PBR Global Cup

The PBR Global Cup is an annual event. The hosting country each year is granted an advantage. For the events in Edmonton and Sydney, that advantage was twice the number of competitors as the visiting teams. When the date for the first-ever edition of the event in the U.S. was announced PBR debuted a new format. In place of an increased roster, Team USA would field two teams, Eagles and Wolves. Making modern sports history, the Wolves team was announced to be composed exclusively of Native American bull riders.[2]

At stake for the home team is their piece of the five-part Global Cup trophy which is a horn and their national soil. The home team must win the event to successfully keep their trophy piece and native soil. Otherwise, the visiting team who wins the event is awarded these items. The competition continues until one nation captures all five horns for the trophy−including the native soil−of each country. That country lays claim to the title, "The Toughest Nation on Dirt."[3]

The trophy is composed of five individual bull horns that represent each country. Taken as a whole, the trophy represents the collective spirit of this worldwide competition. Each country's bull horn piece of the trophy also includes a vessel that holds its native soil. At each event's opening ceremonies, is a presentation where all share in viewing the host's riders depositing their dirt into their trophy piece. Following the presentation, the battle for the horn piece commences. Each team protects their native soil as a matter of pride and honor for their country.[3][4]

Each participating country hosts a three-day event each year. The host country can create a unique team competition for their event. Each team event showcases 24 of the top bull riders, wherein a national team qualifying event is staged to select the host team's 14 national team bull riders. Then each team selects their coach. The event is a two-day international competition which features 14 riders from the host country against 7 riders from each of the visiting countries. The home country is intentionally given a home town advantage with twice as many bull riders.[3]

Competitors earn money based on their team's performance. First place splits $400,000 (Canadian dollars) among themselves while the last place team earns $42,000. Each rider has the chance to win $100,000 from their individual performances.[5]

The competition format for the inaugural event is very different from a traditional bull riding event. There were two days of competition. Each team attempted to score up to 14 qualified rides. The winning team was decided by the highest combined score. Coaches made all the riding decisions. The winning team was determined by points. Each qualified ride was judged up to 100 points. The total of all qualified ride points was combined for the total points earned. The team with the highest number of points became the winner, in this case, Team USA had the most points with 1,026.75 points. Team USA's riders rode 12 bulls out of 18 total outs (trips out of the bucking chute) and had one disqualification for a bulls ridden ratio of 12-18-1 (qualified rides-outs-disqualified). For first place they earned the top prize money of $400,000 and, of course, the Canadian horn piece of the Global Cup Trophy.[6]

In 2017, the inaugural event was hosted from November 9 through 11 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The event paid out the second largest prize amount in North America, with only the PBR World Finals paying out more. By the end of the event, Team USA had become the winner. Team USA consisted of 2016 PBR World Champion Cooper Davis, Derek Kolbaba, Brennon Eldred, Cole Melancon, Stormy Wing, 2009 PBR Rookie of the Year Cody Nance, 2012 PRCA Champion Cody Teel and was coached by two-time PBR World Champion Justin McBride.[7]

Source: [8]

In 2018, the next event was hosted in the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, from June 9 though 10. Fourteen of Australia's top cowboys will compete to win the event on their home turf.[9][10]

The prizes that the PBR paid out in Australian are a record $750,000 for that country. Qudos Bank Arena is first-rate facility is situated in Sydney Olympic Park, and is formerly known as the Sydney Super Dome, which completed construction in 1999. It formerly hosted the PBR Australia World Finals since 2010. The general manager of PBR Australia said that this venue has also hosted the Olympic Games, and that it is very fitting to host this event in the largest city in the Australia.[11]

For Australia, they have chosen their competition format, and they announced it in February 2018. Each team features three competitors. Those competitors are based on the final 2017 world standings for the series that started in Canada last November.[3]

• Australia: Lachlan Richardson, Aaron Kleier, and Troy Wilkinson
• Brazil: Eduardo Aparecido, Kaique Pacheco, and Jose Vitor Leme
• Canada: Dakota Buttar, Jordan Hansen, and Brock Radford.
• Mexico: Edgar Durazo, Francisco Morales, and Juan Carlos Contreras
• United States: 2017 PBR World Champion Jess Lockwood, Derek Kolbaba, and Cooper Davis

Source: [3]

Each visiting team is composed of 7 bull riders in Sydney. Coaches chose the riders. Team Australia, same as the home team inaugural event, benefited from the host team advantage, and had14 bull riders. Australia's additional 11 bull riders were chosen by 1998 PBR World Champion Troy Dunn, their coach. The PBR chose the coaches for this event and they are as follows:[3]

• Australia: Troy Dunn
• Brazil: Renato Nunes
• Canada: Aaron Roy
• Mexico: Gerardo Venegas
• United States: Justin McBride[3]

McBride defended his team's possession of the Canadian horn and native soil they won in the Canadian event in 2017. Roy is returned to helm the Canadian team again. Dunn, Nunes, and Venegas were new to coaching their teams in their respective countries. All three bull riders have exceptionally notable backgrounds that qualifies them for this position.[3]

Lastly, the competition is based on the best 12 qualified rides. The team with the highest aggregate score when the event is over won the trophy with the Canadian horn and also receives the Australian horn. This event, the Brazil team won the trophy.[3]

Source:[12]

[13]

[14]

The third leg of the PBR Global Cup took place on February 9 and 10, 2019 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.[13] For this event, the United States was split into two teams: the Eagles and the Wolves (an all-Native American squad). Team Brazil won their second straight Global Cup at the Arlington stop.[15]

On February 15 and 16, 2020, the PBR Global Cup again visited AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, marking the first time a global PBR competition had visited the same venue in consecutive years. The United States was again split into two teams, the Eagles and the Wolves.[16] The competition was won by the USA Eagles.

Year	Host	Champions	Runners-up	3rd place	4th place
2017	Edmonton	United States	Brazil	Canada	Australia
2018	Sydney	Brazil	Australia	Canada	United States
2019	Arlington	Brazil	USA Eagles	USA Wolves	Australia
2020	Arlington	USA Eagles	Australia	Brazil	Canada

Source: [8]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil (BRA)	2	1	1	4
	United States (USA)	2	1	1	4
3	Australia (AUS)	0	2	0	2
4	Canada (CAN)	0	0	2	2
5	Mexico (MEX)	0	0	0	0
Totals (5 nations)		4	4	4	12

Source: [8]