The Pro Bull Riders World Finals leaving Las Vegas.
The Pro Bull Riders World Finals is leaving Las Vegas, with this year’s Nov. 3 to 7 event at T-Mobile Arena ending a decades long agreement between Las Vegas and the tour.
Las Vegas has been home to the PBR championship event since the event’s inception in 1994. The MGM Grand Garden was the site until 1999, at which time the event moved to the Thomas & Mack Center. T-Mobile Arena hosted its first PBR Finals in 2016.
Last year’s event was relocated to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, amid COVID-19 and Nevada’s restrictions on live spectator events. The finals were contested during the Cowboys’ bye week.
The PRCA’s marquee event, the National Finals Rodeo, moved from Oklahoma City to the Thomas & Mack in 1985. The NFR in 2019 generated an estimated economic impact of $187 million, according to the LVCVA. .
The PBR Finals run for five days and do not approach generating the kind of economic impact the NFR does. Attendance has fluctuated in recent years for the PBR, even though it remains strong. Total attendance in 2019 was 72,300, with approximately 18,700 attending from out of state. The LVCVA said visitors were responsible for $28.6 million in direct spending.