Posts
15
Joined
3/21/2016
Location
La Plata, MD, USA
Edited Date/Time
4/14/2016 6:32pm
Its time. Its time that the participants of the sport we love so much get the basic representation they deserve.
1.) health and life insurance. This is a no brainer (see Ernesto Fonseca, Doug Henry, etc.)
2.) purse $. Its embarrising. You should be able to make a basic living or better for risking your life on a weekly basis.
3.) dedicated flaggers, if you can fly scantily clad women around the country you can do the same for a safety crew.
4.) financial planning services. Very few racers have a fraction of what they have made in their prime.
Before anyone says that it can be done, every other sport has gone through this transition. The question is who has the sand to make this happen? Its time!
1.) health and life insurance. This is a no brainer (see Ernesto Fonseca, Doug Henry, etc.)
2.) purse $. Its embarrising. You should be able to make a basic living or better for risking your life on a weekly basis.
3.) dedicated flaggers, if you can fly scantily clad women around the country you can do the same for a safety crew.
4.) financial planning services. Very few racers have a fraction of what they have made in their prime.
Before anyone says that it can be done, every other sport has gone through this transition. The question is who has the sand to make this happen? Its time!
1. You can buy both in the free market.
2. This has been brought up for years and will never change, when it does its minimal (see recent 250 class increases)
3. This is where change is currently happening, sometimes to the detriment of good racing (blue flags and Red Cross flags have always been an issue, but they've cost some guys points, positions, and $$$$ this year more so than in the past.
4. Again, free market. It would be cool for the organizers to put on a class similar to what nfl, mlb, nba, and others do with rookies. The problem is, the guys on the bottom in the nfl for example are making around 400-500k a year, so that means 1600+ guys in the league are making at least 400k a year. Where there are only a handful of guys at the top in SX/MX making 400k or more a year and those guys more than likely do have agents and advisors. Many privateers in SX/MX are paying to race and any true financial advisor worth their salt would recommend hanging up the boots and quit spending their own money to go race on the weekends.
What has the world come to? Next thing you know child labor will be outlawed.
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Hey wait
I thought we might make it a week or so before this same old topic popped up.
It will never ever, ever happen.
The top riders are not going to risk anything to make sure the guy finishing 15th - 21st have life and health insurance.
I do think some financial advice would be good. If for nothing else to explain to entry level riders that when they do start making some kind of money they should call aflack and blue cross before they dial the Lexus dealer.
A union would have ZERO leverage. What are they gonna do? Muscle Feld into paying for insurance and better purses? If the riders threaten a strike, Feld will can the series and crest 10 more rounds for monster trucks...
Maybe somebody could post before and after rider payouts?
Basically I’m saying where the hell is this extra money going to come from?
He didn't purchase it as a loss leader to Monster Trucks
I was in Valkenswaard, at least 10.000 visitors paying 70 euro (78 dollar), 150 or 200 EMX riders paying 300 euro entyr fee and 80 gp riders paying 1000 euro entry fee. Excluding paddock space rent, sponsorship, hospitality beer and food sales you are talking about 800-900.000 euro and NOTHING going to the riders
It's just an enormous money grab by youthstream, which would be fine if every backmarker is making a good salary (as in F1 for example), but in MXGP most have a hard time getting things working out.
We're hardly a blip on the radar of professional sports. Let's stop kidding ourselves by comparing us to others. If you think things should be done so differently and there are the means to do it then go and DO IT. This is still a relatively free Country. Go make your own series, call it Stadium MX, offer these benefits and let's see what happens. Trying to force your will on others is not the way to do it.
And for the love of all things holy can somebody who brings this idea up again please throw me a bone and let me know where the money tree is planted?
I don't need to see the books, I understand business
Read my 3rd and 4th post
I'm not doubting that it makes money. I do doubt that it makes what some people seem to think it does. Truthfully, I don't think a lot of people who post about this even understand basic accounting. It seems like there is more revenue being generated now vs 10 years ago, especially with the rumor that Fox Sports pays for the rights to broadcast the races now. So Feld purchased the series, invested more into it afterwards, made smart decisions and created something more marketable yet now that all of that hard work is done it is time for the riders to start making demands?
Pit Row
And I don’t disagree with you at all that it’s a shame the top 15-20 guys in the sport don’t make more considering the work they put in, the danger and short careers.
Nobody had seen their books!
After looking at the books, Feld paid 100s of millions of dollars for sx and has steadily made sx more profitable.....
And I didn't advocate a riders Union for the riders just to get more money. They are already making a lot more money with FIM and now that Feld has taken over! I would advocate a union so that they become a partner!
I have a relative that did Goodwin's financial books back in the early 80's, before the Micky Thompson partnership fiasco. He said Goodwin would make upwards of 1 million dollars from the Anaheim round alone. Although that was the most profitable round, many others made significantly less, and this is many years later....there's still a lot of money floating around in this sport and it seems like most of it is made by people that don't even ride or race.
There's plenty of money being made by Feld, they bought SX and Monster Trucks for 200 million. You don't do that if something doesn't make money and a lot of it.
BUT the riders and teams have NEVER shown much inclination to form a group to help themselves so not sure why we, as fans and media, should care about it. You can only help those that want to help themselves.
Post a reply to: Riders Union