Tommy Joe Lucia resides with Donna his wife of thirty years on his ranch in Lipan, Texas and home in Heber City, Utah. As President and Owner of Piranha Productions, Lucia continues to revolutionize the western industry with his outstanding track record of developing, producing, promoting, and managing live events and broadcasts.
Lucia has a long history in the sport of rodeo performing in front of sold-out crowds with his father at the young age of 3 and winning his first gold buckle at the Phoenix Rodeo of Rodeos when he was just five years old. He used his rodeo skills to help pay for his college by working as a professional clown during college including performing at the Great Lakes Circuit Finals. He graduated from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Political Science.
He then combined his rodeo knowledge and college degree when he joined the Professional Bull Riders in 1997 and became the Vice President of Events and Production. While at the PBR he directed all aspects of a 33-city live touring event that included television and introduced a modern twist to an historic sport by incorporating modern high energy themes with music and pyrotechnics. He managed a $10 million annual live event and production budget and led a team of 20 full-time employees and an additional 150 contractors around the U.S. each year. Lucia was instrumental in annual sold-out PBR World Finals event at the in Las Vegas.
He resigned from his position at the PBR in 2004 to spend more time with his wife, and two young sons. During that time, he purchased the World’s Toughest Rodeo brand. That led to partnering with Mark Burnett, executive producer of Survivor and Shark Tank, and together they formed a rodeo reality series known as Toughest Cowboy, which aired on Spike TV for three seasons.
As President and Owner of Piranha Productions, Lucia started diversifying the company to include producing other sporting events, broadcast production and music festivals alongside of the acquisition of a Boston based company called Transit Image, a large format outdoor video screen company. In addition to providing big screens for rodeos, the company won the contract with Indy Car to produce live event video screens and production coverage along with a custom automated stage for pre-race driver introductions for three years. They also provide screens for events that included country music festivals, Nascar events and the Kentucky Derby. Piranha Productions also provides pyrotechnic production, event coordination and is currently the event producer of the National Western Rodeo in Denver Colorado along with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo’s fan interactive zone and awards banquets.
Lucia now brings his proven track record of executive management and production expertise by developing, branding, producing, and promoting diverse events from conception to market launch for western sports properties across the nation.
His current passion and success story is the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo in Salt Lake City Utah. Now a top ten regular season rodeo for competitors in just eight short years, this gold medal rodeo boast of opening a 17.5M custom stadium for the event and over 50,000 fans annually. Lucia and the team have created a unique brand in which western athletes compete of authentic gold, silver, and bronze Olympic fashioned medals during the pioneer week holiday.