Explosiveness PBR Brazil is already a success story, and they’re just getting started

SAO JOSE DO RIO PRETO, Brazil (July 29, 2010) - On a Saturday afternoon, in the middle of winter, Flavio Junqueira is all smiles, sitting in a conference room across the hall from his modest office.

Dressed in a collared shirt, the 44-year-old director of PBR Brazil wipes the sweat from his brow after having spent a few festive hours at a barbeque celebration known as “the burning of the garlic.”

Junqueira isn’t smiling because the temperature is hovering in the mid to upper 80s. Instead, he’s excited to have an opportunity to share the success story of PBR Brazil since it was first organized in 2006.

“The coming of the PBR to Brazil has made the sport more popular,” he said. “Before we had good events, but there wasn’t a Championship. We had good events, like Paulo Emilio’s event, a good event with a champion of that event.”

Bull riding first became popular in Brazil back in the 1980s. Adriano Moraes, who would eventually win three World Championships in the United States, was just beginning his professional career, and the sport looked decidedly different than it does today.

Back then, every rider who nodded his head earned a score, regardless of whether he made the 8-second whistle.

Junqueira explained that a rider who lasted 2 seconds might earn 20 points, while someone who made it 5 seconds could score 53 points. It was Moraes, upon returning from his first trip to the U.S., who convinced promoters and organizers that riders needed to ride a full 8 seconds in order to earn a qualified score.

Another change Moraes helped bring about in Brazil was how event winners were determined. In the past, riders would compete in four long rounds, with the top cumulative scores advancing to the short round. However, the “champion of the event” would be the rider with the highest marked ride in the final round.

“He saw the organization of the sport [in the U.S.] and brought it to Brazil,” said Junqueira, who added that Moraes’ relentless efforts paid off when the legendary rider was able to help bring four PBR events to the South American country in 2001.

A year later, those four events led to the formation of the PRT.

“They saw that they could do the same thing that was being done in the United States,” Junqueira said. “Then in 2006, that’s when the PBR came back to Brazil.”

In the past four years, PBR Brazil has made enormous strides in every aspect of the sport, from producing events to setting up an office in Sao Jose do Rio Preto, and from securing a television contract to beginning to establish the PBR as a standalone sport. Currently, most PBR Brazil events are held in conjunction with rodeos or well-attended concerts headlined by noteable music acts.

Chief Global Events Officer Dave Cordovano likened PBR Brazil’s current stage of evolution to that of the PBR five or seven years after separating itself from the PRCA.

In the past year, PBR Brazil has tripled its schedule to more than 100 events, including 30 which form the elite Brahma Super Bull tour.

According to Junqueira, the key to the recent growth of live events (all of which are sanctioned affairs hosted by independent promoters) has been expanded television coverage.

Canal Rural first began rebroadcasting the Built Ford Tough Series in 2008, and earlier this year agreed to televise all 30 Brahma events—10 of them live.

“You can reach everybody,” Junqueira explained. “We have more people watching on TV then inside of the event, so on TV we focus on the sport, and [the broadcast] is all about the sport.”

Yet Junqueira, who shies away from overstating his accomplishments, described the overall progress as only “so-so.” He points to a desire to expand TV coverage in the states south of Sao Paulo, as well as the possibility of PBR events in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

“It would be one of the most important things,” said Junqueira about staging an event in Sao Paulo.

However, at this point, that would require the abolishment of law that prohibits bull riding events from being hosted inside the Sao Paulo city limits. Junqueira is currently working with local politicians, some of whom were in Rio Preto for an event last weekend, and hopes to be able to host the Brazilian finals in Sao Paulo either next year or in 2012.

Another of his expansion projects calls for hosting events in the southern states, which would open the door to new sponsors and an increased revenue stream.

There are countless other advances that have been made since the original staff of two employees – Junqueira and Camila Bellintani Pereira – expanded to the nine who now work fulltime in the office, along with others who strictly work at live events.

“Now it’s a company, and everybody can see that,” explained Pereira, office manager for PBR Brazil. “People recognize the PBR. … Four years ago it was a logo, and now people can interact with us.”

The staff, which will continue to increase, has diligently worked to replace the traditional “Brazilian way” of doing things with what they refer to as “the PBR way.”

No longer do in-arena announcers run around the arena on the dirt while riders are competing. Instead, they’re positioned atop the shark cage during the event.

And on the stock front, Moraes and Emilio were instrumental in helping to form ABBI Brazil earlier this year.  The first ABBI event drew more than 50 futurity bulls, and the second, which took place last weekend in Rio Preto, featured 27 futurity bulls.

As for riders, their quality has not been in doubt since Moraes became the first PBR World Champion in history.

Five of the 17 world titles have been won by Brazilians, with the most recent coming in 2008 when Guilherme Marchi won his first gold buckle. Another Brazilian, Renato Nunes, is currently the No. 1 ranked rider in the world.

There’s now plenty of prize money to be won in Brazil, but Junqueira underscores the importance of sending  the best Brazilian riders to America as part of the BFTS.

Junqueira pointed to Marchi’s recent hero’s welcome at the annual Rio Preto Rodeo Country Bulls event as an example. “If was he just here he would be a good rider, but he would not be famous. Now it’s good for us that they are famous celebrities, because when they come [home] it helps us.”

Marchi added that he’s proud of what the sport has become in Brazil in recent years, especially the increase in money, and hopes young Brazilian riders of the future are able to “make their life good.”

But the real key to a bright future is that Brazil has the population to support continued growth. It is home to 190 million.

A recent media study showed that bull riding as a standalone sport in Brazil is already second in popularity, behind only soccer.

Said Junqueira: “It’s going to get bigger and bigger.”

—by Keith Ryan Cartwright

© PBR Canada, Inc. 2011