It’s that time of year for sports fans in New York. No, not NFL Playoff time sadly, it’s the weekend when the PBR arrives at MSG. There are few sports promotions that find their way into what some may see as misfit as the PBR does when it comes to New York.
If you watched local TV news or a weather channel, saw this Friday’s NYSE opening bell, listened to classic rock or all-news radio, attended this week’s Knicks and Rangers games, or even caught
Bravo’s Watch What Happens Now with Andy Cohen, you know the cowboys and bulls are back
in town.
When it comes to wildlife, New York may be best known for its rats (Pizza Rat on YouTube has
nearly 13 million views). But as PBR makes its 19 th visit to New York City this weekend, the
bulls are catching up…well, if this week’s PBR earned media blitz is any indication.
In past years, PBR’s visit to MSG was the sport’s annual kickoff to the new year. In 2026, the
first elite tour event took place in Boston, ringing in the new year with 8 second bursts of
mayhem at TD Garden on January 2 and 3.
That meant PBR’s press team began its Garden-to-Garden media campaign a bit earlier. Just before Christmas, soft spoken Australian cowboy Brady Fielder flew into Beantown for a local media tour and to attend Celtics and Bruins games for promotional shout outs inside the hallowed arena, which would soon welcome 1.5 million pounds of dirt that captivated local media (If PR Week created an award for coverage of dirt, PBR’s PR team – which dubbed the event “PBR Boston: One if by Dirt, Two if by Sea” – would be a lock to take the inaugural golden shovel trophy).
Two weeks after Fielder explained the sport to a new audience, over January 2 and 3 he went 3-
for-3, including a monster 91.2-point ride on Eyes on Me in the championship round to make
history as the sport’s first Boston winner. A very nice bookend for the rider who came in early
for holiday-time pre-promotion.
The Boston crowd was loud and engaged, and the building was rocking – measured at 110
decibels, more than most rock concerts.
Selling out both nights in Boston highlights the growing popularity of bull riding in the
Northeast – and PBR is on track for three sold out days at MSG beginning tonight (Jan 9-11).
“It’s a marked change today, compared to when we were handing out tickets on the street corner on 7th Avenue nearly 20 years ago,”said PBR CEO Sean Gleason. “We sold out every seat at
MSG last year, and we’ll do it again this year. It’s taken a while. Now I think we can say that
fans in New York area love bull riding like people in Texas do.” Inside “The World’ Most Famous Arena” which features individual competition in the Unleash The Beast tour, PBR will launch The Monster Energy Team Challenge a new NBA-Cup style in-season team tournament with the first game broadcast CBS on Saturday at 3:30 pm ET.
The tournament – an exhibition series before the PBR Teams league launches its 5th season in July, features the hometown New York Mavericks taking on the reigning Teams Champion
Carolina Cowboys. The Mavericks have their annual homestand in the separate PBR Teams
league in the fall at UBS Arena at Belmont Park, and the new tournament showcases a team who would typically be in a long off-season.
The bulls, hoping to eclipse the pizza rat in the hearts and minds of New Yorkers, come from
more than a half-dozen states. Yesterday, on his way to the fifth floor of Madison Square Garden
where the arena sits atop 750 tons of New Jersey dirt layered over the Rangers’ ice – one bull, War Wagon, made a detour to Stamford, Conn. There, he was hoisted by a massive freight
elevator to the sixth floor of WWE headquarters for a special content shoot. WWE, PBR’s sister
company under the TKO umbrella, is now contributing ideas and resources to the production of
PBR events, and fans are seeing a renewed emphasis on the bulls themselves.
They’re seeing rams, too. Ram Trucks, that is – the official sponsor of PBR’s openings, in a deal
that came through TKO. (Close your eyes when this Ram commercial comes on; yes, that’s Dana
White narrating).
WWE’s master storytellers, who create fun and compelling narratives around wrestlers like Cody
Rhodes, CM Punk, Roman Reigns and Rhea Ripley, are eager to help generate bull-branding
buzz for the four-legged athletes who contribute 50% to every PBR ride score. War Wagon represents a new direction on the bull side of the equation. He is hauled by Mike
Miller of Miller DeNaples Bucking Bulls, who has partnered with Warhorse HSBK Racing – the
reigning MotoAmerica Superbike Series champion – as a co-owner in the PBR world.
The crossover is driven by Warhorse owner Louis DeNaples, who has expanded from building
one of North America’s most successful motorcycle racing teams into owning elite-level bucking bulls, including War Wagon, Cockeye and Working Man, all of whom competed at PBR World Finals – the World Series for bucking bulls and their owners. At this level, no expense is spared: top bulls receive premium feed and care, including massages, acupuncture, and electric-wave therapy.
So far, DeNaples has acquired nine bulls, with ambitions to climb the PBR ranks the same way
he did in racing. Last year, Warhorse HSBK Racing became the first Ducati team to win the
Superbike championship in 35 years. The team has also won Daytona three times and currently
competes at top circuits such as Road America, Laguna Seca, and COTA.
To showcase the new relationship, fans are invited to a special event at Ducati’s flagship
dealership in SoHo (NYC) on Saturday January 10 at noon – the middle day of PBR’s three day swing to MSG.
It’s all part of PBR’s efforts to open the tent to new fans, create sampling, and try to get New
Yorkers craving the wildest form of sports entertainment people hooked on a sport that might be
the wildest.
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