Cowboys Stadium is the greatest sports venue in the world. Period.
In addition to the Dallas Cowboys games, the sports palace located just south of I-30 off Collins in Arlington has already brought DFW such high-profile events as the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, two Manny Pacquiao fights, the annual AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic and the 2011 Super Bowl. The past few weeks we have been treated to the Monster Energy Supercross, the Monster Jam monster trucks event and now the fourth edition of the local Professional Bull Riders tour stop known as the Dickies Iron Cowboy IV.
The evening entertainment began with an hour-long concert from country music star Kevin Fowler. Flanked by four members of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones took the stage for the pyrotechnic introduction of the riders.
“We are so proud of our stadium, and to get the best in competition was our goal,” Jones said to the crowd of over 30,000. “That’s what I dreamed of when we were building it. The most exciting, most competitive, and probably the riskiest of all of rodeo is bull riding, and we are proud to have it here.”
While most of the PBR events determine their winner by an aggregate score, the Iron Cowboy event is set up as a test of endurance in a bracket-style setting that eliminates riders throughout the evening culminating in a final head-to-head match-up. This year's final came down to a battle of cousins as Austin Meier -- the runner-up the past two years in this event -- defeated L.J. Jenkins. Meier remained on Bushwacker for 2.67 seconds while Jenkins could only manage 2.17 seconds on Asteroid.
DFW bull-riding fans were recently treated to the popular Bull's Night Out at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo and have the upcoming Tuff Hedeman Championship Challenge Bull Riding event in Fort Worth on April 6th. The PBR returns to the area August 30-31 with the WinStar World Casino Invitational in Thackerville, OK. The season will conclude at the Built Ford Tough World Finals in Las Vegas on Oct. 23-27. The PBR World Champion will receive the coveted championship buckle, a $1 million bonus and a new pickup truck from Ford, the title sponsor of the Built Ford Tough Series.
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