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Could a couple lean years happen? Yes. Could we lose a team or two? Yes. But eventually someone will fill that vacuum. They always have in the past.
Look at HEP - they brought in Twisted Tea and now it’s factory Suzuki. There will always be someone looking to blow their company’s money on something unprofitable that makes them feel cool. This is America after all.
How much have The payouts for SX and MX increased since the energy drinks came around anyways?
I Do remember a time when we had sponsors like Chevrolet Subway Mazda Sobe etc but now they seem uninterested. I wonder why
(FWIW I could care less about the sport being in the “main stream” people that like dirtbikes will always ride dirtbikes, they just want to sponsor motocross because it fits there target demographic pretty well )
Obviously the sport was around before and will be around after energy drink sponsors but the whole marketing industry has changed with the proliferation of the internet, smart phones and a couple companies in Silicon Valley monopolizing the ad space. What these teams are offering potential sponsors for the amount of money they want/need is going to have to change in the next 5 years. I don’t know what the answer is but the problem is clearly on the horizon.
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I personally don’t see them leaving anytime soon. The money they spend on sponsorships are a drop in the bucket. Rockstar could go one day but Monster and RedBull base a chunk of their brand on this image. They have leadership who love action sports and who realize branding isn’t really measured in the same way you measure other areas of marketing ROI.
But again every relationship has an expiration date and the industry will survive if all of them bounce.
On the other hand my "once in a blue moon" energy drink got a bit narrower field of choice. Thanks Pepsi.
Pit Row
We have a very small 'professional' scene which is basically subsidised by the factories. We have a sport dominated by single-make classes so the world championship is all but an irrelevance nowadays. Without a strong backbone a sport will fragment very quickly.
Also, you're not a 'tiny sport' at all. You have Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, KTM etc... building bikes and tons of riders.
So I think when bemoaning major sponsorship deals and the like, I would urge caution. Remove the professional element, and don't be surprised to see a major shift in the market towards single-make racing and stuff like that. That's what happened in karting. Literally the World Karting Champion could rock up at a club meeting and not one competitor would even notice or know who they are.
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