'Cowboy way' bucks down south: Professional Bull Riders leaves Colorado Springs for Pueblo.

• Author: Lewis, David
• Position: Professional Bull Riders Inc.

Randy Bernard has worked 80- or 90-hour weeks for longer than he can remember.

It's July and Bernard, and the rest of the Professional Bull Riders Inc. headquarters staff is packing up to move from Colorado Springs to Pueblo. Everything is super-organized, but packing for a move remains a pain.

Bernard and the PBR are packing their bags to move into a new $11 million complex by the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk. Out front a 14-foot-high statue of "Yellow Jacket Ridden by Chris Shivers" was in place by mid-July.

Packing is a pain even though Bernard, chief executive officer of Professional Bull Riders, manages the high-flying logistics of putting a show on the road that weekly moves 40 staffers in television trucks, 30 or more PBR folks, plus 15 semi tractor-trailers that carry equipment and bulls but not the cowboys, who are on their own.

"Well, I packed up everything a few days ago, and we're ready to move in. Now of course I find I need the things that I packed and wish I could unpack," Bernard says with laugh.

Bernard has a few reasons to be of good cheer. His company is prospering, budgeting $46 million in revenue for this year, and his sport is said to be the fastest growing in the country, faster than Bernard's role model, NASCAR.

As for the future, "I want to see 20 percent growth, minimum," Bernard says.

Twenty rodeo cowboys who saw the future in bull riding, the supreme event of their sport, founded the PBR in 1992. They invested $1,000 each. Three of them had to borrow the money. Thus are legends born.

This year, New York-based Spire Capital Partners acquired a majority interest in the business. The original 20 investors earned a 4,800 percent return on their investment.

Bernard joined the bull riders in 1994. His background included growing up on a ranch south of Salinas, Calif. He apprenticed at the Calgary Stampede, followed by employment with the California Mid-State Fair under the tutelage of fair hall of fame member Maynard Potter.

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In 1994, when the founders hired Bernard, the PBR had 12 events. Last year, the league hosted 170 competitions in the United States and 110 in Brazil...