In a press conference Monday, February 22nd the Paris Henry County Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Henry County Tourism Authority announced that the community will host the inaugural “Cody Nance’s PBR in Paris, Tennessee” July 2nd and 3rd of 2021 at the Henry County Fairgrounds.
“My wife, Korie, and I would just like to say how excited we are to be producing this event here in my hometown,” commented Cody Nance. “It’s going to be a fun event for the whole family. I have always wanted to do something like this here, so I am glad we are finally able to make it happen.”
The Professional Bull Riding (PBR) Organization features the top 700 bull riders from around the world. As the World’s Premier Bull Riding organization, riders compete in sanctioned events in Brazil, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the United States.
“Tourism is a vital piece of our local economy,” commented John Penn Ridgeway, Henry County Mayor. “Our Chamber of Commerce has done an incredible job producing a diverse list of events like this to help bring people to our community. This one happens to be special because we get to showcase one of our own.”
Nance is currently ranked 58th in the World in the PBR Ranking. In his debut year, Nance claimed the Rookie of the Year title and finished 18th at his first-ever World Finals. He has since qualified for World Finals in each of his 11 subsequent seasons on the elite tour, finishing a career-best fourth in 2013. In 2017, Nance finished No. 17 in the world after recording four Top 5 and nine Top 10 finishes, two of which came at Majors, Last Cowboy Standing and Music City Knockout. His year culminated with a trip to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where Nance competed as a member of Team USA at the inaugural Global Cup. There, Nance went 1-for-2 helping the USA to win the first-ever five-nation event.
“We have been working on this event for several months now and are excited to see it get to this point,” added Travis McLeese CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. “The event will be a 2 night bull riding event with some of the best bull riders in the world, right here in Henry County. This event will get national attention and showcase much of what Paris has to offer.”
McLeese noted that “Of course, we have been monitoring the Covid situation closely and believe the results of the vaccination are promising. We believe that if we can get the average daily case rate under 10 new cases daily over a 14 day period, we can offer the event at 75% capacity, still abiding by the state’s recommendations.”
Several details are still being finalized and more information on ticket pricing and vendor opportunities will be released in the coming weeks.
