SUNRISE, Fla. – Ahead of the third season for the ground-breaking PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Teams league, the Florida Freedom, the Sunshine State’s first-ever professional bull riding team, today announced their 2024 game and broadcast schedule.
The 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series season, beginning July 12-14 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will include homestand events hosted by each of the league’s 10 teams, accompanied by two, three-day neutral site events. Following the league’s expansion to 10 teams for its third season, with the regular-season schedule now featuring 12 events, each team will receive seven byes during the campaign.
The season will conclude in Las Vegas for the PBR Teams Championship, which will debut a new playoff format. The season-ending event will begin with a Ride-in-Round on October 17 at South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa. During the Ride-in-Round, the four lowest ranked teams in the standings will compete, with the two winning teams advancing to set the eight-team Championship at T-Mobile Arena on October 18-20.
The 2024 season will mark the inaugural year that the Florida Freedom will ride out of Amerant Bank Arena, home of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. The Freedom competed in Oklahoma City during the league’s first two seasons, relocating to Sunrise, Florida, prior to the 2024 campaign.
The Florida Freedom will host their first-ever Florida homestand, and third event of the regular season, Freedom Days, on Aug. 2-4 in Sunrise, Florida, at Amerant Bank Arena. During their event, they will play the New York Mavericks (Aug. 2), Oklahoma Wildcatters (Aug. 3) and Missouri Thunder (Aug. 4).
New broadcast rights agreements with CBS and Merit Street Media will bring all of the league’s 140 regular season games, along with the Championship event to fans in consistent broadcast windows on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET, Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET and Sundays at 3 p.m. ET throughout the season with limited exceptions.
Every out from the regular season, plus the playoffs, will be carried by CBS Television Network, showcasing its “Game of the Week” broadcasts, and Merit Street, which will add pre and post-game coverage and shoulder programming including relaunching PBR Now, a one-hour weekly deep dive into the evolving season.
The Florida Freedom’s complete 2024 PBR Teams game and broadcast schedule is:
* Note: The CBS Game of the Week will air the following day.
Under the leadership of 10-time PBR World Finals Qualifier and Head Coach Paulo Crimber, who will be inducted into PBR’s prestigious Ring of Honor on July 11, the team features a talent-packed roster, headlined by his son, teenage phenom John Crimber.
The Florida Freedom selected John Crimber with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft held in late May in Nashville, Tennessee.
John Crimber was sensational in his rookie season in 2024 on the elite Unleash The Beast, falling just short of the 2024 PBR World Championship in his quest to become the youngest gold buckle winner in history. The 18-year-old generational talent won one premier series event and added five runner-up finishes during the regular season, going 29-for-66 as he covered a torrid 43.93% of his animal athlete opponents.
While he was narrowly denied the World Championship, John Crimber was electric in his World Finals debut, finishing second while logging the high-marked ride of his career, scored a mammoth 95 points atop Big Bank.
Crimber was one of four selections the Florida Freedom made during the 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft as the team also added Eric Henrique Domingos, Yan Vitor Santos Cunha and Gavin Hauck.
The newcomers join a talent-packed roster of returning Freedom talent including Caden Bunch, Elizmar Jeremias, Thiago Salgado, Alex Cerqueira and Casey Roberts.
In 2023, the Freedom finished the regular season No. 4 in the league with a 14-14 record. The team was led by a breakout season for Bunch, who went 9-for-14, riding 64.28% of his bulls, and rookie Jeremias, who delivered a solid 38.88% riding average (7-for-18).
During the opening round of the 2023 PBR Teams Championship tournament in Las Vegas, Bunch again stepped up for the Freedom, walking off the win to beat the league’s reigning Champion Nashville Stampede in Round 1. However, in Round 2, the Freedom fell to eventual 2023 PBR Teams Champion Texas Rattlers before being eliminated in the second Last Chance Game by the Missouri Thunder.
During the offseason, prior to the New Rider Draft, through both trade and free agency, the Freedom augmented their roster by adding PBR World Finals qualifiers Conner Halverson, Trey Benton III and Joao Lucas Campos.
The Florida Freedom will welcome the league for their homestand, PBR Freedom Days, on August 2-4, 2024, when the team debuts in their new home of Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.
Three-day ticket packages are available, offering fans a 20% discount on select price levels.
Tickets for the event are on sale now, and start at $20, taxes and fees not included. They can be purchased online at SeatGeek.com and PBR.com, at the Amerant Bank Arena Box Office, or by calling PBR customer service at 1-800-732-1727.
For more information about the Florida Freedom visit https://pbr.com/teams/florida-freedom, Florida Freedom on Facebook, @flfreedompbr on Instagram, or @FLFreedomPBR on Twitter.
Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media
