ARLINGTON, Texas (February 19, 2010) - Extra effort is being taken to make sure Saturday’s historic Iron Cowboy Invitational is a spectacular event not just for the competitors, but for those in the arena and watching on TV.
PBR Livestock Director Cody Lambert spent all day Wednesday at Cowboys Stadium working with the production staff as the first loads of dirt were hauled in and the fencing was put in place.
According to Lambert, modifications and adjustments were made to the original layout to improve sightlines.
Still, Lambert said that regardless of where anyone is sitting, all they have to do is “look up.”
“There’s no place in the building that you can’t see that huge screen,” he said, referring to the world-renowned 60-yard video screen in Cowboys Stadium . “That’s one of the amazing things. I was looking at that screen and they were running football games on it as everyone worked yesterday, and it was so clear that it was unbelievable how good it was.”
Originally, plans called for four sets of four chutes angled in each of the four corners. However, now those four sets of chutes will be parallel with the goal lines.
“We tweaked those plans a little bit,” Lambert said. “The angle we had the chutes at to start with might have obstructed the view of a few people.”
The footprint for the two arenas will be very similar to the one used at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas for the PBR World Finals. The only difference is that each arena is estimated to be twice the size of those used during the Finals.
“There won’t be a fence dividing the two arenas,” added Lambert. “It’ll be divided by shrubs and plants. It’ll look really different and really nice.
“You have to remember, this is Randy Bernard’s last event for the PBR. Randy wants to go out in style, and this is a very important event to him. We don’t enjoy seeing him go. We hate to see him go, but we’re going to do everything to make an event that he’s really proud of.”
There couldn’t be another venue in the United States more fitting for Bernard’s finale.
As Lambert said, “It’s huge. It’s so big it’s hard to explain.
“I’ve ridden in the Astrodome plenty of times and ridden in a few stadiums. We’ve had events at the Georgia Dome, and this one’s quite a bit bigger than those.”
NEWS and NOTES
Event Center: Follow all the action from Cowboys Stadium by logging on to www.pbr.com and entering the “Event Center,” which is accessible from the tab located at the top of the main Web page. The Event Center provides live scoring, live blogging and event-related Podcasts and interviews.
