Professional bull-riding circuit aims to kick up a crowd at Rogers Place

The ice at Rogers Place has been replaced with dirt as the best bull riders in the world prepare for the PBR Canadian Championship.

A professional bull-riding circuit in Edmonton on Friday and Saturday has bucked up quite the crowd since its humble beginnings more than 20 years ago.

The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Canadian National Finals is spending its fifth Edmonton-based season-culminating performance in its history at Rogers Place. The event’s general manager says it’s been a long journey to crowds of more than 10,000.

“The only thing we’re missing here is the bright lights of Las Vegas, basically,” Jason Davidson said ahead of the two-day-long event at Rogers Place.

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Davidson built PBR from the ground up in Saskatoon. He pitched the concept as something he said was markedly different from a rodeo, as PBR has a singular focus on bull-riding “from O Canada until we shut the lights down at the end of the performance.”

Since then, PBR has expanded out east to markets including Ottawa, Toronto and Charlottetown, to name a few.

“PBR brings in some of the top athletes from all around the world. So I think that helps, for sure, in attracting some of the (eastern) audience,” Davidson remarked.

Explore Edmonton vice president Arlindo Gomes says they expect an economic impact of more than $6 million during the event.

“I think it just kind of solidifies Edmonton as a place for western cultural events,” he told CTV News Edmonton.

This year, spectators will watch riders compete for a $250,000 prize. A three-man title race between Jared Parsonage, Jacob Gardner and Dakota Buttar is guaranteed to be “sensational,” Davidson said.

Bull rider and 2024 PBR champion Nick Tetz will be participating for something that is, to him, more valuable than money this weekend. The Calgary native broke his femur back in March and has had a long journey back to the saddle.

“The mental warfare that you play with yourself, like, if you’ll return and be as good as you were, just knowing that everything you did paid off,” he said of coming back for his fifth event since fully recovering.

Tetz is out of the running to defend his national championship, but can still claim back-to-back finals event wins – something only accomplished once before in PBR history.

Tickets to the PBR Canadian National Finals can be found through the Rogers Place website.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Brenden Purdy