TD Garden, best known for hosting basketball and hockey games, welcomed a wildly different kind of athlete this weekend, transforming its floor into a dirt-filled rodeo arena for a Professional Bull Riding (PBR) event. The dust at the venue was not being kicked up by the Boston Celtics or Bruins this time, but by the hooves of bulls weighing up to half a ton each, as the top bull riders in the world descended upon Boston not to dunk or slap shot, but to, well, stay mounted on an uncooperative bull for eight seconds. According to WCVB, this Friday and Saturday saw the arena packed with 1.5 million pounds of earth, brought in by a small army of trucks all for the sake of the "PBR Boston: One if by Dirt, Two if by Sea" event.
Despite Boston's far cry from rodeo roots, fans from nearby and abroad shuffled into TD Garden with an excitement usually reserved for a buzzer-beater. As one fan, Marquis Cruz from New Bedford, put it during an interview with WHDH, "I’m feeling ecstatic right now, I feel like a real cowboy today." The sentiment was echoed by others, including Nick Athanas, a self-proclaimed PBR fan, who stated, “This is the best place to be ever," and "We’re in the Garden, can’t beat it.”
While TD Garden officials have never before hosted cowboys or wrangled dirt floors into their venue, they still delivered a sterling conversion from ice rink and basketball court to rodeo arena, a feat accomplished with 55 trucks worth of a special clay-sand blend, as reported by WCVB. The event promised to bring the thrill and danger of bull riding to the heart of Boston, a venue switch up that found a warm welcome with Massachusetts sports fans.
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