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.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Edmondson responds to question on motorcycle road racing "disaster"

Late last week NASCAR announced it is acquiring the Grand-Am sports car racing series. This matters to professional motorcycle racing because Grand-Am is the racing series owned by Roger Edmondson and Jim France, the President and Chairman respectively of Daytona Motorsports Group which now owns AMA Pro Racing.

Last night Dave Despain had Edmondson on Wind Tunnel. The interview was via telephone and fairly short, as it was the last call of the program. Despain asked Edmondson two questions, the first about the NASCAR purchase, the second was (paraphrased), "Am I wrong to think the situation in professional motorcycle road racing is a disaster?"

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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

"You were eligible for some mistakes out there..."

I have raised this issue before and there may be people who disagree, largely because of the girl's looks. But Erin Bates is an awful pit reporter. She continues to mangle the English language. Honestly. I was watching the "lites" race from Southwick on SPEED, Bates was interviewing Villopoto, and once again she starts throwing out big words but she doesn't know what they mean. She sounds like some big, dumb football player or a blinged-out rapper with a third-grade education. It's just insulting.

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Sunday, August 24, 2008

DMG/AMA Pro Racing equal goat rodeo?

The miserable impasse between AMA Pro Road Racing and the professional road racing community is steadily worsening. This is very unsettling. Not because it is affecting any of the other racing disciplines, but because it belies a deep-rooted management flaw at AMA Pro Racing.

The behavior of AMA Pro Racing toward the road race community looks a lot like the sort of corporate raider mentality personified by people like "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap.

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Friday, August 15, 2008

Risking irrelevance - pro MX vs women's gymnastics

The idea of raising the minimum age limit for Pro Motocross is being discussed a lot in the media and by the fans, particularly since an underage Jason Lawrence got into a bit of legal trouble. New outdoor MX director Davey Coombs has publicly stated his opinion that an 18-year-old age limit would be a good thing. Much of the discussion is focused on the idea that riders need to mature before being given the money and pressure of big pro contracts, which is true. But there is a bigger problem.

That problem is relevance — over the past 20 years pro MX has lost a lot of it. A look at the Olympics will show us how.

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