Professional Bull Riders Annual NYC Invitational

I highly recommend the Madison Square Garden event. Though it looks like a show (fireworks, music, entertainment), it is a real competition: the first event of the Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series season – the major league of bull riding. You’ll see the best riders from all over the world, and the best bulls from all over the country. Even people who have no interest in the sport and are dragged there by friends get into it; bull riding is the most exciting sport you’ve ever seen.
BUT: ticket prices have skyrocketed (especially when you get stabbed with the extra Ticketmaster charges), and you’ll have to bring earplugs, because the music in the arena is deafening. I’m a rock music bizz veteran, and I hated the volume level. The intermission will bore the crap out of you, and I agree with Matt: there’s a moronic misogynistic element to the sport– rotten jokes about women, bimbos in hot pants representing some sponsors– and beer-​drinking louts who aren’t there to watch the riding; they just get trashed and annoy everyone around them.
On the other hand, riders are on hand to sign autographs and get their pictures taken with fans, and they’re a lot nicer than most athletes.
I’ve attended PBR events in New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; I’ve written about so many, I put all the reviews on my blog, plus photos, so if you want to know more about the sport, visit
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Cowboy up!

Great fun! The PBR puts on an amazing show. If they ever come to a town near you, def go. You will not regret it.

2013 was the PBR’s 6^th annual Madison Square Garden Invitational. As it’s always in January, it kicks off the PBR’s season every year with a bang. Unlike a full fledged rodeo, this is strictly bull riding (and a little bit of stupid filler «entertainment» from the main rodeo clown). The show is great for all ages but isn’t geared toward children, this is down right southern masculinity (or stupidity depending on your point of view).
The show is always 3 days long and tickets start at $ 20. If you’ve ever been to MSG, you know that those $ 20 seats at the top of the arena leaves you wanting a pair of binoculars but they have big screens showing you the action (which are not so big from up their either). The show draws a ton of people so there aren’t too many empty seats to sneak down to, give it a shot if you can. I had a bunch of obnoxious loud New Yorkers pretending they were country behind me so I was able to sneak down to the bottom of the top section where every couple feet there is an LCD HDTV showing the action. If you haven’t been to MSG in awhile, the entire interior is renovated and is looking fantastic. My only issue was that it was hard to hear what was going on in my section, they need a few more speakers.
In terms of bull riding, here is some basic info to get you started. You need to stay on the bull for 8 seconds for the ride to count. Each ride has a total of 100 points possible (50 for the bull and 50 for the rider). That way if it’s a lame bull that’s not bucking too much that would be just as bad as a lame bull rider who’s barely hanging on the whole time. Luckily the PBR brings together the worlds greatest bulls and bull riders so it’s always exciting. They have bull riders from all over the world, a lot of them are coming from Texas and Brazil though.
If you’ve got a few bucks to spare, remember come the new year, the cowboys come to town for a unique show you’re not likely to see anywhere remotely close to the north east.