Day: January 6, 2025

The New York Mavericks, Brooklyn’s first and only professional bull riding team, are relocating to Long Island after just a year at Barclays Center.

Last summer, the team took over the venue for its only “home” event of the season, Maverick Days — a three-day rodeo spectacle. This year, that event will move about 20 miles to the east, to UBS Arena at Belmont Park. 

Last year, the Mavericks joined Professional Bull Riding and made Brooklyn its home base. Thousands of fans attended the team’s first homestand event in Aug. 2024, where the team pulled off back-to-back wins.

“I’ve never felt what I feel when we’ve played in front of this home crowd,” Mavericks bull rider Braidy Randolph told Brooklyn Paper after the Barclays event. “Home events just feel better. It doesn’t matter what you have faced … You feel like you can face it.”

Brooklyn and the New York City area have a substantial bull riding fanbase, and PBR’s annual event at Madison Square Garden sells out year after year. 

“Everyone wants to be a cowboy. It’s chic to wear jeans again and to go to places at night time in a sport coat,” Mavericks general manager Chris Pananti told Brooklyn Paper last year. “We’ve seen people coming out to our event at MSG with cowboy hats. They used to bring them in a bag and put them on when they got there, but now it’s okay.”

The move to UBS Arena is “an exciting new chapter” for the team, Pantani said in a statement. 

“This state-of-the-art venue will allow us to elevate the energy and spectacle of professional bull riding while bringing the sport closer to even more New Yorkers,” he said. “We’re thrilled to make UBS Arena our home and can’t wait to welcome fans to an unforgettable experience at our 2025 homestand this September.”

UBS and Barclays have fairly similar capacities — around 17,000 seats for sports games and 19,000 for concerts. But UBS is brand-new, having opened in 2021, and PBR said it offers expanded capacity, modern amenities, and an appealing layout. The New York Islanders, who played at Barclays from 2015-2020, now also play at UBS. 

“We welcome the New York Mavericks and PBR to UBS Arena this fall with open arms,” said Mark Shulman, senior vice president of programming for UBS Arena, in a statement. “Our central location and first class amenities will create the perfect environment for fans to cheer on the team and experience the thrill of PBR live.”

Maverick Days at UBS Arena will kick off on Sept. 18 and run through Sept. 20.