Cowboy, take me away
Bull riding competition in Fort Worth this weekend
By Emily Baker
Staff Reporter

There is something about watching a young man battle to stay on the back of a powerful 2,000-pound hunk of beef that makes the heart race. Four-time World Champion Bull Rider Tuff Hedeman calls the sport extreme, non-stop action eight seconds at a time. That makes some people wonder why only in the last few years has bull riding – one of the nation’s oldest sports - enjoyed the popularity of mainstream professional sports.

“It’s a cool sport,” Hedeman said. “It’s man against beast. The majority of the time when I invite someone to one of these events, they like it, and they want to go back another time.”

There was a time when even the best bull rider had trouble making ends meet. He only got paid what he won at an event, and he spent most of that money traveling to the next event and paying entry fees. His name was only recognized by his friends, and most of society never paid attention to him.

Things are a little different these days. Bull riders on the elite Built Ford Tough Series, sanctioned by the Professional Bull Riders, are competing for a few million dollars in prize money. Millions of fans watch events each week on the Outdoor Life Network and NBC, and venues are selling out all over the country.

Hedeman and PBR CEO Randy Bernard said the sport is responsible for its own appeal and that the rise in popularity is due to keeping the fans, the riders, the stock contractors and the sponsors happy.

“The key to it is in 1992, a group of bull riders (including Hedeman) created the PBR, an organization that features the very best bull riders and the very best bulls,” Bernard said. “In 1995, when I came on, (the employees) didn’t care how big our paychecks got. We wanted to build the bull riders’ prize money.”

The Built Ford Tough Series is offering $9.5 million in prize money with two $1 million bonuses this year. That’s up from $7.2 million last year, Bernard said.

2000 PBR World Champion Chris Shivers is up for one of those $1 million bonuses. If he successfully rides the notorious bull Little Yellow Jacket at a match ride in April, he’ll be $1 million richer.

“This is something I’ve always dreamed of,” Shivers said. “I’m glad I get to be the first guy to live it,” he said alluding to his confidence of covering the bull. “He’s a real tough bull and hard to ride, but for $1 million, a guy could do just about anything.”

Brent Vincent is currently ranked in the Top 10 best bull riders in the world, and he said he never thought he would be able to ride for so much money.

“But if they said they were going to offer a $10 million bonus, it wouldn’t surprise me,” Vincent said.

The massive amounts of prize money come from a rise in exposure which causes a rise in popularity, Bernard said. That exposure comes mostly from television contracts, he said. The PBR events that are broadcast on NBC now rate nearly twice as high as the Arena Football League, Bernard said.

“It’s a great sport, and through TV and sponsorships we attract more and more fans, and as long as you have fans, you have a sport,” Hedeman said.

Another mark of success is the popularity the sport has garnered from fans hailing from east of the Mississippi River, Bernard said.

The sport of bull riding “comes from rodeo, and rodeo was never that successful east of the Mississippi,” Bernard said. About a third of the stops on the 29-city Built Ford Tough tour are east of the Mississippi River.

Bernard and Hedeman said this recent surge in popularity is something that will stick.

“We felt strongly about the success from the beginning,” Hedeman said. “The success doesn’t surprise me. Very seldom do people go to an event and not think it is fun.”

Bull rider Mike Lee also said the popularity surge will last.

“It’s an intense sport, and people get excited by watching it, and people are going to get into it,” he said.

Vincent said one reason the sport is becoming more popular is because people are realizing bull riders aren’t exactly what they are stereotyped to be.

“Sometimes people see a guy in a cowboy hat, and they get turned off to it,” he said. “Traditionally, bull riders had a rough and tough attitude, and they were going to do it their way or not at all. Now there is a new generation, and the attitude is more business than rough and tough.”

“Some of that attitude is still there because you have to be that way to get on a bull, but a lot of the bull riders have college degrees and are making a business career out of the sport,” Vincent said.

The sponsors of the sport aren’t strictly those of the Western industry any more either. Vincent is sponsored by Putnam Hitch Products and by Lucky Brand Jeans.

“Lucky Brand Jeans has nothing to do with the Western world, but they saw a good opportunity to advertise,” Vincent said.

The Built Ford Tough Series will stop in Fort Worth this weekend. The Tuff Hedeman Challenge will take place at the Will Rogers Coliseum Friday through Sunday. Tickets cost $30, $20 and $15 and are available by calling Ticketmasterat (214) 373-8000.

Emily Baker