Most cowboys, stock contractors and fans of Professional Bull Riders (PBR) gathering in Las Vegas for the sport’s 25th World Finals beginning tonight had never heard the name Barry Frank.
They did this week, however, when the television legend received one of the sport’s most prestigious honors, the Jim Shoulders Lifetime Achievement Award, at the PBR Heroes & Legends Celebration at South Point Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
“Barry helped put the spotlight on our sport like no other at a time when to most fans PBR stood for ‘Pabst Blue Ribbon’,” said former PBR CEO Randy Bernard, in presenting the award.
In 2001, PBR was seen on TNN but not getting the kind of love and exposure Bernard felt the sport deserved. He called upon Frank, working for IMG, to help him buy back the eight-year old sport’s television rights.
Frank was already a legend. He had done deals for all the major leagues and is credited with launching Olympic rights into the stratosphere with his seismic deal for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
He got from Bernard the league’s television contract, read it, and told PBR’s CEO to move the TV cameras up the nose bleed sections and hold riders back from any interviews. Within weeks, the PBR was able to buy back the broadcast rights at less than half of the original offer price.
“Once we got the rights back, Barry said ‘Let’s go make some money,'” Bernard remembered.
Frank had the reputation, vision and match making prowess, to bring bull riding to network TV. The band of maverick cowboys riding wild bucking bulls landed on CBS, joining a powerhouse portfolio including the NFL, PGA Golf, SEC football and NCAA basketball.
Virtually overnight, PBR had entered the big leagues. Today, it sometimes pulls ratings second to only the NFL. That’s right. On some Sundays, BULL RIDING — half crazy cowboys hanging onto snot-slinging bucking bulls — draws more viewers that pro golf, tennis, baseball and motorsports.
And Frank’s vision paved the way for future television expansion. PBR and RIDE TV have just inked a deal for the Velocity Tour, PBR’s No. 2 expansion tour, to be carried in 2019 and 2020 on the equestrian-focused sports and lifestyle network. It’s the biggest sports rights deal in RIDE TV’s history as the network prepares to increase its reach to 60 million homes.
Frank says he didn’t do it for the money. He just likes to get involved with sports and athletes he likes and admires.
Yet he’d always been drawn to sports perceived as off the beaten path. He especially admires unsung athletes outside the traditional stick-and-ball games.
“In PBR, these cowboys are the toughest athletes in sports,” he said. “They take a terrible beating and get back up every time. If I can help their (financial) means, I’ll go do that. It’s been a pleasure and privilege to work with the PBR.”
In a truly illustrious career, Frank says negotiating PBR’s TV deals has been “one of the things I’m most proud of.”
Looking back, the legendary executive characterizes his long career as a fortunate accident.
Frank, who grew up in Dayton, Ohio, fondly recalls smelling the gasoline and hearing the squeal of rubber at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a five year-old boy. He loved open-wheel auto racing, but wanted nothing more than to be an actor.
He was drafted into the Army but rejected due to a heart murmur. After earning degrees at Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard Business School, Frank wound up in Chicago.
Unable to land any acting roles, opportunity beckoned at the ad agency J. Walter Thompson in Detroit, working with Ford, then the biggest advertiser in sports.
“I never thought I’d wind up in sports or TV but I fell in love with it,” he said.
He was fortunate to join ABC Sports and learn at the knee of geniuses like Roone Arledge, the creator of “Wide World of Sports” and “Monday Night Football,” and smart enough to soak in the wisdom circulating in a hothouse sports programming shop.
“Roone Arledge keenly understood what audiences wanted, even if they didn’t know it themselves, and he taught me everything I know,” Frank said.
Observing how Arledge created masterful emotional drama and “up-close-and-personal” sports storytelling, Frank developed shows that resonated across America like The Superstars, The Skins Game, The Tiger Woods Primetime Challenge, and World’s Strongest Man for CBS, the longest running sports show on TV.
“People like to see others doing things they can’t do,” he said. “It’s why World’s Strongest Man has been successful for 41 years, and I think it’s part of the success of PBR. Riding a bull is one of those things you and I can’t ever imagine doing.”
Even as the PBR now operates tours in five countries and continues to set attendance records in arenas across the U.S., Frank believes there’s room for more growth.
“People really like cowboys. They’re considered good people, honest guys, tough as nails,” he said.
Now 86, Frank can be seen several days a week in his Endeavor (parent company of IMG) office on Madison Avenue, wearing a splendid suit, a spiffy pocket square, and a broad smile.
The advice he gives young agents is more every day Main Street than textbook Harvard Business School.
Everything starts and ends with relationships. Always be honest and upfront with people. Con or hustle someone once, and they’ll remember it for a lifetime.
His brand of old-school relationship building is built on a genuine concern for others, creating real human connections rather than spamming contacts on LinkedIn.
Frank will always take the long plane ride. No phone call can ever replace meeting in person.
At the negotiating table, he has been a wizard. His secret strategy: you don’t want to slaughter your opponent. In fact, he always tries to lose the last negotiation point.
“I want the guy on the other side of the table to know he beat Barry Frank,” he said. “I want him to go home to dinner to his wife and kids knowing he had a good day.”
Today, and for years to come, anyone having a good day in the PBR – from the fan on a Sunday afternoon enjoying a 15/15 Bucking Battle on CBS to the cowboy taking the million-dollar bonus at World Finals this week in Las Vegas – can thank the man they probably have never heard of, the one and only Barry Frank.
