The PBR World Finals will move from Las Vegas to Dickies Arena in Fort Worth in 2022. The move is part of a schedule restructuring the organization is planning after the 2021 PBR World Finals, scheduled in Las Vegas this November 3-7.
The "PBR Unleash the Beast" regular season will run from January to May next year, ending at Dickies Arena May 13-22.
"A reminder that what happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas," says Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker. "This is big news. We are two weeks of events, tens of thousands of fans and days of media spotlight to highlight the town we love: Cowtown, Fort Worth, Texas."
Parker says events will take place at Dickies Arena but also at Will Rogers Memorial Center, the Stockyards and in Downtown Fort Worth.
"I have declared it 'go time' in our city," she says. "We love tourism, and we really understand it matches with our community's vision for our entire city. We invite fans from across the world to come to Fort Worth to have fun."
Bob Jameson, president and CEO of Visit Fort Worth, says tourism now has a $2.5 billion economic impact on the city. He says "sports tourism" accounts for $100 million of that and is one of the fastest-growing areas.
"You could say the sports scene here is a lot like bull riding," he says. "We're out of the chute, we're moving fast, and you'd better hold on. We're just getting started."
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley says the event will benefit the region's economy, saying the county's 41 cities successfully collaborate with each other. Beyond the economy, he says the PBR World Finals will let the county grow its reputation as a destination.
"America loves the American cowboy. You can't come to a better place than Tarrant County and Fort Worth to find as close a replica to the Old West as you can get," Whitley says. "We're proud of that. We have no desire, whatsoever, to just preserve what happened in the past. We want to make sure it's there in the future for people to see, experience and maybe have just a little bit of a window into what it was like in those early days."
In June, PBR announced a partnership with Stockyards Heritage Development to bring additional western events to that area.
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