The Professional Bull Riders nationally televised Built Ford Tough Series will make its first visit to Wisconsin for the Milwaukee Invitational Presented by Cooper Tires on Sept. 9–10 at the Bradley Center.
Fans will be able to experience two nights of 8-second rides and jaw-dropping wrecks as the Top 40 bull riders in the world try to stay on animals 10 times their size.
Bull riding begins at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 9, and at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10. Tickets are on sale now at the Bradley Center box office, www.Ticketmaster.com, and by telephone at (800) 745-3000.
Each of the 40 riders will ride on Friday and Saturday. Following Round 1 on Saturday, the riders with the 10 highest scores will each compete with one more bull. Following Round 3 on Saturday, the riders with the 10 highest cumulative scores will advance to the Built Ford Tough Championship Round where they will compete with one more bull. The overall event winner will be the rider with the highest combined score from all four rounds.
The first 22 events have produced 14 different winners, led by Valdiron de Oliveira and Robson Palermo, who have four victories each. The Top 5 riders in the world are separated by less than 3,800 points. There are 1,100 possible points available in Milwaukee as the winner of the event will receive 300 points and each of the four round wins is worth 100 points plus the ride score.
Top-ranked Silvano Alves leads Valdiron de Oliveira by less than 850 points. Alves moved into the top spot four events ago after Oliveira held it for 16 consecutive weeks. 2008 PBR World Champion Guilherme March has moved up to third place after four Top 5 finishes in the past five events.
Cooper Tires will host “Coffee with a Cowboy” on Saturday from 8–9 a.m. at the Marriott Courtyard Milwaukee Downtown, 300 W. Michigan Street. Fans will receive a Cooper Tire poster featuring 2010 PBR World Champion Renato Nunes, Ryan Dirteater, Skeeter Kingsolver, Robson Palermo and funnyman and World Champion barrel man Flint Rasmussen. Dirteater, Kingsolver, Palermo and Rasmussen will be available for autographs and photographs. As a bonus, fans who purchase a Flint Rasmussen jersey at the event on Friday will be able to get it autographed by Rasmussen immediately following the event at a table adjacent to the main merchandise booth.
The action will be televised in HD on VERSUS at 11:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, and at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday. Play-by-play broadcaster Craig Hummer will be joined by two-time PBR World Champion Justin McBride, who will provide color commentary, and Leah Garcia, who will doing dirt-level interviews. BFTS telecasts are produced for the PBR by David Neal Productions, a Los Angeles-based production company led by 34-time Emmy® Award winner and Peabody Award winner David Neal, who serves as executive producer and creative lead.
Milwaukee will be the 24th stop on the nationally-televised BFTS, which makes 29 stops in 23 states. The season began at world-famous Madison Square Garden, and culminates Oct. 26–30 in Las Vegas at the richest bull riding event in the world, the PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals. The Finals is where the 2011 PBR World Champion will be crowned and awarded the $1 million Built Ford Tough bonus.
About the Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR)
The PBR is the world’s premier bull riding organization. More than 100 million viewers annually watch over 400 hours of primetime PBR programming on VERSUS, NBC, CBS and networks around the world. The PBR has awarded over $100 million in prize money, and 20 riders have earned over $1 million, including Justin McBride with $5.5 million – the most of any western-sports athlete in history. The PBR was nominated as 2010 Sports League of the Year at the Sports Business Journal Sports Business Awards, alongside the National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. Nearly 2 million fans attend Built Ford Tough Series and Touring Pro Division events each year. For more information on the PBR, go to www.pbr.com, or follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TeamPBR and http://twitter.com/TEAMPBR.
