MX as a Pro Sport.v Sprint Cars

The sprint car guys can sell a lot of their own merch - I know that brings in a bit of $$$.

A lot more advertising space on a sprint car too.

I’ve seen local drag races pay out more than pro motocross

There’s probably 5 or more dirt tracks within an hour of my house and not a single MX track that holds races.

I'd have to say it has more to do with title sponsors for the series and for the specific race. More so than it does with space to advertise on the car or t shirt sales as those monies go directly to the team/driver. But those big pay day races are only one offs to draw drivers, fans, tv, etc. Similar to Monster Cup. It's not like they are every Saturday night. But yes there probably should be one or two well advertised big pay outs for the Natty's. Bottom line is most often than not, there is just more money to be had in car racing than there is in motorcycle racing.

It's simple. Car racing and especially the local short track type is FAR more popular than dirt scooter racing here in the U.S.

Spectators.

Here is the payout scale for a standard World of Outlaws event. "Single-day events will payout more than $55,800 in total and will pay $1,000-to-start. Two-day events will payout more than $108,000 in total with the first night paying $5,500 to second-place, $1,850 to 10th and $900-to-start, and the second night paying $6,000 to second, $2,000 to 10th and $1,000-to-start."

https://www.worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/paying-up-world-of-outlaws-in…

Page five on this link has the full payscale for the 450 Class at SX.

https://www.amasupercross.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/207-01-AMA-Sup…

The purse money for select WoO races can be bigger than the average SX-MX race, but MX is still far more lucrative with team contracts-bonuses-number of rides, and I say that as a lifelong fan of both. That purse money gets split up amongst the team itself, too, and MX doesn't do that.

It's almost impossible to draw a comparison between the two because of their differences at every level. MX has the race teams owned-operated by the OEMs who are trying to sell bikes and multiple multinational million dollar brands signed on as sponsors; sprint car racing has almost no direct support or advertising from automotive, expect for Tony Stewart's Ford connection and some others, and most of the sponsors on the average premier-level privately-owned car are a very successful small/mid-level regional businesses.

There are some exceptions, like NAPA with Sweet/CarQuest with Schatz/NOS with Haudenschild/Casey's with Brown, but the big corporate sponsorships for drivers and teams are rare and even WoO has had a hard time maintaining title sponsors.

MX could learn a few things from dirt track, particularly the 50-50 drawing with a fund for a rider safety cause and a more reasonable cost on tickets-concessions. The merch thing, although everyone points to that, is not sustainable for MX because of the inventory that'd need to be kept on the road and the staff to do it. Some of the big drivers have a separate trailer that's towed to every race and manned by someone in their family; the others are selling it themselves out of the side of the rig after the race.

All this has crossed my mind as well. I watched Larson win here in Ohio during speed week the day after he won a mil at the all-star race in Texas. That dude can drive. Anything. He's like the sipes of cars but winning.

I don't disagree that rider-branded merch sales is one of a dozen things to be overhauled, with way more options than just the Feld/MotoTees route, but I don't selling on-site isn't the big obstacle everyone makes it out to be because no one is completely MX merch from being sold now.

Drivers in the WoO series have to pay additional money to vend in their speciality merch trailers and to follow in that path for MX means riders-teams would have to keep more employees on the road and for some money to go the promoter or organization group, which people in our world would object to. Some drivers aren't able to fulfill online orders when on the road, so their buying group is limited to just people at each race.

I think self-managed e-commerce sites make more sense for MX riders, and Team Fried proves that it works. Keep a set inventory that can be sold at anytime to anyone, and spread the word about your website to fans at the track by giving out personal posters (separate from the team) or stickers that have a link to your merch site on them. Share it on social platforms more often. That said, I have to think there are some trademark issues for riders with energy drink logos, especially Red Bull.

There's for sure a market for racer merchandise (I'm wearing a Sheldon Haudenschild shirt), it's just that MX has never paid it much attention because the opportunities to do so were limited back in the day and more people seemed to want clothes from the big brands like Fox and No Fear. Riders right now could totally sell shot glasses, stickers, hats like Sheldon does, but it'd require some time and money spent designing and managing it. https://shophaud.com/

The World Racing Group (owners and decision makers for the World Of Outlaws) and MX Sports have similarities, including ownership of a few venues and structure, but WRG also sets the rules and acts as the end-all power in WoO, which is deferred to AMA for MX. Again, not everyone is keen to the idea of MX Sports/Feld/AMA being the absolute power over everything in the sport.

Tony Stewart put up a lot of money over the last few days, and rain on Thursday and Friday would be a promoters worst nightmare if it was anywhere other than Eldora.

Special event purse money and merch issues aside, MX as a whole is still bringing in far more money and attention than sprint cars with global TV partners, sponsors, OEM support, an aftermarket that caters to riders, a young and active fanbase, dedicated media outlets, and notoriety. We check all of the boxes that advertisers look for on a consistent basis, it shows in the support of current sponsors, and the amount of people that make a living out of MX is far bigger too. World of Outlaws had one race on CBS so far this year, and it was a month-delayed "special" from Bristol in the spring, but their DirtVision streaming service shows every race live.

The second-ranked driver in WoO points is Carson Macedo, a team that's run in memory of Jason Johnson and is sponsored by Mesilla Valley Transport (New Mexico trucking company), Tarlton & Son (California general contracting company), and Complete Parts & Equipment (Australian heavy equipment sales and service company). The second-ranked MX rider is Ken, who is a factory rider for Honda and has personal sponsors from Red Bull, Fox, Breitling.

Sorry if this came off like a dick at any time, not trying to be at all, but they are the two things that I've spent the most time following and thinking about in life hahaha.

Good thread. Definitely an interesting topic.

If you are racing motocross then you have some money, if you are racing sprint cars then you have money to burn and then some. If you think being able to sell shirts at the races is gonna pay a racers bills then they should find a different line of work. Motor racing in general is NOT a poor mans sport even though MX was as close as you could get 30 years ago but not anymore.

Seems since the ncaa decision the racers would try and capitalize off that momentum and push for feld and ms sports to allow selling NIL merchamdise.