Following last week’s announcement that 2.3 million people tuned in to watch PBR’s Built Ford Tough Series event on CBS earlier this month, marking the most-watched PBR event on the channel in more than four years, the organization now hits Las Vegas this week for the World Finals. The event will mark the end of an era as it shifts from Thomas and Mack to the sparkling new Las Vegas Arena in 2016. Coverage begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday on CBS Sports Network.
With new ownership under the WME/IMG umbrella, PBR CEO Sean Gleason spoke with Cynopsis Sports about the future of the organization, how the new bosses are impacting the company, and how
Gleason on new ownership: Obviously, our world became a different place in mid-May when we were sold to WME/IMG, and being part of that organization is a phenomenal opportunity for the sport. We are like a kid in the candy store with all of the resources, assets, connections and other things that they have. We are quickly getting plugged in to all of the departments and areas of expertise that they have built over the years. There have been some really positive gains for our business such as the licensing group where they’ve got a worldwide professional licensing organization, whereas we didn’t have any real representation in the sport. On the content/media side, there are a number of new opportunities for us that we are working on. So we are in great shape, having a good time and looking forward to the next level of growth.
On becoming CEO: I’ve been here for 16 years. I was Chief Operating Officer the day I joined the company many years ago. So I’ve seen it grow from a relative startup to what it is today, so I can’t honestly say that we are changing a whole lot of the plans. The plan has been successful for every phase of our growth, but we are modifying it now to tap into a lot of professionals and professional expertise that we didn’t have the resources to afford or the expertise to build. It isn’t a substantially different plan, just on a grander scale.
On the long-term deal with CBS: We’ve seen tremendous growth in the last four or five years in our audience and ratings. We’ve seen our audience find us and then return on a regular and consistent basis since we’ve been able to announce and promote that CBS and CBS Sports Network are the home of Professional Bull Riders. We’ve seen a lot of recapturing of audience that may have lost touch with us when we split the package between NBC and CBS, and made transitions from Versus to NBC Sports Network. We are in the first year of our long-term arrangement with CBS and all signs are showing growth.
On growth: We have a diverse demographic group. Six or seven years ago, our audience scaled on the older side of things. So our biggest growth has been in the 18-34 year old category. We are now seeing a pretty even mix of demos. That is one of the big challenges we’ve had to face over the years, because when someone asks us about how demo, we would say “In which city?” In New York, it is 60% women between the ages of 24 and 34, while in Billings, Montana, it certainly skews older. We’ve embraced who we are but we have done a lot more marketing initiatives to the Hispanic audience in the last three years. We’ve target Spanish language ads in the right communities, such as Chicago, the Texas markets, or Albuquerque.
On changing venues in Las Vegas: It is a little bittersweet because there is 17 years of history with the Thomas and Mack Center. On a personal front, I’ve watched virtually the entire history of the sport unfold there and it feels like home when we go there. But anybody who has had a chance to view the Las Vegas Arena and understand what it’s going to be when the doors open on that place, would agree that it is a move that is in the best interest of the sport, the competitors, the fans and anybody associated with this sport. We were able to work with the architects early on and they solicited our opinion on a “What if” basis and we were able to work with them to design some elements into that building that made it a very specific opportunity to present the sport with sightlines and fan experience in mind and we look forward to starting there next year.