Boston is in for a wild ride when professional bull riding comes to TD Garden in January
This premier rodeo event is an acquired taste. PBR believes Boston has the appetite for it.
Based mostly on 25 'hugely successful' stops of its up-and-coming riders events in Worcester since 1998, PBR CEO and commissioner Sean Gleason believes Boston will turn out.
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'The dates would just never work out for us to try and get to Boston,' said Gleason by telephone from Texas this week. 'Finally they have, and we're extremely excited about the opportunity to return to Massachusetts. It's been a long time for us to bring the primary tour here.'
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The TD Garden visit will be the third on the 18-stop 'Unleash the Beast' tour, coming three weeks after the season opener at SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H., and a week before the league's 17th annual visit to New York's Madison Square Garden.
Finding time midseason amid the Garden's primary tenants, the Celtics and Bruins, sounds like it's worth it.
'Bringing PBR to Boston is part of our commitment to diversifying the live entertainment experiences we offer our fans,' said Glen Thornborough, TD Garden president and Bruins chief operating office, in an email. 'This is a world-class, high-energy event that's expanding steadily across the East Coast and into major NHL and NBA arenas. We're proud to be part of that growth and excited to introduce something bold and new to our city's rich and exciting sports history.'
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Besides Worcester and Manchester, which has hosted five 'Unleash the Beast' events, PBR's development tour also paid a sold-out visit to Bangor, Maine, this spring, Gleason said.
'We did do some homework on our fan base, and with our TV ratings and the surrounding market, because it's not just Boston proper that will attend this event,' said Gleason. 'Our fans will drive from up to 200 miles to a market to see the PBR when we're in their territory.'
The love of bull riding will be the draw, rather than seeing New England riders, or bulls for that matter, compete.
One rider, Daylon Swearingen, hails from Piffard, N.Y., which is roughly between Rochester and Buffalo, and another, Braidy Randolph, is from Jonestown, Pa.
Other than that, unless you want to make an association between the bull known as Cy Young (87 percent buck-off rate) with the Red Sox, New England ties to bull riding are hard to find.
But New Englanders will find PBR to their liking, Gleason believes.
'I think it's going to be an extremely successful event, much like some of the other first-market events we've done recently, like PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh and Crypto.com Arena in LA,' said Gleason. 'We bring the PBR brand of bull riding to a major market and a place where rodeo and western sports really aren't that familiar, but we always surprise and delight people.'
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PBR's "Unleash the Beast" tour was well-received at Madison Square Garden in January.
Andy Watson
In other words, PBR not only is coming to Boston, it expects to be coming back — maybe even one day with an expansion Boston team for its Team Series league that includes the New York Mavericks.
'Pittsburgh last year was a complete sellout, and all of a sudden that became a very viable market for a PBR team. I think the same would hold true in Boston,' said Gleason. 'We've already started working with [TD Garden] on dates for the future should this event be successful, as we think it will be.'
Michael Silverman can be reached at
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