PBR Finals - The Las Vegas Experience V

(I will be doing a seven part series of the seven days in Las Vegas for the PBR finals. Each day in Vegas will be posted for the next seven consecutive days.)

Another day in Vegas, another day to get up early and have a full PBR day. Today we headed out early to the Thomas and Mack arena for the "Behind the Chutes Tour". The waivers were being signed at the entrance and as it turned out, there were several hundred people that showed up for the tour. We had some time to talk to Bobby Sponheimer. Bobby is with TeamPBR and works in setting up the fan zones at events and organizing the meet and greets and tour, such as this. He is a super guy and works very hard. We made our way into the arena and found a seat, in front of the arena production area or the "front of house". The tour was conducted by Clayton Cullen, who is in charge of the in arena production, and his assistant Jim White. They went over what happens during the event from the opening, to music, the announcers and pyro. An interesting tid bit, during the first night opening, a high up member of the PBR pushed the wrong button on the control board and burned the Kabuki that was in the center of the arena. There was a hole in the Kabuki and it had to be replaced for the openings in the coming nights.


We moved on from the "front of house" to the arena floor, through the "hall of champions" and out to the TV production truck. On the way outside, we passed by a pen that had the bull Super Duty. They were preparing to shoot a promo that used him in the promo. As we stopped to take pictures, some were calling Super Duty's name and he seemed to be getting agitated. Later they were not allowing anybody around the bull because they were trying to calm him down for his TV spot. Since we were fortunate to get a personal tour of the TV truck in Springfield (thanks again Todd), we just stayed outside and talked to other fans and asked Jim some questions. One of the interesting things that Jim said is that starting in 2012, the PBR is going to more of a "season", like some of the other major sports. He did not elaborate, but from the way it sounded, there was not going to be the current schedule of five months to start the year, then two months off, then three months on, then two months off, but more of a constant schedule and maybe more time off from season to season. We moved back into the arena and were able to get a look at the chutes and ask questions and then made our way out of the arena.

We drove over to Hard Rock Hotel to eat lunch. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was Mexican food. The food was ok, not as good as Mexican food back home in Texas. We made our way out to the fan zone to catch Flint's show. Today the show was going to be co-hosted by one of the new PBR announcers, Matt West. The two guests were Renato Nunes and Ryan McConnel. Flint asked Renato about riding Chicken On A Chain the previous night, coming out of his slump, not going to New York for the final five chase and of course the famous "pushing the button". Then Flint introduced Ryan, the person that caught the brunt of the challenge button. Flint asked Ryan about the controversy and Ryan said after he calmed down and was told why it was done he was ok with it. He said that Silvano did not touch his bull and Valdiron should not have been DQed and he knew he slapped his bull. The judges were wrong and Renato challenged the judges, not him, and he understood that. Both Ryan and Renato said they were friends and still are friends. An interesting note. Flint asked Ryan if he would ever push a button on another rider and he said no. Then Flint went to audience questions.

Remember I said the other day, I didn't have a question to ask, well, I did this time. I sprang to my feet and headed to the microphone. Flint said "oh no, here he comes". He then went on to introduce me to the crowd as webpbr on the comment section. Thankfully there was clapping, no booing or throwing of sharp objects. First, I thanked Renato for pushing the button, and said that I thought it was the right thing to do. Second, I thanked Ryan for handing the situation in such a professional way. Keep in mind, I have gotten to know both of these guys very well and like and respect both of them. Lastly, I said that I didn't think that the decision by the PBR to have the last of the "final five chase" in New York was a good idea, because it was so close to the finals and what was their thoughts. Ryan said that he would rather have had the rest for the finals and look at what the guy that didn't go (pointing to Renato) is doing in the finals with the rest. Also, Flint said he was asked to go, but turned them down. After another fan question, the show was over and we moved on to mulling around in the fan zone.

After visiting a number of booths in the fan zone, we made our way to a particular booth that Tammie was very interested in. The booth contained auction items donated by the riders and a few fans. One item especially caught Tammie's attention. A Kody Lostroh riding glove. She put in her initial bid and put in a bid for a Cord McCoy shirt. The proceeds from the auction go to a great cause, the Rider Relief Fund. The sale ended the next day, on Saturday and Tammie was really hoping to be the winner on Kody's glove, to go along with Kody's shirt she had from a previous auction.

At this point I was a little tired so we headed back to the hotel. I decided it was time to catch a short nap as Tammie continued to download her pictures and free up space on the memory card for the event that evening. Tammie woke me up (said I was snoring) and we got ready and headed to the arena for the event.

Tonight the opening was honoring our fine young men and women in the US Air Force. When the Kabuki was dropped, there were a number of cadets that were about to be sworn in. After the swearing in, they received a standing ovation from the crowd. Also, in the center stage, the center Kabuki was dropped and there was a huge American flag and Air Force officers standing around it on the center stage. Again, a standing ovation. It gave me chills to see the honor and respect that the PBR gives the US military and the fans standing, cheering and waving the small flags that had been passed out. I read a blog one time by a PBR fan that stated that this was promoting war. Sorry, this is promoting peace. Men and women from all walks of life have sacrificed precious blood to protect our freedom and the freedom of others, so that we might have peace. If you don't understand that, then you don't understand what peace through strength means. It was, too me, the most inspiring opening of the finals.

And then the bull riding started, which is what we were all there for. Ned Cross started the night off, but considering how great Ned had been riding, it was surprising that he was bucked off in a quick 1.3 seconds. In the rest of Flight 1, there were scores by Douglas Duncan, an 86.50 on Marmaduke, Wiley Petersen 87.25 on Pandemic and Sean Willingham getting an 80.00 on Buckey. Sean was offered a re-ride, but chose instead to take his score. In Flight 2, There were seven riders and 3 scores. Chris Shivers continued to have a good finals with an 87.00 on Another Husker. Pistol Robinson got a re-ride on his bull Bad Rock Fire and came back and got an 86.25 on Road Daddy and Brendon Clark scored 85.75 on Cool Spot, which Cool Spot did not have his usual good out.

In Flight 3 there was some controversy. Dustin Elliott came out of the chute on Jiminey Cricket and the bull seemed odd in his bucking and Dustin came off in just 1.9 seconds. Dustin pushed the challenge button saying the bull fouled when he was coming out of the chute. The replay did show that the bull's back leg was caught in the back of the chute as the bull was coming out, however the replay judge said that did not stop the forward motion of the bull, which is the new rule that was instituted this year. The crowd did not agree and there was a chorus of boos. In the rest of the flight Cody Campbell got his first qualified ride with an 87.75 on Depths of Dispair and the same with Jordan Hupp with an 85.50 on Black Powder. Paulo Lima got his second score with an 87.00 on Bad Moon.

In flight 4, there were 7 riders and four scores. Wesley Lorenco continued to have an impressive debut on the BFTS with his third score of the finals. He rode Foolish Pride for an 88.25 and ended up second for the round. Ross Coleman looked good on RFD-TV and received an 87.25 and Jason O'Hearn scored the same 87.25 on Over the Edge. Travis Sellers got his first score of the event with an 86.00 on Rewind. In flight 5 there were three successful scores, all coming right after each other. Silvano Alves started the scoring with an 86.50 on Bring It, then Shane Proctor got his first ride under his belt with an 86.75 on Far West and Guilherme Marchi continued to show that he's back in form with an 87.00 on Little Juicy.

In the last flight of the night, flight 6, the drama of who would be the next World Champion continued to unfold and started to become more clear. Ryan McConnel came off of Bible Bender in 6.4 seconds, all but eliminating him from the title race. Valdiron de Oliveira scored an 82.75 on Ready Freddy and kept his slim hopes alive. Renato Nunes had another impressive ride scoring an 89.25 on Closet Gansgster, which tuned out to be the round winner and garnering him the 400 points for the round win. JB Mauney bucked off in a quick 2.6 seconds on Little Hummer, and all but assured that his quest for a title were gone. That left Austin Meier as the final ride of the night. Austin came in as the number one rider and 1300 points ahead of Renato, but after bucking off in 4.0 seconds, his lead over Renato has been cut to 119 points. Also, Austin had one bull ridden and Renato had three, so it was not looking good for the Oklahoma cowboy.


After the event ended we headed to the press conference. In the press conference was Renato, the round winner and Wesley Lourenco, the new Brazilian sensation who was second in the round and second in the event standings, at this point. There were questions to Wesley about coming to America and he said that he was having fun and "wanted to stay a long time". Renato talked about his riding and that he was having fun and trying to catch the guys in front of him, so there was no pressure on him.

After the press conference we headed to In & Out Burger to meet with some of our friends and we ended up staying for about 1 1/2 hours at a burger joint. The traffic was terrible getting over to the restaurant. From what we were told there was some "big wig" in town campaigning for the Nevada Senator. Someone said the "big wig" lives in a big white house. :) We talked about the event and we calculated that at this point, JB was out of the race, Austin still had a chance, but it was going to be very difficult, and Valdiron still had a shot. Many of the numbers were going to depend on what Renato did, who he chose in the draft (there was not a draft that night, it was held the next morning at the fan zone) and whether he rode and what bulls and scores Austin and Valdiron would get. The bottom line was, at this point, it was Renato's to lose.

We headed back to the hotel and spent time in the casino, but knew with the meet and greet starting at 8:00 am the next morning, it was not going to be a late night. I know they say that Vegas is the city that never sleeps, and if we were here to just "vacation" in Vegas we probably wouldn't be. However, with the busy PBR schedule, the PBR was taking precedence.