PBR Shifting World Finals From Las Vegas To Texas After 2021
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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It seems anyone who has a sport or event to promote comes to Las Vegas. There’s a new indoor football team in Henderson. A new indoor lacrosse team that plans to play at the arena in Mandalay Bay. And there’s constant chatter of MLS, NBA and MLB sniffing around Las Vegas.
Who leaves Las Vegas?
Well, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) does.
Every year in November, PBR stages its PBR World Finals in Las Vegas. It was at Thomas & Mack Center and then it shifted to T-Mobile Arena two miles to the west on the Strip.
But Tuesday, PBR said it’s moving its World Finals from Las Vegas to Fort Worth, Texas, and Dickies Arena as part of a comprehensive schedule restructure for its premier series.
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The new PBR Unleash The Beast regular season will run from January-May, culminating with a seven-day championship festival, spanning two weekends of bull riding and fan activities, in Fort Worth.
The changes will go into effect immediately after the 2021 PBR World Finals in Las Vegas in three months.
The PBR and Las Vegas go way back.
PBR has held its annual championship in Las Vegas since the sport was founded, with the exception of 2020 when the World Finals were held in Arlington, Texas because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s not like PBR will never visit Las Vegas again. PBR will continue to stage to-be-announced events in Sin City.
In fact, while most professional sports leagues shut down in response to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, PBR forged ahead like its IMG corporate sibling Las Vegas-based UFC to hold events. You may recall that PBR held events at South Point in 2020 when most sports were closed.
“We would like to thank the City of Las Vegas for being such an incredible host to the PBR World Finals for nearly three decades,” PBR Commissioner and CEO Sean Gleason said in a release. “While we are excited about the move to Texas, Las Vegas will continue to hold marquee PBR events, which will be announced in the coming months.”
KLAS Channel 8 Sports Director Chris Maathuis first reported in a Twitter post Monday that PBR was leaving Las Vegas for Texas.
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