PUEBLO, Colo. – With the PBR Camping World Team Series recently expanding from eight to 10 teams, as the league welcomed the New York Mavericks and Oklahoma Wildcatters last week, the 5-on-5 series followed up on the exciting announcement Monday morning by announcing the complete 2024 competition schedule!
RELATED: 2024 event schedule announced for PBR Camping World Team Series
So, when you give a mouse (commissioner Sean Gleason) a cookie (fresh set of hungry teams), he’s going to ask for a glass of milk (in our case, a shiny new schedule and maybe a few extra year three additions!)
Featuring a 12-event regular-season slate (formerly 10 during the league’s first two seasons), markets around North America will welcome the league’s third season of camaraderie-driven action as the team-based venture prepares to show off just how electric the format can be.
And with the number of skilled riders showing their stuff off throughout the Unleash The Beast campaign, we already know there’s plenty of talent awaiting their shot at PBR Teams.
Kicking the season off with some thrills, the Wildcatters are primed to host both the first event of the season and the first homestand event of the 2024 campaign, as the organization welcomes fans to Paycom Center for three days of fun in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, July 12-14.
While fans in the Sooner State are more than familiar with the sport, and even the unique competition format, as the now Florida Freedom spent its first two seasons operating as the Oklahoma Freedom, the heart of bull country is 100% already on board with J.B. Mauney and all the excitement the PBR’s leading money-earner brings with him at each and every stop.
“This format is really gaining some momentum and what I like about it is, before when it was just regular bull riding, you had some fans that liked me, you had some fans that liked Guilherme (Marchi, who finds himself coaching for the Kansas City Outlaws alongside former standout J.W. Hart), some fans that only liked whoever, it was all split up,” Mauney shared.
“Now, when you have a team in a state, that whole state will pull for that team. So, I kind of look at it like soccer in Brazil and how they get behind their teams. When I went to the World Cup in Brazil (2014), it was crazy. They wanted the Brazil National Team to win so badly and that is how it’s set up. If you’ve got a bull riding in Oklahoma, who do you think Oklahoma fans want to win? The Oklahoma Wildcatters!”
Expecting to be received by a sold-out crowd, Mauney and friends have already started ramping up efforts to ensure their inaugural event leaves a lasting mark on Wildcatters fans and will get every opportunity to earn fandom from supporters around the world, as the team enters the spotlight in Week 1.
Sure, the two-time World Champion and ever-revered “Dragonslayer” himself will attract attention from fans, media and prospective riders alike. But he’s far from the only new face settling into a new role, as a pair of World Champions in their own right are leading up the charge for the league’s other new team: The New York Mavericks.
Set to lead the newly introduced northeastern squad into its first season of competition, 2009 World Champion Kody Lostroh will serve as the team’s head coach, while 2002 World Champion Ednei Caminhas is set to support the squad via his assistant coach role as the duo looks to assemble a statement-making squad ahead of their debut inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
And if we know anything about sports fans in The Empire State: they’ll be ready to welcome Lostroh and company with open arms when the summer series rolls around!
“The fans in New York, while they may not be super Western-oriented people, they’re really passionate about their sports, and they’re really passionate about having a good time,” Lostroh told PBR.com’s Darci Miller last week.
“They like to be entertained. They get involved. They’re cheering for good rides, and they’re not afraid to boo people, either. It’s a different fan base than some of these Western states, and it’s very enjoyable to be part of that passion that they have towards their sports.”
Welcoming each of the other nine squads to the legendary venue Aug. 9-10 for three sessions of epic bull riding action during the fourth event of the season, the Mavericks will first travel to Oklahoma City, during the season-opening showdown before heading south for a pair of events in Duluth, Georgia, and Sunrise, Florida.
Replacing the tour’s typical stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the ever-popular Cheyenne Frontier Days, the tour will invade The Peach State’s Gas South Arena July 26-28 during the first of two neutral site events before shifting gears a state south, as the Florida Freedom prepare to host their first-ever homestand inside Amerant Bank Arena Aug. 2-4.
With the organization announcing Paulo Crimber as the relocated franchise’s head coach in year three, Crimber and his front office have been busy since making the move, involved in a few offseason personnel swaps as the team continues its preparation for this spring’s set of drafts.
Joining the Freedom in competing within a new venue this season are the Missouri Thunder, who will host Thunder Days Aug. 30-Sept. 1 inside Great Southern Bank Arena for the first time after competing at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena during their first two seasons of action.
Appearing in four new markets throughout 2024 slate, PBR Teams isn’t limiting the fresh approach by any means, as it’s not just the regular season schedule enduring some changes around this time, either!
Introducing yet another exciting component to the league’s already fiery playoff format, South Point Hotel & Casino will now host the first night of the four-day, progressive-elimination Championship tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada.
While the league’s Top 6-ranked teams at season’s end will have secured their spot within the 2024 PBR Teams Championship inside T-Mobile Arena, the bottom-four ranked teams will now need to ride their way into the big show itself Oct. 17 during the one-day Ride-In Round.
Once the top two teams exit the four-team showdown, they’ll have successfully punched their ticket to the 8-team gauntlet, set to invade the home of the NHL's Las Vegas Golden Knights Oct. 18-20 for three nights of epic bull riding action as teams look to join the Nashville Stampede and Texas Rattlers in gold-buckle earning glory.
With both of the expansion teams’ respective top brass on-site this past weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana, to participate in the 2024 PBR Teams Expansion Draft coin flip, it was (naturally) J.B. Mauney and his Oklahoma Wildcatters who both won the toss and elected to make the first overall selection in the talent-soaking draft.
RELATED: Oklahoma Wildcatters secure first pick in 2024 PBR Teams expansion draft
The pair of World Champions in Lostroh and Caminhas will pick second and third, respectively, with pick No. 4 belonging to the Wildcatters, and will now have to shift into retaliation mode, as Mauney and company will ultimately be making some of their decisions much tougher.
Between the endless list of productive rookies making names for themselves this year on Unleash the Beast, several riders banged up and relegated to respective team injured reserve lists and even more veterans reviving their careers throughout different Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour, Touring Pro Division, PBR Canada, PBR Brazil, PBR Australia (and hell, even PRCA and other rodeo entities), each of the league’s coaches have plenty of tape to review and decisions to make.
Only time will tell how each of the 10 rosters shape up ahead of the third year of enticing 5-on-5 action. The one thing we do know, 12 markets around the United States are set to witness North America’s next big sports league, and we can’t wait to get the show started!
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media