Home

Dave Shively

Dave Shively's outdoors column appears Sundays in the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Contact him at 871-4253 or e-mail dshively@steamboatpilot.com.

Four years ago, if you asked people what PBR meant to them, your answer would have to do with Milwaukee's 1893 award-winning macrobrew. If you ask Routt County residents today, you might get a different answer, or at least a clarification to learn which of "nature's choicest products" you were talking about - select hops or a whirling, belligerent 1,800-pound beast?

The other PBR does not come in a moderately-priced package. Since its 1992 inception, Professional Bull Riders Inc. has transformed the sport into a money-making entertainment industry by zeroing in on the eight seconds that appeal to spectators most.

The PBR spokesperson I spoke with cited demographic evidence from Scarborough Research that PBR events constitute the fastest-growing sport in the United States, based on total viewership of live and televised events.

In a recent National Public Radio broadcast of Marketplace, PBR Chief Operating Officer Sean Gleason said its fan base has doubled in the past four years to 20 million fans.

Never mind that I was listening to Marketplace. The point is I was surprised to find out the Colorado Springs-based organization, reportedly worth between $90 million and $125 million, could generate over 100 million annual viewers.

J.C. Trujillo thinks PBR has been able to create a following unlike that of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association because the cash flow snowball effect of allowing athletes to find individual, NASCAR-like sponsorships, which in turn result in better productions. Trujillo, a former bareback world champion, promoted the PBR Rocky Mountain Bull Bash that came to Steamboat during Labor Day weekend. The Bull Bash was part of the PBR Enterprise tour.

Hayden resident Jake Booco, 22, spent much of this season cutting his teeth at these PBR events across the country in hopes of making enough qualifying winnings to compete on the PBR's marquee, televised Built Ford Tough Series. He still wants to go to rodeos, but said he's quickly realizing that the only reality of making a living as a rider is on the PBR tours.

It's an understandable stance for a kid who used to compete in high school rodeos against Kody Lostroh. The Longmont native is Colorado's lone representative competing at the PBR World Finals in Las Vegas. Lostroh was in second place overall heading into today's final round after a winning Friday ride on Dr. Proctor, a previously unridden bull.

Lostroh told me Friday that he wouldn't put PBR in the same category as rodeo:

"With the atmosphere and energy, the show's better, the bulls are better and the set up's better," he said.

So is the paycheck. In his two years on the tour, Lostroh has netted over $350,000.

Not bad for a 21-year-old.

As long as the money and the athletes keep moving away from traditional rodeo, another four years could have the popularity of team-roping events rival that of a warm can of Pabst.