PUEBLO, Colo. – When the PBR Team Series begins its inaugural season this coming June, eight founding teams will host an annual bull riding event and western lifestyle festival in their respective city.

Events will be held in such cities as Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee – as well as the home of the Missouri Thunder, Ridgedale, Missouri.

Population: 1,031.

It may seem like a strange choice, but, at less than an hour away from Springfield, Ridgedale was actually a no-brainer.

“Missouri has the biggest PBR fan base you can imagine,” Missouri Thunder co-head coach Luke Snyder told KY3 news in Springfield. “That’s why Springfield is always sold out.”

When the PBR first came to Springfield in 2009, it was the smallest market ever to host a premier series event.

“You may have the smallest market in terms of numbers, but you have the biggest heart and spirit in terms of love for PBR and the western sport lifestyle,” PBR Chief Marketing Officer Kosha Irby said. “So it was a natural fit for us to put a team in this locale.”

The Missouri Thunder will be owned by Bass Pro founder Johnny Morris and co-coached by Snyder and Ross Coleman. Snyder is the 2001 Rookie of the Year and World Finals event winner, competed in a record 275 consecutive events over nine seasons and is a 13-time World Finals qualifier. Coleman qualified for the World Finals 12 times and is the head coach of the Team USA Eagles for the 2022 PBR Global Cup USA on March 5. Both are in the PBR Ring of Honor.

Coaching, however, is a new challenge.

“We’ll have to be very strategic in who we draft,” Snyder said. “And once we get the guys and bulls determined, we’ll have to decide who should be on a particular bull. This bull might spin to the left and this guy rides better to the left, that kind of thing. So it’s going to come down to some strategy. But the positive thing is when you have five guys, it really adds some accountability because they don’t want to let each other down. They’ll compete harder, which generates much better rides for the fans to watch.”

It's something that has been seen before. At the Global Cup, riders compete in teams representing their countries, and the Monster Energy Team Challenge in the summer of 2020 featured teams of four.

“We didn’t have fans in attendance, they could only watch on TV, but it was the best bull riding you’ll ever see,” Irby said. “When they started having to ride and lean on one another, it just created an element that we couldn’t replicate.”

With the PBR Team Series draft still months away, the members of the Missouri Thunder and the other seven teams are yet to be determined.

But regardless of who suits up for the Thunder, Snyder knows that the shows put on at the Bass Pro Shops Shooting Academy’s Thunder Ridge Arena will be second to none.

“We’re going to turn the whole thing into something like the NFL’s game day experience,” Snyder said. “There will be a whole bunch of events and attractions around that and really blow it out for Missouri fans.”

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media