Bull Market

Right away, one thing was clear. The Mighty Ducks weren’t playing at the Arrowhead Pond Saturday night.

People, actual fans, were lined up an hour before the doors opened, itching to get inside. Nope, this wasn’t a Duck game. There was a different aroma. The smell of money.

Professional bull riding came to the Pond Saturday. The shiny belt buckles and legions of cowboy hats were tipoffs. Still, these were more suburban cowboys. There were as many minivans as pickup trucks in the parking lot.

The Bud Light Cup brought its bull and pony show to Anaheim Saturday as stop No. 8 on a 29-city city tour that culminates with its championships in Las Vegas in October. The tour stops are predictable . . . Fort Worth, Guthrie (Okla.), Houston . . . and are not . . . Worcester (Mass.), Detroit, Anaheim.

“We turned away 2,000 people at the Ice Palace in Tampa last month,” said Randy Bernard, CEO of Pro Bull Riders, Inc.

“There is nothing fake about this sport. You have a 2,000-pound bull and 160-pound cowboy. Our fan is definitely the NASCAR fan.”

Read into that what you will. The fact is, the PBR sold standing-room-only tickets at the Pond for Saturday’s event. When was the last time the Ducks did that?

This is part Las Vegas stage show, part home-on-the-range showing off and part intense, sometimes vicious competition.

Bull riding is not for the meek. Riders must stay on the bull for six seconds and judges award a score, based half on the bull’s actions and half on the rider’s ability to match the movements while holding on with one hand.

Singer/songwriter Jewel, the significant other of rider Ty Murray, sang the national anthem Saturday. A pyrotechnic display led into the competition. WWF-style announcers shouted and squealed throughout the event . . . I tell ya a bull rider without any scars is like a hockey player with his teeth.

This, though, is not professional wrestling. Glen Keeley died from injuries suffered during a tour stop in Albuquerque last March.

“The idea of someone getting on some [really angry] bull sounded fun,” said Manhattan Beach’s Chris Hansson, who was attending his first bull riding event. “I want to see where it went from there.”

The PBR has tapped into this. The people who seized the means of production are the same ones holding onto the bulls. A group of 20 riders each kicked in $1,000 in 1992 for what is now a $25-million-per-year company.

“We don’t necessarily attract the rodeo crowd,” said PBR President Tuff Hedeman, a former rider. “We see a lot of people at our events that might not wear a cowboy hat. They are interested in the sport.”

One where the animal and rider share equal billing.

“The bull is important,” Murray said. “Like in NASCAR, the car is important. You don’t put those NASCAR drivers in a Subaru.”

Murray is billed as the sport’s “Michael Jordan.” Of course, Jordan carried the Bulls. Murray is carried by bulls--and thrown around.

“You have every farmer in America trying to sell his herd bull and see it make it on TV,” Murray said. “Bulls are selling for $50,000.”

And people are lined up outside arenas to see them . . . even in Worcester, Detroit and Anaheim.

“The one thing we realize is professional sports are entertainment,” Bernard said. “You don’t get $100 a ticket like we are if you’re not entertaining.”