No Bull: Bovines Running Near MSG
Ford Trucks Promotion Plugs Versus' Bull-Riding Event In New York City
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 1/2/2008 9:01:00 PM
It still won’t be Pamplona, but the bulls will be running in a different location in Manhattan today.
As part of the "Ford Trucks PBR Invasion of the Bulls" event on Jan. 3 --designed to trumpet the Versus Invitational, the Comcast Corp.-owned network's second Professional Bull Riders event at Madison Square Garden this weekend -- there will be a number of bovines making a short run near 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue this morning.
That promotional effort will be followed at noon, when 10 of the world’s top PBR riders and some of the rankest bucking bulls go at it in the Big Apple. Additionally, the Dickies DuraBullfighters and PBR barrel man Flint Rasmussen will also be on hand to entertain New Yorkers, who will find the locale near the Garden covered by 125 tons of dirt, delivered by Ford trucks.
Initially, the "Ford Trucks PBR Invasion of the Bulls" was scheduled to take place in and around Union Square, but the logistics made it much easier to showcase the bulls near MSG, rather than having to hoof them across town, according to event handlers
As for the Versus Invitational itself, there will be a pair of 8 p.m. shows on Jan. 4 and 5, followed by a 1 p.m. event on Jan. 6 at MSG. On the small screen, Versus will present a pair of 2.5-hour shows at 8 p.m.: the Jan. 5 telecast will present the action from the Friday primetime session, while the second will be a same-day delay on Jan. 6 encapsulating the stomping and twirling action that occurred earlier. (NBC is also in the mix Jan. 6 at 4:30 p.m.).
The Versus Invitational is the first of 37 PBR events (excluding encores) the network is scheduled to televise in 2008, culminating with the World Finals from the Thomas Mack Center in Las Vegas over two weekends next November.
