out the greatest, you have to look in the macro instead of the micro. And that’s what the PBR has done to influence the western lifestyle and the cowboy culture, because we‘ve become so much more mainstream,” Bernard said. “If you were to go to New York, they looked at those of us with cowboy hats all the same. Nobody had identity.
“Today … we can go to Madison Square Garden and sell out. We can go to Tampa, Fla., and sell out. We can go to the big sports arena in Anaheim [Calif.] and sell out. To me, it’s been pretty amazing to see how it’s become cool to be a cowboy.”
Bernard said it was a tremendous challenge in his early days to gain recognition.
“When I started in 1995, PBR stood for Pabst Blue Ribbon,” Bernard said. “If I made a call to New York, that’s what it stood for. There was also the BRO at the time. If you said you were with a bull riding organization and somebody knew about it, they were a rodeo fan, and they would say you have to be talking about Bull Riders Only.
“We‘ve grown by leaps and bounds in the PBR just to develop a brand and a property. Looking back, I think the biggest thing that was accomplished was building a brand and a property that’s not only known within the western lifestyle, but has gained traction in the mainstream. The more we get on network television, the more we become in the mainstream. I’d be willing to bet that most people have seen the PBR on TV now.”
Bernard said the PBR’s brand of bull riding, currently in its 17th season, is taken seriously today.
“Back in 1995, you had to sell a dream and a vision,” Bernard said. “Today, you are selling a product that is proven. We’ve got numbers to back us up. We have a passionate fan base. We have an unbelievable age demographic. Today, we show more statistics. Fifteen years ago, we really didn’t have any statistics, we didn’t really have a fan base and we didn’t have very many events.
“So we’d walk into an office and a sponsor quickly either wanted to be a part of it and help you, or they didn’t want to get in. It was usually a quick answer. It was goodbye, or we want to help you.”
Early on, the PBR got a big break by landing a sponsorship deal with a major beverage company. Its top-tier tour was called the Bud Light Cup Series. Today, it’s the Built Ford Tough Series.
“We had Bud Light, and Pemmican was there, and the next one was Jack Daniel’s,” Bernard said. “After that, it was Wrangler and that gave us a little bit more. We didn’t have very much money, so every time we gained a sponsorship, it enabled us to grow a little bit more.”
Every dollar that came in grew the sport. Every time the sport grew, those sponsors saw a return on their investments. And with every new sponsor, more cowboys had a chance to earn a decent living.
And bridging those two worlds – the hardscrabble existence of the bull rider and the high-stakes sophistication of the business world – was the ever-adaptable Bernard.
“The next sponsor that came on board that helped us grow to the next level was Las Vegas,” he recalled.
"Gaining that sponsor was a funny story in itself. When we flew out to meet with Las Vegas, it was Ty Murray, Cody Lambert, Tuff Hedeman and me. Most of them didn’t know how to put a tie on. The best I can remember, one of two of them had clip ties.
“It was a pretty interesting day.”
— by Brett Hoffman
