Professional bull riding crowns two champions in Las Vegas inside five days this November, and the two events are nothing like each other. The PBR Ram Challenger Series Championship runs two nights at South Point Arena on November 4 and 5. The PBR Teams Championship then takes T-Mobile Arena from November 6 to 8. One settles the climbing tier at a working rodeo house south of everything, the other brings every franchised team in the league onto the Strip. They run below in that order, which is also the order of how big the room gets.
PBR Challenger Series Championship: two nights, one buckle
The PBR Challenger Series Championship closes out the circuit where riders build the rankings that get them to the elite level, which makes this the place you watch people arrive rather than people defend. It runs at South Point Arena and Equestrian Center, a dedicated rodeo and horse facility at the far south end of Las Vegas Boulevard rather than a concert arena borrowed for a weekend. It runs rodeo and equestrian events all year, so unlike the arenas that have a dirt floor trucked in for one weekend, this one already has one. Take this one if you want the sport with nothing built on top of it.
Where: South Point Arena and Equestrian Center, south end of Las Vegas Boulevard. When: two nights, Wednesday November 4 and Thursday November 5. Booking: the November 4 session. Run time: about two hours per night.
Check PBR Challenger Series tickets
PBR Team Series Championship: the whole league, three days
The PBR Team Series Championship is the part that catches out anyone who assumes bull riding is a solo sport. Riders here ride for franchised teams, so a clean eight seconds lifts a bench and a buck-off lands on a roster, and the league brings every team to T-Mobile Arena to finish the season. Three days, Friday through Sunday, one session each, and the shape of it is an elimination bracket rather than a straight points race: the top three teams of the regular season sit out day one on a bye while the rest ride to survive it, and the field narrows to a final on Sunday. It's the larger production and much the easier building to reach, sitting just off the Strip where a good share of visitors can walk in rather than drive south. Best suited to anyone who wants the top of the sport and the bigger crowd.
Where: T-Mobile Arena, just off Las Vegas Boulevard. When: three days, Friday November 6 to Sunday November 8. Format: franchised teams, one session per day. Tier: the league's elite championship.
Which one to take
On the Strip with one evening free: Team Series, in the building you can reach on foot. Want the sport with no franchise layer wrapped round it: Challenger Series, and accept the drive south. In town all week: take both. They run back to back, so the climbing tier and the top tier of the sport land inside the same trip without you changing hotels. One thing the calendar hides is that the Team Series Sunday is an afternoon session rather than an evening one, which makes it the day that works around a flight home. And if your trip falls in December instead, the National Finals Rodeo is the ten-night version of all of it.
