Posts
109
Joined
7/23/2008
Location
Pasadena, CA, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/23/2012 10:43pm
"How cool would it be if teams could use sideplates for more ad space?" GuyB writes in a comment to picture number 12 from the X Game. "Not very cool" is my answer, based on what happened in Europe and on my personal preference.
The main mistake The DORNA Group made in managing "our" World Championship was to indiscriminately apply to motocross the ideas that turn out successful in Road Racing: one of those ideas was to "deregulate" the color and the content of the plate numbers. The purpose was right to give the teams more space to show their sponsors' logo given that the transponders would keep track of the riders' time and overall position during the race. The idea ended up creating awful bike graphics and being little useful to the purpose for which it was implemented: even in perfect weather conditions motocross bikes get somewhat dirty, and because our tracks features jumps and woops (as opposed to the flat surface on which the bikes run in Moto GP), the bikes are rarely on flat surfaces that allow the TV camera to focus on the details of a sponsor's logo. As a consequence, most of the teams in the World Championship (Factory KTM, Yamaha Rinaldi, CAS Honda, Martin Honda, Teka Suzuki, Molson Kawasaki, Factory Kawasaki, Swift Suzuki among them) are now back to display on the plates the rider's number. I do appreciate the purpose of the idea, but I just think it doesn't suit our sport. The sponsors' logo on the riders' jerseys and on the plastics covering the tank are still the best solution, on my opinion.
And if you compare our situation with that of other professional sports, you see that the classic solutions are to be preferred. The shirts of NBA, NFL and MLB franchises are the most popular and they only show the Team's logo; even the best soccer clubs in Europe (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter, Arsenal, Chelsea), after first trying to exploit as much fabric as possible to show their sponsors' logo, have opted for more low profile graphics.
American motocross has always been a pioneer in finding Non Industry sponsors and developing trend setting bike graphics while keeping the sport's classic numbering: let's keep it this way.
I apologize for bashing your idea in public, GuyB, just want to avoid that the sport in the US makes the same mistakes that were made in Europe.
Gio
The main mistake The DORNA Group made in managing "our" World Championship was to indiscriminately apply to motocross the ideas that turn out successful in Road Racing: one of those ideas was to "deregulate" the color and the content of the plate numbers. The purpose was right to give the teams more space to show their sponsors' logo given that the transponders would keep track of the riders' time and overall position during the race. The idea ended up creating awful bike graphics and being little useful to the purpose for which it was implemented: even in perfect weather conditions motocross bikes get somewhat dirty, and because our tracks features jumps and woops (as opposed to the flat surface on which the bikes run in Moto GP), the bikes are rarely on flat surfaces that allow the TV camera to focus on the details of a sponsor's logo. As a consequence, most of the teams in the World Championship (Factory KTM, Yamaha Rinaldi, CAS Honda, Martin Honda, Teka Suzuki, Molson Kawasaki, Factory Kawasaki, Swift Suzuki among them) are now back to display on the plates the rider's number. I do appreciate the purpose of the idea, but I just think it doesn't suit our sport. The sponsors' logo on the riders' jerseys and on the plastics covering the tank are still the best solution, on my opinion.
And if you compare our situation with that of other professional sports, you see that the classic solutions are to be preferred. The shirts of NBA, NFL and MLB franchises are the most popular and they only show the Team's logo; even the best soccer clubs in Europe (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter, Arsenal, Chelsea), after first trying to exploit as much fabric as possible to show their sponsors' logo, have opted for more low profile graphics.
American motocross has always been a pioneer in finding Non Industry sponsors and developing trend setting bike graphics while keeping the sport's classic numbering: let's keep it this way.
I apologize for bashing your idea in public, GuyB, just want to avoid that the sport in the US makes the same mistakes that were made in Europe.
Gio
http://www.vitalmx.com/photos/features/Vital-MX-Pit-Bits-Thursday-at-X-…
Also, it would be cool for the teams to display their sponsors like that, but I could see where the title sponsor for the MX/SX series would want their logo bigger on there instead. That would suck.
I still think the current rules is the best one as every bikes has its own graphics yet there is the common denominator of the white (or black) number plate with black (or white) number.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
I know. This will never happen.
Post a reply to: Not very cool, actually.