Because frankly I have been stewing over the new 40 men only roster of the PBR. This times cut went all the way up to the man sitting 30th in the world standings. And that to me is just a little bit too much. With this new cut system we lost a lot of really exceptional riders, including last year's Rookie of the Year Reese Cates, who is covering over 40% of his bulls. I am feeling quite a bit angry with them.
They (namely Ty Murray) have said it is to make it "more competitive" and bring a better show to the people at home. Given I spent over $400.00 on PBR tickets last year, that last statement REALLY infuriated me. If all they really care about are the viewers at home, why in the HECK did I bother shucking out money, that I worked hard to earn I might add, to their organization? It is already incredibly competitive to get into the top 45, dropping it to 40 just gives us five fewer men to watch, and lessens the value of each ticket sold per ride. I mean it isn't like the local guys I know that ride bulls just say hey I wanna ride on the PBR BFTS, not the Double M's tour, go and pay whatever the permit fee is, and show up to the next event. They would have to work their way up from the bottom, just to have a chance to get there. That's plenty competitive enough for me.
That is all I am going to say for now. I am waiting to see if I hear back from PBR as I sent them a message letting them know how displeased I was. I am wondering how that will play out.
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I was surprised at it being cut at 30. But I can see where they are coming from in one respect. The Challenger Tours are not very good. Now the guys that were cut will have to go to them in order to get back on tour. So the average public that can go to a challenger tour will see better bullriding.(and I think that is what Ty was referring to.) The guys are really gonna have to work to stay on the tour now.
Mmm that may be what he meant. But his words were far different. His statement was "at the end of the day the Built Ford Tough Series is about the best bull riders in the world battling it out against the very best bulls in the country for the fans to watch on TV." Now if he had said we want some of these guys that aren't doing so great to go down and get some points added up on the Challenger and Enterprise tours, I'd have still been kind of upset, because I think maybe they should have cut from 35-40 (personal opinion), I'd have been a whole lot more understanding. And up here in NY all we get is one BFT event (in NYC), and one Enterprise two day show that a local rodeo guy puts together. So the only way the majority of us in the Northeastern part of the country will ever get to see these guys now, is if we wanna, and can afford to, travel to the mid western or southern states. I guess I am just a little miffed because of Reese getting cut, and the fact that when I asked if there was a chance of them coming back to Albany next year I was told that we get NYC and that is probably going to be it, despite the fact that Albany was almost sold out for both nights. I live for bull riding, and living in NY I kind of feel like they forget about the fans they have up here. I don't think NY is ever going to get lucky enough to even have a challenger tour event stop, or more than one Enterprise show. And yeah it is going to be interesting, because not only will the guys have to really work hard as heck, the PBR is, from the comments I have seen on the website, getting a lot of backlash. But yeah the one year we had our only Enterprise event the same weekend as the World Challenge thing Australia. We got local guys. It was kind of frustrating. So if it gets a few more of the big name guys to the next to non existent tour we have, I will be happy with that!
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