SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Led by defending Sacramento champion and
2010 Professional Bull Riders World Champion Renato
Nunes, the PBR Built Ford Tough Series returns to
California's capital on Saturday, Jan. 28, and Sunday, Jan. 29, for
the Ariat Invitational at Power Balance Pavilion.
Fans attending on Saturday will be able to witness history when
the inaugural PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will be held. Featuring the
Top 15 riders in the world competing against the 15 highest-ranked
bulls at the event, PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will take place
following Round 1. The PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will be broadcast
in its entirety on NBC at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 29.
Round 1 followed by the PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will start at 6
p.m. on Saturday, while Round 2 and the Built Ford Tough
Championship Round will be at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Each of the Top 40
bull riders in the world will ride in Round 1 and Round 2.
Following Round 2 on Sunday, the riders with the 10 highest
cumulative scores will advance to the championship round, where
they will each compete with one more bull. The overall event winner
will be the rider with the highest combined score from all three
regular-format rounds.
Tickets are available at the Power Balance Pavilion box office, www.Ticketmaster.com, and by
telephone at (800) 745-3000 or (916) 928-6900. It is the eighth
season in a row, and the ninth time overall, that the BFTS has
visited Sacramento.
Power Balance Pavilion, home of the 2012 Ariat Invitational,
Jan. 28-29.
The premier matchup in the PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will be 2011
PBR World Champion Silvano Alves against 2011
reserve champion bull Asteroid. Asteroid made his
season debut on Jan. 15 in Anaheim, Calif., and won the Pabst Blue
Ribbon Bull Award for being the highest marked bull of the event.
Asteroid was the reserve world champion last year, with two of the
Top 10 bull scores in 2011, and was the high-marked bull at four
consecutive events in Tulsa, Okla.; San Antonio; Springfield, Mo.;
and Milwaukee.
Alves is the only rider in history to win the PBR World
Championship immediately after winning PBR Rookie of the Year.
The field in Sacramento features six PBR World Champions,
including the past four winners, with Alves (2011), Nunes,
Kody Lostroh (2009), and Guilherme
Marchi (2008). Two-time PBR World Champion Chris
Shivers (2000 and 2003), and 2004 PBR World Champion
Mike Lee are also scheduled to compete.
CBS Sports Network will air the action this Sunday, Jan. 29, at 6
p.m. ET, with an encore airing later that night at 10 p.m. ET.
There will also be encore showings on Monday, Jan. 30, at 9 p.m.
ET, and Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 12 a.m. ET.
Sacramento is the fourth stop on the BFTS, which opened the 2012
season on Jan. 6-8 with capacity crowds at Madison Square Garden in
New York. The BFTS will make 28 stops in 23 states before the Built
Ford Tough World Finals in Las Vegas on Oct. 24-28, 2012. The World
Finals are where the PBR World Champion will be crowned and awarded
the coveted championship buckle and a $1 million bonus. The richest
bull riding event in the world, the World Finals has a total purse
of more than $2 million.
The BFTS is televised every week on CBS, CBS Sports Network, NBC,
NBC Sports Network, and YouTube. BFTS telecasts are produced for
the PBR under a multi-year agreement with 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.
