Xtreme1
October 23rd, 2005, 09:59 AM
This was taken from the guys over at Moto Talk. I think a lot of his theorys are great. Grab a cup of coffe and wake up to a real great fix for MX. hahaha..some parts were edited for length.
A). The AMA has to take the lead on reforming the sport. The role of the sanctioning body is to level the playing field and handle the "business" end of the sport. I highly doubt that there would be an organized draft, collage eligibility, or a salary cap in the NFL if it were left to the teams to make up the rules. The AMA has to set guidelines that ensure fairness and enhance the marketability of the sport. The better the sanctioning body does at making the sport more appealing to the masses, the more outside sponsors are interested and the more money the sport attracts. This is called momentum.
B). The team owners need to band together like a bunch of pit Mom's attacking the running order on a cold Sunday morning. In the end, the team owners are the ones who stand to benefit the most from mass promotion of the sport. The lack of influence that the team owners have is a major difference between MX and other pro sports. Owning an MX team is a losing proposition at best. No one is really making money from a MX team. It's the cost of doing business for the factory teams and a labor of love for the support teams. If MX teams started selling for 300 million dollars and had their own custom designed stadiums, you'd see an entirely different way of doing business.
C). The current riders and fan base would have to be willing to accept major alterations to the core of the sport. Everyone criticizes the rock band who "sells-out" to the mass market. Well, the reason that they conform is pure dollars and sense. Just ask The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Did the battle between Prince and Sony really do anyone any good? It sucks, but at some level you have to cave to the general public in order to attract the general public. If you don't you'll just die on ideology.
Consider ending MX all together and only running SX. SX needs a major overhaul as well, but at least it's filling 40,000 plus seat arena's 16 weeks out of the year. When you combine SX, MX, Des Nations, the U.S. Open, and the Euro stops on the World Championship, the sport runs almost year round. Now for us die-hards that's just about right, but for the general public, they need some downtime to refocus and think about next year. Running a team year round is also a lot of cost, both to the rider and to the owner. Costs reduce profits and discourage owners from signing up for the challenge.
Assuming that SX only and dissolving MX is a little too radical of a change, where should MX go to get to the next level?
1). Change of venues - MX has to move out of the cornfields and into readily accessible public arenas. You have to be pretty dedicated to drive 2 - 3 hours only to sit in traffic for two more hours so that you can stand in the sun and bake for another 5 hours before another 2-hour bumper-tag-fest and a 3-hour drive home. After a trip like that, 30+2 sounds easy. Going to a MX event is a quest, a quest for fun, and the average Joe just isn’t going to pony up unless it’s in his backyard. In order to attract big money, you have to cater to big money. We need corporate comfort in MX.
2). Use Daytona as a model - To me, Daytona is the perfect model for MX. There are numerous arenas around the country that sit vacant 99% of the year. Cities have big money tied up in these sleeping giants and the possibility of getting some use out of that tax-abated multimillion dollar park might be attractive to a few city managers and promoters. Most are well equipped to deal with large numbers of people and with a few modifications could be ideal for MX. The fear would be that MX would just become an extension of SX, which in a way it might. But that's not all bad, and again, it's up to the sanctioning body to set guidelines that foster differences and keep the sports unique.
3). Raise the age of eligibility for a pro license to 21. This is needed for two reasons. First, allowing 16 year olds to turn pro all but eliminates the possibility of higher education. Taking away a mother's chance to see her beloved child go to collage discourages about 95% of the parents from ever letting their kids compete in the sport. Most "Soccer Mom's" look to athletics as a way to give their kids a chance to go to collage and have a better chance at life than they did. A sport that necessitates turning pro at 16 if you even hope to physically survive creates an image of a bunch of high-school drop-outs with wrenches in their hand and a wad of tobacco in their cheek talking about the hole-shot that they got at Ponca when they were 12. That's not an image that parents will buy into and they won't be eager to fork out their hard earned dollars for anything that sets their kid on that career path.
The second reason for raising the age for turning pro is sex appeal. We all know that sex sells. Imagine, if you will, a 45-year-old lady with the 2007 Ryan Villopoto calendar hanging from her office wall. That image alone is the definition of "creepy". The dude looks like he is 12. The mass audience is attracted to things that they can relate to. The NASCAR demographic is probably people between the ages of 25 - 50. The 25 - 50 group has a lot of spending power. Sex sells, and as much as raising the age for turning pro prolongs reaping the rewords of the sport for the riders, raising the average age of the riders lets the general public feel that MX is something that they could be doing. Be honest, Jeff Gordon is an appealing guy. Women love him and guys figure that if he can do it so can they. As long as MX is viewed as a kid’s sport, that is who it will attract, and it’s tough to attract sponsors to a demographic funded by babysitting money.
4). Bike specs – Look to the Indy car circuit to see a prime example of how loose technical spec’s can ruin a sport (a dispute between the sanctioning body and the promoters doesn’t help either). Only about 5 cars in the field actually have a chance of winning. In order to compete in the Indy circuit, you have to out spend your competition 5-1. Loose specs cause too large a gap between the have’s and the have-nots. The gap limits competition, which makes the sport predictable, reduces the drama of race day, and ultimately turns fans off. For MX, I propose that the Lite’s be limited to stock bikes only. Pipes, bars, etc. are all fine, but nothing that the average Joe can’t do in a couple of hours in the garage. The Premier class, should be an open c.c. class with allowable modifications to the engine, suspension, clutch, tires, and fuel. A “Commercially Available” clause in the Premier class contract will help ensure that no one is running works parts or things that others can’t buy off the shelf.
5). Eliminate Factory teams – Comparing again to other motor sports; you don’t see Team GM or Team Chrysler out there managing a race team. Sure they are involved, and they all use racing to support their R&D, but they don’t own teams. The factories view their race team as a cost of doing business. In order to sell on Monday you have to win on Sunday. Whenever a company views an activity as a cost, the company will do all that it can to spend as little as possible just to get by. Now that doesn’t mean that factory teams don’t spend money, just look at Suzuki, but they want to do as little as possible just to keep their name out there without spending any extra money. This really messes up the concept of team ownership. If the five biggest teams, with the best R&D, and most resources are willing to run at break even, how is an outside owner going to be successful at owning a team for profit. No profit, no owner interest, no outside sponsors. It’s that simple. By eliminating factory teams (and that goes for Pro Circuit too), all owners are instantly on a level field. They all have to negotiate with the factories for bikes and R&D, they are all free (based on contracts) to change brands as they chose, and they don’t have to live by all the factory guidelines regarding branding and outside sponsorship. I’d love to see team Pepsi, Home Depot, or Factory Connection (oh yea, they already have a team) lined up in the pits.
6). Create a Pro Rider’s Union – I’m probably the most opposed person to unions that you’ll ever meet. I think that the sole purpose of all unions is to benefit the fat-cat union leaders who drive around in their limos and fly in private jets. BUT, pro riders are really being taken advantage of. I highly doubt that there would be a league minimum in the NFL if it weren’t for an organized player union. In fact, I bet that people would actually pay to play if they let them. Sure the top guys are making more money than many of us ever will, but for the majority of pro riders, they stand a better chance of starring in a reality TV show than they do to make dollar one from pro racing. As the sport grows, the money will come, and as long as the right people are put in charge, the profits will make their way down to more riders than it does right now.
7). Salary caps for the MX Lites – Sure, we all think that salary caps suck, but when guys start making millions for the entry-level class it takes away the luster of the Premier class. Setting a cap of say $150,000 - $250,000 total sponsorship compensation makes staying in the MX Lite class a little less alluring. We need the stars to move up.
8). Consider having a draft for riders coming out of the amateur ranks – Imagine if all of the teams were in a room and the silly season were limited to a 24 hour contract-o-rama. What if the top 10 riders from the 250A class at Loretta Lynn’s sat in the audience as Team Power Bar announced that they had selected whomever as their first choice for the 2006 draft. Drafts are designed to ensure that each team gets their turn at quality riders.
A). The AMA has to take the lead on reforming the sport. The role of the sanctioning body is to level the playing field and handle the "business" end of the sport. I highly doubt that there would be an organized draft, collage eligibility, or a salary cap in the NFL if it were left to the teams to make up the rules. The AMA has to set guidelines that ensure fairness and enhance the marketability of the sport. The better the sanctioning body does at making the sport more appealing to the masses, the more outside sponsors are interested and the more money the sport attracts. This is called momentum.
B). The team owners need to band together like a bunch of pit Mom's attacking the running order on a cold Sunday morning. In the end, the team owners are the ones who stand to benefit the most from mass promotion of the sport. The lack of influence that the team owners have is a major difference between MX and other pro sports. Owning an MX team is a losing proposition at best. No one is really making money from a MX team. It's the cost of doing business for the factory teams and a labor of love for the support teams. If MX teams started selling for 300 million dollars and had their own custom designed stadiums, you'd see an entirely different way of doing business.
C). The current riders and fan base would have to be willing to accept major alterations to the core of the sport. Everyone criticizes the rock band who "sells-out" to the mass market. Well, the reason that they conform is pure dollars and sense. Just ask The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Did the battle between Prince and Sony really do anyone any good? It sucks, but at some level you have to cave to the general public in order to attract the general public. If you don't you'll just die on ideology.
Consider ending MX all together and only running SX. SX needs a major overhaul as well, but at least it's filling 40,000 plus seat arena's 16 weeks out of the year. When you combine SX, MX, Des Nations, the U.S. Open, and the Euro stops on the World Championship, the sport runs almost year round. Now for us die-hards that's just about right, but for the general public, they need some downtime to refocus and think about next year. Running a team year round is also a lot of cost, both to the rider and to the owner. Costs reduce profits and discourage owners from signing up for the challenge.
Assuming that SX only and dissolving MX is a little too radical of a change, where should MX go to get to the next level?
1). Change of venues - MX has to move out of the cornfields and into readily accessible public arenas. You have to be pretty dedicated to drive 2 - 3 hours only to sit in traffic for two more hours so that you can stand in the sun and bake for another 5 hours before another 2-hour bumper-tag-fest and a 3-hour drive home. After a trip like that, 30+2 sounds easy. Going to a MX event is a quest, a quest for fun, and the average Joe just isn’t going to pony up unless it’s in his backyard. In order to attract big money, you have to cater to big money. We need corporate comfort in MX.
2). Use Daytona as a model - To me, Daytona is the perfect model for MX. There are numerous arenas around the country that sit vacant 99% of the year. Cities have big money tied up in these sleeping giants and the possibility of getting some use out of that tax-abated multimillion dollar park might be attractive to a few city managers and promoters. Most are well equipped to deal with large numbers of people and with a few modifications could be ideal for MX. The fear would be that MX would just become an extension of SX, which in a way it might. But that's not all bad, and again, it's up to the sanctioning body to set guidelines that foster differences and keep the sports unique.
3). Raise the age of eligibility for a pro license to 21. This is needed for two reasons. First, allowing 16 year olds to turn pro all but eliminates the possibility of higher education. Taking away a mother's chance to see her beloved child go to collage discourages about 95% of the parents from ever letting their kids compete in the sport. Most "Soccer Mom's" look to athletics as a way to give their kids a chance to go to collage and have a better chance at life than they did. A sport that necessitates turning pro at 16 if you even hope to physically survive creates an image of a bunch of high-school drop-outs with wrenches in their hand and a wad of tobacco in their cheek talking about the hole-shot that they got at Ponca when they were 12. That's not an image that parents will buy into and they won't be eager to fork out their hard earned dollars for anything that sets their kid on that career path.
The second reason for raising the age for turning pro is sex appeal. We all know that sex sells. Imagine, if you will, a 45-year-old lady with the 2007 Ryan Villopoto calendar hanging from her office wall. That image alone is the definition of "creepy". The dude looks like he is 12. The mass audience is attracted to things that they can relate to. The NASCAR demographic is probably people between the ages of 25 - 50. The 25 - 50 group has a lot of spending power. Sex sells, and as much as raising the age for turning pro prolongs reaping the rewords of the sport for the riders, raising the average age of the riders lets the general public feel that MX is something that they could be doing. Be honest, Jeff Gordon is an appealing guy. Women love him and guys figure that if he can do it so can they. As long as MX is viewed as a kid’s sport, that is who it will attract, and it’s tough to attract sponsors to a demographic funded by babysitting money.
4). Bike specs – Look to the Indy car circuit to see a prime example of how loose technical spec’s can ruin a sport (a dispute between the sanctioning body and the promoters doesn’t help either). Only about 5 cars in the field actually have a chance of winning. In order to compete in the Indy circuit, you have to out spend your competition 5-1. Loose specs cause too large a gap between the have’s and the have-nots. The gap limits competition, which makes the sport predictable, reduces the drama of race day, and ultimately turns fans off. For MX, I propose that the Lite’s be limited to stock bikes only. Pipes, bars, etc. are all fine, but nothing that the average Joe can’t do in a couple of hours in the garage. The Premier class, should be an open c.c. class with allowable modifications to the engine, suspension, clutch, tires, and fuel. A “Commercially Available” clause in the Premier class contract will help ensure that no one is running works parts or things that others can’t buy off the shelf.
5). Eliminate Factory teams – Comparing again to other motor sports; you don’t see Team GM or Team Chrysler out there managing a race team. Sure they are involved, and they all use racing to support their R&D, but they don’t own teams. The factories view their race team as a cost of doing business. In order to sell on Monday you have to win on Sunday. Whenever a company views an activity as a cost, the company will do all that it can to spend as little as possible just to get by. Now that doesn’t mean that factory teams don’t spend money, just look at Suzuki, but they want to do as little as possible just to keep their name out there without spending any extra money. This really messes up the concept of team ownership. If the five biggest teams, with the best R&D, and most resources are willing to run at break even, how is an outside owner going to be successful at owning a team for profit. No profit, no owner interest, no outside sponsors. It’s that simple. By eliminating factory teams (and that goes for Pro Circuit too), all owners are instantly on a level field. They all have to negotiate with the factories for bikes and R&D, they are all free (based on contracts) to change brands as they chose, and they don’t have to live by all the factory guidelines regarding branding and outside sponsorship. I’d love to see team Pepsi, Home Depot, or Factory Connection (oh yea, they already have a team) lined up in the pits.
6). Create a Pro Rider’s Union – I’m probably the most opposed person to unions that you’ll ever meet. I think that the sole purpose of all unions is to benefit the fat-cat union leaders who drive around in their limos and fly in private jets. BUT, pro riders are really being taken advantage of. I highly doubt that there would be a league minimum in the NFL if it weren’t for an organized player union. In fact, I bet that people would actually pay to play if they let them. Sure the top guys are making more money than many of us ever will, but for the majority of pro riders, they stand a better chance of starring in a reality TV show than they do to make dollar one from pro racing. As the sport grows, the money will come, and as long as the right people are put in charge, the profits will make their way down to more riders than it does right now.
7). Salary caps for the MX Lites – Sure, we all think that salary caps suck, but when guys start making millions for the entry-level class it takes away the luster of the Premier class. Setting a cap of say $150,000 - $250,000 total sponsorship compensation makes staying in the MX Lite class a little less alluring. We need the stars to move up.
8). Consider having a draft for riders coming out of the amateur ranks – Imagine if all of the teams were in a room and the silly season were limited to a 24 hour contract-o-rama. What if the top 10 riders from the 250A class at Loretta Lynn’s sat in the audience as Team Power Bar announced that they had selected whomever as their first choice for the 2006 draft. Drafts are designed to ensure that each team gets their turn at quality riders.