GLENDALE, Ariz. – After finishing in second-place at the Team Series Championship during the inaugural season of the ground-breaking PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Team Series, the Teton Ridge-owned Arizona Ridge Riders today announced that their annual homestand, PBR Ridge Rider Days, will return to Desert Diamond Arena Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2023.

Tickets for the three-day event are on sale now, and start at $20, taxes and fees not included. They can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com and PBR.com or by calling PBR customer service at 1-800-732-1727.

The Ridge Riders are Arizona’s first-ever professional bull riding team, competing in the PBR Team Series, which transforms bull riding from an individual to team-formatted competition.

A combination of grit, determination and resilience wrapped into one steadfast group of athletes with a strong lineage in western sports, the inaugural Ridge Riders team featured a collection of the world’s top competitors, including Luciano De Castro (Guzolandia, Sao Paulo, Brazil), Eduardo Aparecido (Gouvelandia, Brazil), Chase Dougherty (Decatur, Texas), Keyshawn Whitehorse (McCracken Spring, Utah), Vitor Losnake (Bauru, Brazil) and more all under the leadership of General Manager Casey Lane, Technical Coach Paulo Crimber and Team Manager Colby Yates.

During the 2023 regular season, each of the eight founding teams will compete in 28 head-to-head, five-on-five bull riding games¸ held across 10 events. The team with the highest aggregate score will be the game winner.

Each team will host a three-day homestand, welcoming the seven other teams, while also competing in two neutral site events, beginning with the season-launch event on July 24-25 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The season will conclude in Las Vegas Oct. 20-22 when the teams will go head-to-head in the PBR Team Series Championship, vying to be crowned the Team Series Champions.

PBR Ridge Rider Days will mark the crucial second-to-last event of the 2023 PBR Team Series season before teams make their way to battle for the Championship in Las Vegas.  

In 2022, the Ridge Riders delivered a standout regular season, going 14-13 in game play and coming down to the wire for the title at the inaugural Championship in Las Vegas. Despite stumbling in the final moments and being defeated by the eventual 2022 PBR Team Series Champion Nashville Stampede, the Ridge Riders delivered a strong regular-season effort.

Along with a valiant finish to the season, Arizona’s bull riding team announced its “Every Second Counts” philanthropic campaign raised $50,050 for its non-profit partners in communities across the country during the inaugural season. For every second the Ridge Riders athletes put on the clock from July to November, whether or not the qualified eight-second mark (to earn a score) was made, the Teton Ridge-owned team donated $50 per second to its philanthropic partner in that event market. The 11 501c3 partners were selected because they demonstrated shared core values of preserving and protecting areas in need within their communities.

During the offseason for PBR Teams, the Arizona riders have proved to be a force on the premier individual tour, PBR Unleash The Beast. De Castro is joined inside the Top 15 in the standings by Aparecido, currently No. 10 and No. 11 respectively, in the heated 2023 title battle. 

The bull riding action for the 2023 PBR Team Series’ Ridge Rider Days at Desert Diamond Arena begins at 7:45 p.m. MST on Friday, Sept. 29, 6:45 p.m. MST on Saturday, Sept. 30, and 1:45 p.m. MST on Sunday, Oct. 1.

To follow the Ridge Riders journey please visit arizonaridgeriders.com,  @arizonaridgeriders on Facebook and Instagram, or @AZRidgeRiders on Twitter. 

Photo courtesy of Todd Brewer/Bull Stock Media