PUEBLO, Colo. (March 9, 2009) - The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) will set Birmingham, Alabama on fire as the elite built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) tour heads into town! The BJCC Arena will host two performances of non-stop action on March 14th & 15th. In stop #14 on the prestigious tour, the top 40 bull riders in the world will compete against the toughest bulls the PBR has to offer, all riding to win the coveted event title. Action from the Pike Electric Invitational brought to you locally by Troy-Bilt will get underway on Saturday at 6:50 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets are on sale NOW, and for as little as $10, fans will see full-throttle action – PBR style! Tickets are available online at Ticketmaster.com, in person at the BJCC Arena Box Office, or by phone at 800-745-3000. Fans will be not be disappointed as a ticket to see The Toughest Sport on Earth! guarantees over two days of jam packed with thrills and spills, pyrotechnics, and rock & roll music!
Topping the list of competitors are current no. 1 bull rider in the world Kody Lostroh (Longmont, Colo); 2004 PBR World Champion Mike Lee (Decatur, Texas); and PBR superstars J.B. Mauney (Mooresville, N.C.), Mike White (De Kalb, Texas), Austin Meier (Kinta, Okla.), Wiley Petersen (Fort Hall, Idaho), and Sean Willingham (Summerville, Ga.). These top cowboys will ride alongside the reigning PBR World Champion Guilherme Marchi (Leme, SP, Brazil).
The Pike Electric Invitational consists of three rounds of competition with the first two rounds featuring the top 40 bull riders randomly matched against the PBR’s toughest bulls. The riders with the top 15 scores will advance to the Built Ford Tough Championship Round after intermission on Sunday and in the end, the cowboy with the highest total score on three bulls will be declared the winner!
The Birmingham event will be one of the featured stops on the 2009 Bull Team Challenge Tour where fourteen teams are competing for their a total tour purse of over $500,000. In stop number three of nine, the Bull Team Challenge will present $10,000 to the team whose total score is the highest for the weekend and $5,000 to the second-highest scoring team.
For more information and the official rules on the PBR’s 2009 Bull Team Competition, please visit http://www.pbrnow.com/competition/BullTeams.
The Pike Electric Invitational will air LIVE on VERSUS on Saturday, March 14th at 9 p.m. EST and on VERSUS on Sunday, February 15th at 8 p.m. EST. Please check your local listings for times and more information.
The PBR is the premiere bull riding organization in the world, boasting contestants from the United States, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, and Canada, Its events air weekly on VERSUS, NBC, and FOX and in recent years it has been tagged the ‘fastest growing sport in the country.’ For more information on the Birmingham Invitational, please visit www.pbrnow.com or call Briana Stensrud at 719 242 2800 ext. 3366.
Don’t miss out on any of the action at the 2009 Built Ford Tough World Finals in Las Vegas, Nev. The world-class event will take place on Oct. 30-Nov 1 and Nov. 5-8 at the Thomas & Mack Center---get your tickets NOW at 866.PBR.SHOW or unlvtickets.com!
About the PBR:
More than 100 million viewers tune in each year to the PBR on FOX, NBC, ESPN, VERSUS, and on a host of foreign networks across the globe. With approximately 500 hours of prime time programming annually, PBR ranks among the most prolific sports on air, in addition to attracting over 1.7 million live event attendees each year with its multi-tiered event structure which includes the marquee Built Ford Tough Series presented by Wrangler, the Copenhagen Bull Riding Challenger Tour, the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Tour, and the Discovery Tour, designed specifically for entry level contestants. The PBR is headquartered in Pueblo, Colo., with additional offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. The PBR prides itself in its 1,000 plus stock contractor relationships and over 1,200 PBR bull riders competing in more than 300 PBR sanctioned competitions in five countries.
