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MyersAvionics
3/6/2017 8:39am
3/6/2017 8:39am
A couple weeks ago I was visiting the out-laws and they watched the race with me. Mind you, they are not motorcyclists in the least bit and usually tell me to sell my bikes whenever the topic arises. Personally, I'd say I'm at an enthusiast's level and coming up on year 24 in the AMA. Their assessment was that whoever gets the holeshot was going to win or come close to it in the mains. My argument was that anything could happen, Dungey could mess up and crash or who knows!?! ... Dungey holeshot ... Dungey wins. I looked around the room and half were asleep or nearly asleep. They did, however, say the 250 race was exciting when one KTM teammate punted the other off the track.
With the extra time on the track, it hasn't provided much more excitement. Ralph and Jeff do a fine job, but really, I think their level of enthusiasm during the broadcast is nearing golf levels. In today's environment, I think if we had broadcasters in the same style of that of E-sports (Yeah, flame on I used to watch E-sports a bit) we could build excitement better. It's not all on the broadcaster of course. You can only do so much when guys are playing follow the leader for 20+2 and there are only 2 or 3 good moments. I still think major format changes are needed. I'm not going to copy/paste my last forum post on that topic. You can look at my post history and find it pretty quick as I don't post all that often.
But really, do you think with SX in its current form is in a position to grow the sport? We don't need enthusiasts that follow the sport and read Vital on a daily basis for the latest rumor. We need the general motorsport fans to watch and boost audience numbers to 1m+. That will bring in more sponsors and elevate the sport as a whole.
TL;DR
- Is it important to grow the sport beyond its current levels?
---------------- Yes, growth = outside sponsors = money = better support for riders = better coverage = growth = outside sponsors = money ... you get the picture
- What are the driving forces that are impeding SX from growing?
---------------- Format, Announcers, Track Design. Need outside-the-box thinking when it involves all three. Requires overhaul to improve audience experience. Why is this important? See item 1.
*************** EDIT ***************
I created a simple survey found at the link below based on the responses to this thread. Feel free to share it openly and I will share the results in this thread regularly based on feedback.
Survey Link: https://kwiksurveys.com/s/EY7XTJAz
With the extra time on the track, it hasn't provided much more excitement. Ralph and Jeff do a fine job, but really, I think their level of enthusiasm during the broadcast is nearing golf levels. In today's environment, I think if we had broadcasters in the same style of that of E-sports (Yeah, flame on I used to watch E-sports a bit) we could build excitement better. It's not all on the broadcaster of course. You can only do so much when guys are playing follow the leader for 20+2 and there are only 2 or 3 good moments. I still think major format changes are needed. I'm not going to copy/paste my last forum post on that topic. You can look at my post history and find it pretty quick as I don't post all that often.
But really, do you think with SX in its current form is in a position to grow the sport? We don't need enthusiasts that follow the sport and read Vital on a daily basis for the latest rumor. We need the general motorsport fans to watch and boost audience numbers to 1m+. That will bring in more sponsors and elevate the sport as a whole.
TL;DR
- Is it important to grow the sport beyond its current levels?
---------------- Yes, growth = outside sponsors = money = better support for riders = better coverage = growth = outside sponsors = money ... you get the picture
- What are the driving forces that are impeding SX from growing?
---------------- Format, Announcers, Track Design. Need outside-the-box thinking when it involves all three. Requires overhaul to improve audience experience. Why is this important? See item 1.
*************** EDIT ***************
I created a simple survey found at the link below based on the responses to this thread. Feel free to share it openly and I will share the results in this thread regularly based on feedback.
Survey Link: https://kwiksurveys.com/s/EY7XTJAz
I don't know how they measure ratings. I think I had heard at one time, they count live viewings and anyone that watches the recorded race within one day of the airing. Anyone know if that's true?
Then, I'm not even sure as to the availability to international viewers. Add all those up and you'd probably be getting close to the number of followers versus the number of viewers.
The Shop
The Cavs-Warriors championship rematch, Christmas 2016, one of the highest rated regular-season NBA games in history, drew average 10.1M viewers. Lebron James has 30M Instagram followers, 34.4M Twitter followers..
-3 hour show is way too long. Drop the lcqs and prep the track so the tracks are groomed for the main event. People want to see the top riders at their maximum potential...not a whoop section with an 18" deep rut in it and riders complaning about how the track deteriorated.
- Should be a 2 hour tv show and 3 hour live in the stadium.
-there is no time spent hyping up the rider or machine. Science of supercross is a good start but would be great to what emig and rc analyse a specific pass or race incident.
- Fans like being fans, hype up the machines, let them enjoy the moto porn.
- fans like being fans... Rider profiles need to be less about the "struggled all their lives and got inspired to do something great when some fucking random event happened" and more about how these dudes kick ass. Its not american fucking idol so i dont care that someones mom was on crack and their toy lego collection got stolen by their abusive dad....faaak that shit drives me nuts.
-give people some history...not the grainy crappy video clip of an old supercross race but something awesome...like hannah beating everyone at mxdn when he was an old dude on a shitty rm125..focus on the moto porn and how hannah was just so kick ass.
-stop all the sideshow bs...look everyone likes a hot babe but can we limit it to holding up signs and standing beside the rider with an umbrella or some shit like that like they do in motogp?
-talk about what e fuck is going on, make it about the personalities. Who the fuck is roger decoster and why does he always look pissed off? Its because the dude has won everything and hes pissed off unless hes got the 1 plate in his hands...he takes shitty teams and shitty bikes and turns them golden. Etc. Give people something to remember and to relate to
Rant over.
Also, more Troy Adamitis type shows in the days/weeks leading up to the season would be the absolute best way to get people interested. I know it would cost a ton of money but in the long run I believe it would pay dividends.
They should start the show earlier in the day, say 5:00. Half us East coasters are zonked out b/c the main event's don't get on till midnight here.
Based on my previous experiences with sports broadcasting / marketing there are many smaller things we could do to retain / increase viewership but as someone who is constantly trying to get people to watch the races with me the biggest problem is the points. It's damn near impossible to make giving up your Saturday night sound exciting when you have to convince the person that knows nothing of the sport that, pending a crash or bike malfunction from the guy in first place, the guy in second place has to win the next 10 races to have a chance at seeing a new champion.
People get what they deserve. Long ago, the AMA (and its commercial partners) should have invested aggressively in the motocross series and expanded it to 18 or 20 events. That's what the FIM has done. Motocross is a great sport, but instead the AMA sold out to stadium racing ... karma just sucks.
Some of us stayed up all night Saturday watching MXGP (including MX2 and MXW). It was a mud-bowl debacle, but it was an absolute, unplanned, highly entertaining riot. I didn't so much as flip over to Supercross; the thought never even entered my mind.
Pit Row
The track designs are not working, the bikes to fast, the starts to important. It's created an event that might as well be scripted to be honest.
I find the brand commercials funny like Yamaha or Kawasaki showing their pro riders and saying you should ride their bike b/c Eli Tomac or Chad Reed rides them. Anyone with half a brain knows that about the only thing about the bike their pro riders ride and the bike their customers buy has in common is the color of their plastic. How is a privateer expected to compete with these $100,000 factory bikes and why, as a young rider, would you even want to pursue a sport with such a huge disadvantage?
Wouldn't it be more exciting to see which brand truly is superior on the track each year instead of watching these top guys jumping 10000 feet on the frankenstein hot rods that they're on?
That said – if you want to keep people watching (and excitement up) you have to have the season work towards a goal aka championship. I know people hate the idea of a stacked points with a few races left in the season because "the riders compete every week" but look at Street League. The same skateboarders compete every event against each other yet they still found a way to have the last event extremely important to the overall standings.
straight out drop the current setup... its aking to showing its age.
We need the mec format... the purist dont like the idea, but the idea works
we need each round to hold 3-250f mains 3-450 mains
daytime is practice/qualifier
you get to throw away one main, for the night..
it will be more exciting, more intense rivalries will develop and the fans can root for the top riders more than twice a night... because when you think about top qualifiers you only see them once in the heat then once in the main
If you want SX to be more exciting, you have to change the tracks and bikes so that rider ability is no longer the limiting factor in how fast they get around the tracks.
Look at NASCAR or Moto3. In both cases there are 20+ drivers/riders who can get to the limit of their vehicles and lap consistently at the same speed. Lots of "excitement" that way. Lots of boring, boring "excitement".
Personally, I'm glad that SX and MX are not that way.
Im only watching now because I have money on Dungey to win the Championship.
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