Farming Goes Mainstream
Behind a sophisticated bull breeding infrastructure, the Professional Bull Riders tour is fast becoming a formidable competitor in the sports industry. Sunday's New York Times reported these figures for 2005 alone of this emerging professional sports circuit:
Value: $40 million
Attendance: 1.1 million at 156 events
Television viewers: 100 million
Prize money: $10+ million
Why would a formerly on-the-farm sport draw these kinds of numbers? One explanation is that the sport has fundamental appeals to nature and animalistic instincts, which are in sharp contrast to the increasingly technological and wired lives of many Americans. Watching bull riding helps fans travel back, perhaps nostalgically, to less industrialized and urbanized times when land wasn't paved over by condo developments and new media didn't consume one's life 24 hours a day. The sport is also somewhat of a vicarious thrill ride for fans watching the fearsome bull compete against a sometimes helpless, always flailing rider. The danger of bull riding is no different from the hits in football or crashes in NASCAR, both of which help drive viewership in their sports because fans can enjoy the danger but do not have to suffer the consequences. The riders themselves are an additional attraction. Unlike some professional athletes, who may appear to be using performance-enhancing substances, bull riders have the persona of the ever-effective everyman and also are consummate tough guys like Russell Crowe in Gladiator.
The success of the sport turns upside-down the traditional notion that sports participation leads to spectatorship. It is unlikely that many of the millions of bull riding fans have ever stepped foot on a bucking bronco, except for the mechanical bulls at Tex-Mex bars and restaurants. But if the sport continues to grow and capitalize on its differentiation in the marketplace, those mechanical bulls might soon be seen in fitness clubs, high school gyms, and television infomercials.
