Arlington's AT&T Stadium will host a pair of events this weekend that will draw western sports fans from around the world. Kid Rock's Rock N Rodeo is scheduled Friday, followed by the PBR World Finals Saturday and Sunday.
PBR World Finals moved from Las Vegas to Fort Worth in 2021 with the expectation they would ultimately move to AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
In March, Kid Rock announced plans to start a rodeo at the stadium the same weekend.
"I love all things western: rodeo, bull riding, the cowboy way of life," Kid Rock said at the stadium in March. "Even though I'm more of a Detroit cowboy and not a real cowboy, I do appreciate the lifestyle and everything surrounding it, the class of people involved with it."
Kid Rock's Rock N Rodeo will have a $1 million purse and will include six teams competing head-to-head in a bracket-style competition. Since teams will be competing at the same time, organizers had to plot a different layout for the stadium.
"We've never had to time events simultaneously and size the arena for livestock being separated," says Jim Palermo, PBR's director of remote productions. "They're going to be coming out of both sides of the arena, so these are going to be all new challenges for us."
Palermo says crews started setting AT&T Stadium at 6 a.m. Monday.
"Everything's got to be perfect or you're not being fair to the competitors or the livestock or to the fans," he says. "We're doubling chutes, we're doubling roping boxes and everything so we can do a rodeo tandem at the same time."
Tuesday night, Randy Spraggins started moving four million pounds of "pretty red Texas dirt" into AT&T Stadium. Spraggins owns Special-T-Tracks
"I'm just known as the dirt guy," he says.
Since the weather was dry Tuesday, Spraggins set the dirt in a parking lot outside the stadium and then spent about eight hours trucking it into the stadium and setting the dirt in place.
"The ground in the world of rodeo is all-important for the footing of the bull. Footing is key for the safety of the animal and the rider," he says. "[The bull] is going to try as hard as he can, and the more sure-footed he is, he'll perform better. The animal is half the score. He's got to feel as comfortable as he can to perform at his highest level."
Palermo and PBR say the dirt can stay in place throughout the weekend; the layout of the arena will change. In addition to setting up a rodeo for a head-to-head competition, they have also set up a stage for Kid Rock to perform.
"It is pretty cool because when you're a fan, you sit at home and just watch it," he says. "I'm a sports fan, so when I come and see what it takes to put it on and I'm part of accomplishing it, it's pretty amazing."
Palermo says the dirt will stay in place, but they will be ready to change the layout after the rodeo for PBR. In addition to 2,000 tons of dirt, they are also arranging enough steel paneling to match the length of 18 football fields to set up livestock pens and the rodeo arena.
"It's pretty amazing the crew we have, the things they can do," he says. "We'll work right up to show-time. It's a process. We do it every week but not on a scale this large."
More information about Kid Rock's Rock N Rodeo is available at https://kidrocknrodeo.com/, and details about the PBR World Finals are available at https://pbrworldfinals.com/.
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