Katy Lucas Talks To PBR Texas Rattlers & Austin Gambler General Managers Before Historic Draft

The PBR made history with its first ever Team Series draft yesterday at Texas Live in Arlington, Texas. The eight teams selected their first five bull riders after the strategy talks between general managers, coaches, declared athletes have been going on for weeks.

Mark George is the general manager of the Ariat Texas Rattlers. George says he has one job and that is to make head coach Cody Lambert successful.

“He knows more about bull riding than I could ever imagine. I’ve been really working over this last year to give him the support that he needs to pick the best possible team,” George said.

The CEO of the Austin Gamblers is JJ Gottsch. He has a long-standing relationship with professional sports and an impressive resume. Gottsch helped two minor league baseball franchises become extremely successful and he brings an understanding of the business side of sports to the table.

“We’re creating events, we’re producing events, we’re promoting events, we’re selling them, marketing them, creating merchandise around them… all those are the same kind of things that we do, we’ll do for bull riding as for baseball it’s just that the sport’s eight seconds at a time as opposed to nine innings,” Gottsch said.

As far as the amount of Western sports that are coming to the state of Texas, Texas Agriculture Commission Sid Miller could not be more thrilled to have not just one, but two PBR Teams call Texas home.

The Texas Rattler’s goal for the bull riders that would make up their team was a family dynamic and of course looking at past performances, past injuries and more. They had a good idea going into the draft of who they were looking for.

With over 250 bull riders eligible, Gottsch says that the Austin Gamblers coach, Michael Gaffney, has been scouting and putting pieces together to build a team that will carry each other forward.

For full PBR Draft results, click here.