Ahead of the inaugural season for the ground-breaking PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Team Series, Nashville’s first-ever professional bull riding team, the Nashville Stampede, today announced the availability of tickets for their inaugural homestand at Bridgestone Arena. Stampede Days happening Aug. 19-21 will include festival entertainment alongside the league’s new bull riding games.
Tickets for the event are on-sale now, and start at $20, taxes and fees not included. Tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com and PBR.com, at the Bridgestone Arena Box Office, or by calling PBR customer service at 1-800-732-1727.
“We are excited to bring a first-class event to Nashville and introduce fans to the Team format of the already electric sport of professional bull riding,” says Nashville Stampede General Manager Tina Battock. “It’s an honor to call Music City home, and we can’t wait to celebrate with our fans.”
The Morris Communications Company-owned Nashville Stampede will be led by Head Coach Justin McBride. McBride is a two-time PBR World Champion, inductee to the prestigious PBR Ring of Honor and fifth on the organization’s list of all-time earners. No stranger to coaching riders in a team format, McBride has led Team USA four times at the prestigious PBR Global Cup, including leading the team to victory in both 2017 and 2020.
“Growing up and throughout my bull riding career, I would have never pictured myself being a head coach of a bull riding team,” says McBride. “Regardless, elavating the sport of bull riding and helping riders improve has been a focus of mine my entire career, and I look forward to bringing home a championship to Nashville.”
Based at Bridgestone Arena, the Nashville Stampede will join the the NHL’s Nashville Predators who have played in the state-of-the-art venue since 1998.
The PBR Team Series’ inaugural 10-event, 112-game regular season will include a three-day homestand event hosted by each of the eight founding teams. The 2022 season will begin with neutral site games in Cheyenne, WY, and will culminate in a team championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV, November 4-6, 2022.
The PBR Team Series builds on the existing structure of professional bull riding with the same basic rules for judging and scoring qualified 8-second bull rides. Events will be staged in a tournament-style format with all teams competing in head-to-head matchups against a different opponent each day.
Each game will feature five riders on each team squaring off against one another. Full team rosters will be comprised of seven riders on the core roster and three practice squad members. The league will host a PBR Team Series draft on May 23 prior to start of the 2022 season, among any bull riders who have declared for the draft during a league eligibility window. The Nashville Stampede will have the second pick in the draft, an order of selection that was determined by a draft lottery among all teams in New York on January 7.
During each game, the team with the highest aggregate score of qualified rides among its riders will be declared the winner of each game. The event winner will be the team with the most game wins across an event, with a special bonus round designed as a tie-breaker to determine final event standings.
The PBR Team Series complements the successful PBR Unleash The Beast premier tour, which held its first championship in 1994 and in 2022 will be staged January – May, with its World Finals in Fort Worth, Texas from May 13-22, 2022.
Since debuting in Nashville in 1996, the PBR’s premier series has visited Tennessee almost annually with events held in Nashville a combined 22 times.
Of those 22 events, nine have been won by World Champions. In recent history, both Cooper Davis and Jose Vitor Leme used a win in Nashville en route to the PBR World Championship in 2016 and 2021, respectively. In 2021, Leme’s victory in Nashville was one of his eight record-tying event victories. Inside Bridgestone Arena, he also logged two of his record-obliterating 24, 90-point rides from the 2021 season.
While Leme and Davis are the lone two riders to win the Nashville event and gold buckle in the same year, 1997 World Champion Michael Gaffney (1996) and three-time World Champion Adriano Moraes (2000) both won the title the year following their victory in Nashville, while McBride (2002 and 2008) won the event after earning his second championship in 2007.
The bull riding action for the 2022 PBR Team Series’ Stampede Days at Bridgestone Arena begins at 7:45 p.m. CDT on Friday, August 19, 6:45 p.m. CDT on Saturday, August 20, and 1:45 p.m. CDT on Sunday, August 21, times subject to change.
Tickets for the three-day event are on-sale now, and start at $20, taxes and fees not included. Tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com and PBR.com, at the Bridgestone Arena Box Office, or by calling PBR customer service at 1-800-732-1727.
Three-day ticket packages will also be available, offering fans up to a 25% discount on select price levels.
PBR Elite Seats are available for avid fans who want an exclusive VIP experience while enjoying the world’s top bull riding circuit. These tickets, available in three tiers, offer premium seats, on-site concierge at the PBR Fan Loyalty Booth, a question-and-answer presentation with some of the top bull riders and stock contractors in the world, behind-the-scenes look at the event from the back of the bucking chutes, exclusive PBR Team Series collectible merchandise, pre-event photo on the dirt, $20 concession voucher and souvenir credential and lanyard.
Fans who purchase the Premier Elite Seat Experience and VIP Elite Seat will receive a printed photo in a PBR Team Series frame, along with a PBR Team Series Yearbook, while those who purchase the PBR Bronze Seat will receive their photo for digital download.
