The entire staff of The Vegas Tourist, would like to thank the people of the Professional Bull Riding and the PBR itself, for letting us be a part of this great event.
2008 has got to be the best event ever held in the history of the PBR. As the following press release shows, it set some amazing records and brought a lot of fans to the sport.
Every event was more exciting than the one before it. The changes to the finals proved a success in adding new thrills and new challenges to an already tough sport.
We look forward to being a part of the 2009 season:
The 2008 PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals presented by Wrangler made history in more ways than one. The seven-night Las Vegas extravaganza not only marked the PBR’s 15th consecutive championship event, but saw the emotional retirement of two legends of bull riding – three-time World Champion Adriano Moraes and two-time World Champion Justin McBride.
But it was the fans – all 116,177 of them – who made the 15th PBR World Finals the best and largest ever.
“It speaks volumes about the passion of our fans that the PBR saw strong growth in spite of a national economic downturn,” said Randy Bernard, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the PBR. “I’m very confident that the city of Las Vegas felt the impact of tourism in their city, and the non-gaming revenue will show a significant increase over last year, which was $32 million.”
Attendance and enthusiasm were also raised to new heights at the Mandalay Bay Fan Zone and Marketplace, where visitors enjoyed a wide variety of vendors, live entertainment, and interactive displays, including PBR funnyman Flint Rasmussen’s “Outside the Barrel” show, and the always-popular Wrangler University, giving tomorrow’s PBR stars a chance to ride sheep and steers. New this year to Fan Zone were the “Bullapollpooza Tours,” that allowed guests an up-close visit with 20 of the world’s top bucking bulls – making the 2008 Mandalay Bay Fan Zone and Marketplace a PBR-utopia for attendees.
“Las Vegas is proud of its history of success with sporting events,” said Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). “We were confident that Las Vegas and the PBR would be a great partnership, and it’s very rewarding to see the continued growth and success of the World Finals.”
What could possibly top the most monumental PBR World Finals in history? Only 2009 will tell.
