Sunday, November 2, 2008

What permanent indoor facilities mean for MX

The Boston Globe Online today is reporting that a new, indoor MX facility has been approved in Bellingham, southwest of Boston. R. J. Cobb Land Clearing Inc. of Bellingham has received approval to construct a 68,400 sq. ft. enclosed facility near I-495.

To date, Supercross has remained the domain of professional racers because there are very few places for grass roots amateurs to ride true SX, or Arenacross, tracks. But there is a growing trend to build enclosed, indoor facilities — especially in the northern parts of the US where the outdoor riding season is only a few months each year.

This trend has important implications for outdoor motocross. New riders almost universally come to the sport today through riding and racing on outdoor tracks and trails. This serves to keep them connected, at some level, to the history and meaning of the sport. But as land use and noise concerns grow, it's inevitable that indoor facilities will grow in popularity.

[More...]

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

MediaZone closes Moto Channel

Last week I got email notification that MediaZone is closing their Moto Channel. This is a big disappointment to me, as I just signed up for a 1-year subscription when I watched the MXdN on live video.

MediaZone will refund my subscription fee on a pro-rated basis, but the money isn't really the problem. I'm disappointed that what seemed to be a really good service for catching all the GPs has gone by the wayside.

I don't know anything about what motivated the closure, and the email gave no reason. But if you read my post on The right broadcast model for motocross you know I think full length video on the web is the right way forward for MX.

I suspect MediaZone lost their agreement with YouthStream, or the licensing fees went way up, or maybe there just weren't enough subscribers to pay the fees. I don't know. But I do know it's a loss.

Over on Eternal Two Stroke Derrick Harris is talking about the same topic in his post Which "M" is in?. Derrick points to this cool video highlight site for Australian Supercross.

Personally, I'm not happy with highlights. I want full race coverage. If not live, at least same day. And I'm willing to pay for it. Hopefully, MX Sports will be able to negotiate something along those lines in the near future. For now, we'll have to get by on the oddly structured SPEED TV coverage.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Monster Mountain MX Park for sale

The following was posted on RacerX today:

Monster Mountain MX Park, one of the premier facilities in the Southeast, is for sale. Built into the beautiful rolling hills of Central Alabama by MX legend Mark Barnett and Glen Bates, the facility offes MX, Lighted SX, GP, Pit Bike, and seven miles of trails spread over its 200 acres. Concession stand, bathrooms with showers, and a newly constructed 4000 square foot steel building containing a 1500 square foot residence. Serious inquiries only please. Contact us at 334-799-5931 or Andy@MonsterMX.com

This is a very cool facility. I've had the chance to ride a couple of vintage events there. I hate to see it go on the block again. I know it's changed hands a couple of times already since it was built. The maintenance costs of a facility like this are enormous and, being in the deep south and not close to a major population center (the greater Montgomery area has fewer than 350,000 people) I'm sure it's hard to make a go of it.

That's the tragedy of our time — you need to be close to a population center with about 1 million people to support a facility like this, but you can't find or afford the land in those areas. It's the kind of track where you could hold a national, but the facility would need lots of upgrades. And the population just isn't there.

I wish the owners good luck. I hate to see another fine facility bite the dust.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The right broadcast model for motocross

Last weekend I got up early (too early, it turns out) to watch the MXdN live video feed via MediaZone. I really enjoyed it — well worth the $24.99 I paid for a year’s subscription that also buys me full coverage of the 2009 GP season and access to the archives for 2005–2008. If you want a recap of the coverage itself see Davey Coombs’ Racerhead #40 over at RacerX.

What I want to talk about is a realization I had while watching — that Internet video is the right medium for motocross. Not broadcast TV.

It’s no new idea that motocross is a niche sport. I think we all know this and, to my mind, it always will be. A big niche, perhaps, but a niche nonetheless. It’s a special sport. A different sport. It’s an extreme sport, but not a circus like Supercross. There is a history, a mind set, and a culture that are inherent in the way man and machine attack the terrain and the elements. There is an endurance aspect that simply doesn’t exist in other forms of closed course competition. It is not a complicated sport, yet it requires understanding.

None of this fits neatly into 1–hour, commercial-laden segments of American broadcast TV. The sport, at it’s core, does not match up well with normal, accepted TV practices for niche sports — 8 minutes of action punctuated by 1.5–2.5 minutes of commercials. Then repeat the cycle over and over.

[More...]

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Live Nation sells Supercross with motor sports division

No surprise here as Live Nation has sold off its entire motorsports division to Feld Entertainment in a deal valued at $205 million. The sale is the latest step in Live Nation's current corporate gin rummy hand — the predictable, cyclical business of first acquiring unrelated businesses to "leverage synergy for increased profits and growth" and then, a few years later, selling them off to "release pent up value for increased profits and growth." Funny, that.

We have stated here before our position that Live Nation had very little, if any, corporate commitment to Supercross and that believing otherwise was naive. At best there is only marginal synergy between motor sports events and music concerts. Live Nation have known this since their inception as a spin-off from media conglomerate Clear Channel at the end of 2005. In 2006 they began selling off everything that was not "core" to the music concert business — including theatrical shows, sports representation, and real estate. The company has now sold off more than $460 million in non-core businesses.

With Live Nation completely out of the Supercross business, who is in charge? Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus, Disney on Ice, Disney Live, and other live attractions.

What is most interesting about Feld is their description of themselves:

Feld Entertainment is the worldwide leader in producing and presenting live entertainment experiences that lift the human spirit and create indelible memories, with 30 million people in attendance at its shows each year.

This is clearly not Live Nation &mdash the company that promotes Fergie, Rob Zombie, and Madonna among dozens of others. I haven't seen a self-promo that corny in years. But maybe it's time we had someone in charge of Supercross that at least has a clue what the term "family entertainment" means.

The entire Clear Channel/Live Nation episode of Supercross history has been a gut-wrenching experience for true motocross fans, who watched as their beloved sport turned into a cartoon-like caricature, a frenzy of near-naked girls and violent crashes feverishly pitched at hormone-addled 18-year-old boys and pro wrestling fans.

Yes, the sport grew. Yes, it brought in more money. Yes, a handful of riders can now make contracts well into the 7-figure range and a good number more can make nice 6-figures. But yes, it also become "sports entertainment", just like monster truck racing and the WWE. I don't know that Feld intends anything differently, but I feel no loss for Live Nation.

For now, Feld says they will keep everything intact at the Aurora, IL HQ of the former Live Nation Motor Sports, including all management, schedules, partnerships, and structure. Changes will likely begin late 2009, as Feld gets a feel for what they do and do not like about the new business.

There are many, many possibilities for the future. Far too many to cover here, and at least as many bad as good. But one thing we can be sure of, nothing stays the same in these scenarios.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Ducati ownership changes

Back in February I did a little profile on Ducati based on an article in Cycle News. You may recall that Harley-Davidson made a run at buying Ducati late last year, but the move was quashed by the investment group Investindustrial, which owned a significant, but not controlling, portion of Ducati stock.

H-D has since satisfied their craving for a European marque by acquiring MV Agusta. And now it appears that Investindustrial has insulated themselves from foreign management by putting together a larger private investment group, Performance Motorcycles S.p.A., which consists of shareholders Investindustrial, BS Investimenti and Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan (HOPP). According to the press release:

[More...]

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Smart money says new AMA Pro Racing will get it right

The entire professional road racing community has been up in arms since DMG (now officially AMA Pro Racing) began making their presence felt. The complaints have been long, loud, and many. A person less magnanimous than me might even call it incessant whining. But I won't do that. I understand what all the furor is about. The road racers were, more or less, happy with the status quo, and DMG have begun shaking that up — not always in a positive direction. But in MX and Flat Track the situation is different.

[More...]

Mike Kidd chosen to lead AMA Pro Flat Track

AMA Pro Racing (the new AMA Pro Racing) announced Thursday that long-time, old school flat track racer, former AMA Grand National Champion, race promoter, Motorcycle Hall of Fame member, and Texan Mike Kidd has been chosen to head the redevelopment of the national flat track program. This is good news. Kidd has been around the block more than once and knows the flat track business. He's also seen the ups and downs of race promoting, being one of the first to bring racing to the small arenas in the mid-'80s.

I love flat track — watching those big Harley XR750s pitched completely sideways at 100mph in a mile race is awesome. The old AMA's apathy toward flat track was exceeded only by their apathy toward outdoor MX. Flat track is a genuinely American form of competition and deserves much better. I've read that AMA Pro Racing's Roger Edmondson is a big flat track fan, and this move to bring in Kidd is encouraging.

Kidd has done some very innovative things in his promotional career, but it seemed he never really had the big bucks behind him that he needed - even though he had the backing of Clear Channel for a while. It just didn't work. But now that he's got the backing of a group with both money and a love of the sport things could be very different. I hope so.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Davey Coombs wants to make outdoor motocross cool again

I just read the interview with Davey Coombs in the new Cycle News — Issue #29, July 23, 2008 — talking about MXSports, outdoor MX, Barber Motorsports Park, and the future of motocross and the outdoor series:

We want to make motocross as cool, as competitive, as entertaining, and as safe as possible.

Live TV, improved facilities, adding new venues, listening to riders, listening to fans, taking a business approach that admits we have to modernize but recognizes motocross has its own unique value — that it does not have to be Supercross, just in the daytime.

[More...]

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Long live the two-stroke Part Deux: FUD in the marketplace

Two-stroke technology is not banned. Never was. Yet this myth continues to run rampant over the internet. Two-stroke technology is changing, getting cleaner, but this is a story about how purposeful misdirection and a campaign of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt created a myth, killed development of a promising technology for over a decade, and changed the face of a sport.

Let's assume that a large, multi-national corporation (for simplicity we'll use a fictitious entity called Company H) manufactures everything from inexpensive lawn mowers and power generators to motorcycles and $40,000 SUVs. Every item in their massive product line is powered by a four-stroke motor. Every item, that is, except a small group of dirt bikes. The company has enormous investments and intellectual property in the development, marketing, and sales of four-stroke-driven products.

Company H is aware that certain proprietary methods, techniques, or technologies for lowering two-stroke emissions are either available or under development, some by their primary competitors. But Company H doesn't own any of the intellectual property (patents) associated with this improvement. Further, two-stroke engines do not fit the company's financial model — costing extra for development (since they can't leverage their vast institutional knowledge of four-strokes) — while generating lower margins in sales and service parts.

[More...]

Friday, July 11, 2008

Davey Coombs takes on the future of outdoor MX

This just in: RacerX Illustrated founder, 2nd-generation motocross promoter, track owner, prolific media entrepreneur, and all-round good guy Davey Coombs just announced in Racerhead #28 that he is stepping down from the day-to-day operations of his RacerX empire to focus on the future of outdoor MX and the pro motocross Nationals. In less than a year we've gone from feeling the AMA genuinely wanted to kill the outdoor series to having someone like Davey step up to drive the sport forward. No one has a better grasp of the sport's past and future than DC. We could not be in better hands.

Coombs has already talked about things like raising the minimum age for Pro licenses, the problems with

[More...]

Harley to acquire MV Agusta Group

Back in early June I posted this note on the talks between H-D and MV Agusta. According to this AMA press release the two groups have signed a definitive agreement worth approximately $109 million US. The agreement gives H-D 100% of MV Agusta.

This is not Harley's first foray into Italian motorcycles. Most of us remember when Harley sold...

[More...]