TAMPA – While much of Tampa was just waking up Friday morning, crews were already inside Benchmark International Arena, laying down dirt and rolling in equipment ahead of a major return.<\/p>\n
Professional Bull Riders\u2019 Unleash The Beast tour\u00a0is back in Tampa for the first time in 13 years. The two-night event runs Friday and Saturday and marks the sixth stop of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Behind The Scenes:<\/p>\n
Turning an arena into a bull-riding venue takes time. And a lot of dirt.<\/p>\n
About 750 tons\u00a0of a special clay-sand blend are brought in to cover the concrete floor. The surface has to be firm enough for bulls to buck at full force, but soft enough to help reduce injuries when riders hit the ground.<\/p>\n
Roughly 30 crew members\u00a0work around the clock to prepare the venue, hauling in equipment across seven semi-trucks\u00a0and reshaping the arena before the first bull ever leaves the chute.<\/p>\n
By the numbers:<\/p>\n
More than 50 bucking bulls\u00a0are on site for the Tampa stop. The average bull weighs about eighteen hundred pounds.<\/p>\n
The riders facing them average just 140 pounds, creating the sport\u2019s signature David-versus-Goliath matchup that plays out in eight-second bursts.<\/p>\n
The last time PBR came to Tampa was in 2012, when world champion Guilherme Marchi\u00a0won the event by less than a point. Since then, the tour has grown, the production has evolved, and the athletes have continued to push the limits. What’s remained the same are the danger and unpredictability of the sport.<\/p>\n
READ: Jose Gasparilla ship to embark on 70th invasion of Tampa Bay; \u2018Dorothy\u2019 the tugboat makes final voyage<\/a><\/p>\n Timeline:<\/p>\n Friday night\u2019s competition starts at 7:45 p.m., with Saturday\u2019s championship round beginning at 6:45 p.m.<\/p>\n Tickets are available through PBR.com<\/a>\u00a0and Ticketmaster. Premium Elite Seat experiences are also available for fans who want closer access to the action.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story was provided by FOX 13’s Matthew McClellan.<\/p>\n Tampa<\/a>Sports<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA – While much of Tampa was just waking up Friday morning, crews were already inside Benchmark International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,115,110,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-129259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}