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Saturday, January 30, 2010

IRL Hires New CEO

According to the Indy Star's Curt Cavin, the Indy Racing League has signed on Randy Bernard to take over as their new CEO. Bernard who was the CEO of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) since 1995 takes over for Tony George who resigned the position in June.

A short excerpt from an October 2009 interview with Venues Today Magazine:

VT: How has the economic downturn affected ticket sales?

Randy Bernard: This year, right now we are up 13.2 percent but our average ticket is down $2.56 a ticket.

VT: What revenue streams are the strongest?

Randy Bernard: We’re down about 14 percent right now on our merchandise but like I said we’re up 13 and a half percent on our gate. The thing that we have been very happy about is that our web traffic is up 8 percent on the year. With sponsorships, we’re holding our own. We just signed a brand new sponsor this week, Dish T.V. and that is a big one.

From his PBR Bio:

Randy Bernard joined Professional Bull Riders, Inc. as CEO in August of 1995. As CEO, Bernard shared the vision of the founding members of the organization, twenty one bull riders that broke away from rodeo to revolutionize bull riding and establish it as a stand alone sport. Bernard worked in tandem with the founding members to develop and guide the PBR brand, and the sport itself, through several stages of growth. In a short twelve years under Bernard’s leadership, the PBR has become one of the fastest growing sports properties in North America, providing opportunities to bull riders that only existed in the imagination of the founding members. In April 2007, Bernard successfully executed a merger between Professional Bull Riders, Inc. and Spire Capital Partners, a New York based private equity firm. The merger allowed the founding members and other bull riding shareholders to capitalize on their vision, dedication and commitment while maintaining a significant equity stake in the organization. Bernard remains CEO of PBR under the new ownership structure. Bernard attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and spent six years in the marketing and entertainment department of the California Mid State Fair prior to joining the PBR. Bernard has three children, Priscilla, Ryan and Alexandria, and is married to Cameo Kneuer, a fitness expert and television personality. Randy splits time between his home in Pueblo, Colorado and his home in Los Angeles, California when not traveling on PBR business.




1 comments:

I think there are positive and negative aspects of this decision. positive because, seeing what he did for the Bulls Riders, he is one who knows what to do to grow an organization, negative because he dont' have a car racing experience. My supposition is that he has been hired for the promotional aspect, and he will be more responsible for the marketing then for sport, which will remain responsibility of other persons...

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