The PBR is an organization built off of bringing the best in the world in a roughstock event together, but CEO Sean Gleason knew he had something special with Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo when he got feedback on the timed events, which used a drag-race style system to ensure that both competitors left the box at the same time.

“It was a phenomenal (first year), there aren’t many first time events that can sell 35,000 tickets in AT&T Stadium and walk out of there with every fan thinking they’d received all of the value they expected for their money and that’s what we accomplished,” Gleason said. “And I think for me it was a lot of the old-timers coming up to me and joking and saying ‘who would’ve thought you could have made timed events more interesting than roughstock events.’”

The first of its kind professional rodeo debuted during the PBR World Finals in May of last year and brought out rodeo legends to draft and coach teams made up of the best bareback riders, steer wrestlers, team ropers, saddle bronc riders, breakaway ropers, and barrel racers in the world.

All of the coaches – Cody Ohl, Trevor Brazile, Charmayne James, Fred Whitfield, Bobby Mote, and Sid Steiner (and Joe Beaver as his now co-head coach) – will return in 2025 under the same team names, something Gleason is very happy with because after he put together his initial coaching candidates, all of them accepted.

“I went down the list of people that I had experience with that I knew were champions, not just in the arena, they’ve all got Gold Buckles and many, many championships under their belt, but people that I knew were visionaries in the sport,” Gleason said. “I’ve known most of these coaches for a long time, I’ve listened to a lot of what they’ve had to say about the sport of rodeo and I knew that they were going to be stewards of this idea.”

With coaching experience, Gleason expects to see the same trend he has seen in PBR Teams, more coaching leading to higher scores and faster times. The PBR has seen its overall riding percentage rise to over 40 percent on the Unleash the Beast Tour. Just last week, there were back-to-back rounds in Milwaukee where the riders covered 60 and 57 percent of the bulls respectively. That, Gleason says, is no accident.

“I think the first year they didn’t know what to expect, and again we saw that with PBR Teams, nobody had ever done it before, so what do you pattern yourself after and I think now that these coaches have had a year under their belt, the ones that lost in particular, don’t want to lose again, and so they’re doing a lot of things differently in terms of managing their rosters and putting together their strategy to win, and that’s what coaching is all about.”

Kid Rock’s Rodeo will take place on May 16 in AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. The PBR World Finals are May 8-11, May 14-15, and May 17-18.