I mentioned back in February that we got tickets to the PBR.
Well, tonight was the night.
The crowd was very disappointing. Our seats we upstairs, almost even with the chutes, which was a good vantage point. However, it was just a bit too far away. It was a good angle to view the bull and what they do, but it would have been nice to be closer - but that's what you get when you spend $35 a seat instead of $100 a seat (boy, that's steep).
This is the first time the PBR has been to Chicago. Tonight's event was Round 1 of The Jack Daniel`s Invitational of the Built Ford Tough Series.
They did something different with the structure of the event, which sounded new as well. Tonight was Round 1. Tomorrow afternoon at 2pm is Round 2 and then just 6 hours later at 8pm is Round 3 and then the Short Go Round. That's a lot of riding within about 27 hours.
Tonight, out of the 45 riders that competed, 15 got scores. The lowest was a 60.00 (Rogerio Ferreira on Salty Kisses was offered a re-ride and declined), the highest was an 89.00 (Helton Barbosa on Sports Machine).
All and all, it's much more entertaining to be at the event than watching it on TV This has a lot to do with the stadium announcers, but even more so the Barrelman (who is dressed like a Rodeo Clown, not to be confused with a Bull Fighter who are key components to the safety of the riders out there in the ring) Flint Rasmussen. Flint did a wonderful job keeping the crowd entertained.
Speaking of Bull Fighters, the best around (who's been out due to what I would call significant injury) was introduced before the event, as the first event that he was appearing at after the injury - Rob Smets.
Speaking of injuries, of the riders that we wanted to see, one of them was sitting out due to injury - Adriano Moraes of Brazil (out with a sprained right hip sustained in Detroit, but it sounds more like a stress fracture of the pelvis).
2005- Wolves 1 - Aeros 2 (Overtime) - West Division Semifinal Game 2
2004- Wolves 4 - Griffins 1 - West Division Semifinal Game 3
2003- Mr. Personality
- Better Traffic
2002- White Sox 11 - Tigers 8