WE’RE GETTING READY TO BUCK!

According to our 2020 schedule, the Unleash The Beast tour should have been in Sioux Falls, SD this past weekend for one of our most electric regular season events of the year. Courageous cowboys and dedicated stock contractors would have been doing what they love to do in front of a packed house. And our CBS and RidePass teams would have delivered incredible coverage of the event and accompanying “Thaw Out Days” fan festival activities.

It’s unbelievable how much life has changed for all of us in just a little over a month. 

PBR was one of the last sports in North America to hold an event, albeit in an empty arena with fewer than 150 people in the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, GA, after local guidance was issued to limit gatherings to fewer than 250 people. Regardless of the challenges, PBR delivered our television broadcasts as planned in a safe and responsible way. 

We left Georgia intent on setting up for television-only events in a controlled environment in Colorado.  Within 24 hours of leaving Atlanta, the guidance changed twice, and our plans had to be adjusted to ensure the health and safety of all involved.

Within a week, we were informed by venues around the world that our regularly scheduled events would not be allowed to happen. What was widely anticipated to be a few weeks of disruption for live sporting events has now turned into months with an uncertain end in sight. 

Regardless of the many challenges that we are facing in these unprecedented times, we have not been sitting by idly and waiting for someone else to tell us that it’s time to get back to work. Clearly, traditional PBR events with fans in attendance are not an option, now or in the immediate future.  However, week in and week out, our largest audience is at home watching us on CBS, CBS Sports Network and RidePass. We want to bring the sport back to you, via those partners, as soon as it is safe to do so.

To be perfectly clear, as we plan for a return to competition, the safety and well-being of our athletes, stock contractors, staff and the communities we live and work in is paramount. Our motto is Be Cowboy, and that means doing what’s right for everybody.

So I am proud to share that while we may not be bucking bulls yet, we are set up and ready to buck them in a private, highly controlled environment when the time is right.  We have developed a highly detailed and rigorous plan to maximize social distancing and reduce the risks of anyone contracting or spreading coronavirus as we get back to business.

Our planning was based on a thorough analysis tracing all human movement among athletes and crew to, at, and from a PBR event. We then determined ways to separate groups and limit everyone’s interaction with one another and the community at large throughout an entire event weekend, including travel and lodging. We have found by substantially scaling down the production, separating functional groups, and setting strict social distancing protocols, we can operate within the federal, state and local guidance.

To begin the process of executing that plan, we sent a small crew to Guthrie, OK, last week to set up an Unleash The Beast production at the Lazy E Arena, a private ranch that is home to the largest indoor arena dedicated to western sports. The Lazy E, run by great friends of PBR, happens to be one of the first venues to host early PBR events with a regular Bud Light Cup (original UTB) stop from 1996 to 2004.  It’s the ideal place for returning to competition safely, offering private access in and out, and an expansive 1,100 acres--including hundreds of RV spaces--to execute strict social distancing while remaining isolated from the broader community.

In Guthrie, we closely reviewed our comprehensive plan with City and County officials . Even though our plan severely limits any contact between the people of Logan County and the City of Guthrie, we wanted them to understand that their health and safety is as important to us as our own.

Last week, we completed the set up at the Lazy E Arena and were ready to bring in riders and stock contractors to buck bulls for a television-only performance. However, after driving a rented RV from Pueblo and arriving on Tuesday, the guidance once again changed and the timeline extended for minimizing travel and maximizing social distancing. I made the decision Tuesday night that we would not buck bulls this past weekend.

However, our plan and equipment are in place at the Lazy E and standing by. We don’t believe that it is a question of IF we will get back to work in made-for-television events, we believe it is a matter of WHEN.  And as a uniquely individual sport, we have an opportunity to do that sooner than most other sports.

I wish I could give you an exact timeframe for when that will be, but nobody can predict the circumstances we will encounter tomorrow, let alone a week or two from now. So we will take it day by day, and week by week and make a safe and responsible decision to buck bulls at closed, made-for-TV events when the time is right.

And when we do, it will be with an extremely detailed plan that will ensure the safety and well-being of all involved.

Every sport—in fact, every business large and small, coast to coast—has an obligation to begin planning for returning to work once we weather this storm. For our part, PBR has built the foundation for our comeback with a safe and responsible plan for closed events. We are primed and eager to get back to work, put money in bull riders’ pockets, help the stock contractors so they can feed their bulls, and bring fans some joy during challenging times.

Everyone at PBR is so appreciative of our fans for your loyalty, patience and continued support during a time difficult for all of us. During this pandemic, there are many uncertainties. One thing that is certain is the unbreakable bond we share as members of the PBR community. We will continue to plan and strive to bring you, our fans, more great bull riding in the future.

In the meantime, stay at home, stay safe and stay healthy. Buckle down now, and we’ll be on the Can-Am Cage awarding event buckles soon enough.  Be Cowboy!