Every year, Arlington can claim stake to being the home of the biggest rodeos on Earth for one weekend. The “toughest sports on dirt” make their way every year, and every year I get just as excited for the high octane adrenaline, bucking bulls, tough competitors, my favorite rodeo clowns and pyrotechnics. If you’re a fan or simply interested in the event, both PBR Iron Cowboy and RFD-TV’s The American hold some pretty impressive facts inside their events, and we’re here to blow your mind with some of our favorites:
PBR
- 100+ truckloads of dirt are brought in for Dirt Month
Truckloads of dirt is added to the stadium floor, specifically for all four events that take place within this 30 days – Monster Jam, AMA Supercross, PBR & THE AMERICAN. That’s a lot o’ dirt!
- 2 competing riders have stayed on their bull for 8 seconds at least 500 times – with one creeping up on 600 times
Bull Rider Mike Lee has over 500 8-second rides, while Brazilian rider Guilherme Marchi is honing in on 600 8-second rides!
- The reigning world champion is Cooper Davis, and he’s from Jasper, TX
We’ve got ourselves a true-blue ropin’ and ridin’ cowboy!
- The PBR Iron Cowboy Major, part of the Built Ford Tough Series, is the largest single-day event for the organization annually.
Second to the 5-day World Finals event that takes place in Las Vegas annually.
- PBR has headquarters all over the world
With headquarters in Australia, Mexico, Canada and of course the USA, riders represent each of these countries during the competition, including riders from Brazil.
RFD-TV’s The American Rodeo
- Eighty-two contestants have been invited to compete at THE AMERICAN.
Of those 82, 31 are current or former world champions. They represent a total of 90 world championships in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Elite Rodeo Association, the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association and the Professional Bull Riders to their collective credit.
- At the end of this year’s THE AMERICAN rodeo contestants will have left AT&T stadium with more than $8 million in cash and prizes in the past four years.
THE AMERICAN has the richest purse in the rodeo business – a staggering $2 million to giveaway to winners each event. This has been going on for four years at AT&T Stadium, you do the math. Sign us up!
- THE AMERICAN requires two full-size rodeo arenas, plus dirt for the livestock areas, which the PBR also uses.
While bull riding generally does not require as much dirt as rodeo, the PBR adjusts to the varying sizes of its venues. THE AMERICAN will provide approximately 150 head of livestock – bucking horses, bulls, calves and steers – for the competition. Timed event contestants will bring nearly 100 highly-trained performance horses to compete in Arlington.
- The barrel racing offers the widest age range of contestants
From 12-year-old Chanyi Chamberlain to 68-year-old world champion Mary Burger, the age gap is pretty impressive!
- The rodeo performance offers more than four hours of non-stop entertainment for fans, offering lots of bang for the entertainment buck.
No one can complain about saving some cash, or having their attention span entertained for that long!
Special thanks to both PBR and RFD-TV for providing us with fun facts. Tickets for both events are still available and can be found here:
PBR tickets
RFD-TV’s The American tickets
