Purse up to $200,000, Winner Gets $150,000 as World's Top 35 Bull Riders Compete in "Last Cowboy Standing" at Ford Field March 10, 2012

DETROIT, March 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The stakes in the "Toughest Sport on Earth" just got bigger as the progressive-elimination "Last Cowboy Standing" bull riding show at Ford Field at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 10, 2012 raised the purse to $200,000.  The winning cowboy gets a minimum $150,000.

The 35 best bull riders in the world will go up against the toughest bulls on the planet round-by-round in the "Built Ford Tough Series" (BFTS) event until only one bull rider is left standing. 

Country megastars Big & Rich, with special guest Cowboy Troy, will do an opening concert at 8 p.m. before the bull riding starts at 9 p.m.

Riders scheduled to compete at Ford Field in Detroit include 2011 World Champion and 2010 Rookie of the Year Silvano Alves, who has earned almost $1.8 million in his first 18 months competing in the BFTS, and Luke Snyder, who won the inaugural Last Cowboy Standing in front of a sellout crowd in Las Vegas in 2011, earning $216,500 – the highest one-day payout of the season, and the second-highest in history.

PBR started on a shoe string as a dream by 20 riders in 1992 and changed the face of extreme sports as bull riding became one of the most popular and fastest growing sports in the world.  BFTS is televised every week on CBS, CBS Sports Network, NBC, NBC Sports Network and YouTube.

Tickets begin at $10, and are available at the Ford Field box office, www.ticketmaster.com, by phone at 800-745-3000, and PBR.com.

About the Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR):  The PBR is the world's premier bull riding organization and has awarded more than $100 million since it started 20 years ago.  More than 100 million viewers annually watch primetime PBR programming on networks around the world.  For more information on the PBR, go to www.pbr.com, or follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TeamPBR and http://twitter.com/PBR.

SOURCE Professional Bull Riders, Inc.