New bull-riding series to crown team champion at T-Mobile

After determining its world champion in Las Vegas for nearly three decades, the Professional Bull Riders added a new team competition in 2022 and awarded the finals to Las Vegas and T-Mobile Arena.

The world’s best bull riders will compete for eight teams in a 5-on-5 format on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon, when the PBR crowns its first Team Series champion.

“We haven’t really changed anything — we haven’t walked away from individual bull riding and the best bull riders in the world and the best bulls,” PBR chief executive officer Sean Gleason said. “We’ve just added a team component, and it has created a new opportunity for fans to engage and for the riders to earn more money.”

The PBR Team Series offers an $11 million purse. It is not unlike golf’s Ryder Cup or tennis’ Davis Cup — marquee team competitions in sports that primary focus on the individual.

“The team aspect adds drama and excitement for the fans,” Gleason said. “Individual bull riding is difficult to follow. In team competition, it’s very simple — score the most points and you win, score fewer points and you lose.”

The 10 regular-season events have attracted big crowds, solid TV ratings and a handful of celebrity franchise owners, such as Oakland A’s owner John Fisher (Texas Rattlers), NASCAR legend Richard Childress (Carolina Cowboys) and private equity technologies investor Egon Durban (Austin Gamblers).

Former champion bull riders such as Cody Lambert, Jerome Davis, Justin McBride and Michael Gaffney have returned to the sport as coaches.

“At first, some of the old-time fans couldn’t wrap their head around it,” Gaffney, who coaches the Austin entrant, said of the team concept in which two of the eight teams receive first-round byes and two will be eliminated after each playoff round until two remain for Sunday’s final.

“(But) halfway through the season, those same people were at our event in the Moody Center (in Austin), and they all had on jerseys supporting one team on one day and another team on another day, they were so excited.”

Austin is the top seed in the Team Series playoffs, which might be partly due to Gaffney’s coaching but is mostly due to having Jose Vitor Leme, the world’s best bull rider, among its starting five.

“He’s truly an alien. It’s like he’s from another world,” Gaffney said of the Brazilian who already has pocketed a $50,000 bonus for being named the Team Series’ inaugural MVP.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.