10 minute read
PBR TEAMS FEATURE
By Andrew Giangola
Richard Childress grew up in Winston-Salem, NC, wearing Wranglers and watching The Lone Ranger.
Rumbling engines, squealing rubber, and checkered flags would be Childress’ path to glory as one of the most storied and successful team owners in stock car racing history. All throughout, the 16-time NASCAR Championship owner’s fascination for and affinity to cowboys has never faded.
He’s proudly lived the Western lifestyle his whole life.
Childress keeps prized photos of rodeos he attended with his grandsons Ty and Austin, who’d grow up to pilot the famed No. 3 Richard Childress Racing (RCR) Chevrolet, once driven by Dale Earnhardt Sr. to six championships before a fatal wreck at Daytona International Speedway in 2001 took “The Intimidator” and shook the entire sports world.
Among Childress’ highest highs in the sport that can produce gut-punch devastation was celebrating with Austin in victory lane after his grandson drove that iconic No. 3 Chevy to the checkers at the 2018 Daytona 500, 20 years after Earnhardt, following years of heartbreak, had finally won “The Great American Race.”
On a glorious spring morning in North Carolina this past March, grandfather and grandson rolled out a racecar with a striking paint scheme – for the Carolina Cowboys, a bull riding team in the new PBR Team Series. Childress and Dillon are gunning for an equally challenging trophy – the golden belt buckle signifying bull riding supremacy, as they operate one of eight new teams which will compete in five-on-five bull riding games beginning in July, leading to a championship in Las Vegas in November.
Photo: Andy Watson / bullstockmedia.com
Photo: Andy Watson / bullstockmedia.com
Like Childress, each new team owner is introducing pro bull riding to new audiences, partners, and possibilities. They form an ownership group of savvy entrepreneurs, bringing impressive track records and experience as they invest in the wide-open opportunity available in the exploding Western sports and lifestyle space.
Just as motorsports media are suddenly paying attention to bull riding, legendary newsman Billy Morris of Morris Communications which owns the Nashville Stampede, now has his media outlets promoting bull riding.
World-famous entrepreneur Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, will make his Missouri Thunder team an anchor attraction of the spectacular new Thunder Ridge Amphitheater in the Ozarks.
And sports mash-ups for the new bull riding league go beyond fast cars.
Egon Durban, owner of the Austin Gamblers, is co-CEO of Silver Lake, whose investment portfolio includes ownership in the Manchester City Football Club and NYC FC MLS Club as well as Madison Square Garden, which owns the Knicks (NBA) and Rangers (NHL).
Similarly, Arizona Ridge Riders owner entertainment disruptor Thomas Tull of Teton Ridge, the founder and former CEO of Legendary Entertainment, which made blockbuster films such as The Dark Knight, Watchmen, Superman Returns, The Hangover franchise, Godzilla, and We Are Marshall, brings crossover sports experience through his stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Add baseball and soccer into the mix as well: the Texas Rattlers are under retail impresario John Fisher of the Gap, who owns the Oakland Athletics and San Jose Earthquakes. Austin Gamblers CEO JJ Gottsch spent 24 years in Minor League Baseball, playing instrumental roles in establishing two of MiLB’s most successful teams in Texas. And Oklahoma Freedom team operator, Prodigal Sports, owned by the Funk family, also owned MiLB’s Oklahoma City Dodgers.
The team owners have seized the opportunity to join a successful sport that will benefit from their investments and marketing prowess as each team builds a local fan base to be treated to a festival-like atmosphere surrounding each team’s three-day homestands during the 11-event season. (The Teams season will start with a neutral-site event at Cheyenne Frontier Days on July 15-16 with another neutralsite bull riding in Anaheim. Team Finals will be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Nov 4-6.)
Photo: Andy Watson / bullstockmedia.com
“The owners are stepping into an established sport that’s now expanding with a format that’s been tested in our Global Cups, the Monster Energy Team Challenge that kept us going during the summer of 2020 when other sports were shut down, and aboard the USS Lexington aircraft carrier for team events raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity,” said PBR CEO and Commissioner Sean Gleason. “At every one of these team events, the competition rose a notch and the atmosphere was even more electric.”
PBR didn’t hire consultants to sell the team sanctions. The organization simply reached out to businesspeople who get the magic of the sport and see its potential in bursting into the mainstream as society pines for simpler times, open spaces, and values cowboy values like courage, honesty, and trust.
-SEAN GLEASON
PBR is taking the proverbial bull by the horns to make its biggest play yet in an effort to take an already exciting sport to new heights by adding professional coaches, bigger local events, and new fan rooting interests.
Gleason says that with the new league in action following the individual elite Unleash The Beast tour (which now runs November to May), annual compensation for the average toplevel bull rider will double. PBR’s boss believes that money will help draw more athletes to the sport.
Meantime, the new ownership blood and team dynamics will help elevate PBR. For example, in approaching the inaugural May 23 rider draft and then operating its team, RCR will apply its sophisticated analytical programs used to find speed in NASCAR to help cowboys make their eight seconds more consistently on bulls whose tendences can be studied.
Race teams understand sports psychology. GM Austin Dillon sees similarities between the two sports in the crucial mental game.
Photo: Andy Watson / bullstockmedia.com
-COOPER DAVIS
Photo: Andy Watson / bullstockmedia.com
“In racing and bull riding, there are veterans, and there are guys just having families,” he said. “Everyone has things going on mentally in their lives. We are looking to form a team of young guys with a burning desire to win who can work together and respect one another, want to learn from each other, and ultimately get better together.”
The upcoming Team Draft will set the teammates as well as rooting interests. The riders are anticipated to take their performance up a notch with coaching and the motivation of riding for more than individual goals.
“Team events were always my favorite events to go to all year long,” said 2016 PBR World Champion Cooper Davis. “They elevate everyone’s riding. It’s almost a magical feeling when you don’t want to let your teammates down and things are rolling well.”
Richard Childress, who started his race team in 1969 and has won more than 200 races at NASCAR’s top three national series, lives on his terms (he recently donated one million rounds of ammunition to Ukrainians under attack) and thrives on heated competition, whether its winning 500-mile races or producing award-winning wines at the Childress Winery, located on 72 rolling acres in Lexington, NC.
Now, teaming up with his equally competitive grandson, he’s doggedly pursuing a new championship.
“Winning that gold belt buckle in Las Vegas will be success,” he said. “That’s the Carolina Cowboys’ goal. And that’s why I’m in it.”
He, and seven other highly competitive owners with eyes equally focused on the newest prize in team sports.
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