Observations from those who were at A1

I obviously wasn’t there to see if it was actually sold out or not, but looking at tickets last week on TM there were a lot of tickets for sale that were resale tickets, so I’m wondering if that played a factor. Hopefully it was actually sold out though.

One of my observations:

It was weird how many fans were wearing shirts or hats that said stuff like, “I eat ass” or something similar. Also weird was the guy with a huge flag on his truck that said, “show me that butthole” 

Ya I get them saying F that. I was still looking on Friday at TM but no way in hell was I spending almost $300 for nosebleeds. No supercross for us this year. We looked into A2 also, $420 for pit passes and tickets for us and our 2 kids. Still $350 without pit passes, so we are out. 

Ya that’s outrageous…. 
 

they charge $40 for parking now?? We paid $30 last year. Agree that TeamGreen’s way is the best way to go if you are able to get down there, but it’s at the very least a 2 hour drive each way for me lol. I miss the $20-$30 ticket specials a few years back. That’s what the nose bleeds should be.

 Must be related to the guy who wants to take a dump on his wife’s chest🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

With the way the tickets were this year( no paper tickets) trying to get on the internet was a freaking chore. Had a hell of a time trying to make my picks and bring up my tickets. Awesome night of racing though! 

I’ve been to supercross races it feels like a million times so no need to arrive early.  Left the house at 5:45 for the 25 min drive from Lake Forest, got there quick but then it took an hour to park.  I think the lot filled up because eventually they parked us against the curb 50 yards from the exit.  We missed the 250 heats and sat down 5 min before Eli holeshot the season.  Yes, it was definitely sold out for real as every seat around us was full.  We had to move a couple guys out of ours when we got there.  

The show moved along quickly,  made a mess eating peanuts and stayed until the end.  Chatted with friends for 5 min before leaving our seats and were back on the 5 heading South by 10:20 and home before 11.  Great night for a Moto junkie.   

Bought an EXCELLENT ticket…Thursday…at the Box Office…for $80. The Monster Can trick still works for a Pit Pass. 

Yeah, they priced us out of going. Between travel time, gas, tickets,  food, shirts, etc and the motel room it's crazy expensive for one night out. 

My fellow “moto-kook-riding at the canyon or at the track” bro’s should drop me a text or pm and see if I can get some for ya. I’m usually at the stadium Thursday-Friday at the races that I go to. We’ll simply need to be on the phone while picking out your seats. 

I’m jus’ sayin’…

Oh, there’s “fees”…and they’re very high! 
Beer, Tequila, Angel Dog…a handshake…whatever!  

I need to get off my fat ass and get a suite and really just “hang with my people”. For what ya get, the price isn’t that bad if you get 20 people on-board. 

That’s how my pops would do it when I was younger, but now none of us ever go to that area unless it’s day of SX or going to Disneyland. It’s a 2 hour trip each way for us. 
 

Like Warlock said, we’ve been priced out and that’s just to get in. It’s a bummer, but thankfully we got a new TV for Christmas to watch SX on lol

$15 beers🤦🏼‍♂️ Enough said. 

Anyone else that was there think opening ceremonies was underwhelming compared to the previous years?

I hear people bitch about this every year. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy any. It is what it is.

I’ve had really good luck lately with the Vivid Seats app.  My wife wanted to go see the Colts/Chargers a few weeks ago.  You think SX tickets are stupid, you should shop for some NFL tickets!  The Vivid app lets you buy tickets even during the event.  We parked by the stadium and went to a bar across the street.  To sit as close as she wanted to, the tickets were about $800.  I was watching the prices plummet the closer we got to kickoff.  We watched the kickoff at the bar and I bought those $800 tickets for $84 a piece as we walked across the street to the stadium and they immediately showed up on my phone.   This morning I was looking at Colts tickets about 20 minutes before the game and they were going for $11 a piece.  My single friend with no kids that gets to go to events all the time clued me into this, and I’ll be using it from this point forward.  The ticket resellers that jack up the prices always get stuck with leftover tickets and are eager to dump them as the event is starting.  That’s why even though A-1 was “sold out”, there were still a bunch of empty seats in the stadium.

To test it, download the app and pick an event happening in your area.  Watch the app, and right as the event is getting ready to start, watch the prices drop.

We had kick ass seats as well for $65 ea.  My son tipped me off on a $20 parking spot that makes it super simple to get out and on the 22 West really quick.

Agree with a lot of what TeamGreen mentioned. 
 

All riders were struggling. Track looked spongy and would suck the speed straight out of them as soon as the chopped the throttle. 
 

i thought the biggest cheer was when Mookie went into the lead

Stadium was packed, very few empty seats and I figured that was all resale as we saw the signs for the event being sold out. 
 

We even got to watch a typical A1 fan brawl. Went on for a good 3 minutes. 
 

Had a great time with the fam and I’ll be back for A2

See you there

My nephew rented a suite for our desert crew for A-2 on the 28th. Never been that way before. I said how much ? He said buy me a beer and some food and were good. So after parking, some food, and a couple beers I should only be out 3 or 4 hundred lol. 

$40' for parking is kind of a kick in the nuts eh ? How much does it cost to park for a baseball game ? Just curious

Parking is $10 for ball games.

They seemed to skip through it. The riders barely got time to do anything and only the top 5 seemed to get custom introductions. Anaheim has sold out before but I’ve never seen it this packed for the day program. I arrived at 11:30 and the lines to get into the stadium stretched to the parking lot. Atmosphere was awesome last night. 
 

For the 250 class:

Jett is on another level than the rest of the field. RJ and McAdoo will be his only competition with Forkner out.

This is the first time in a long time where the Star/Yamaha riders were not noticeable. Levi and Stilez were kind of mid pack all day. 
 

Enzo Lopes was a nice surprise. Fastest in the first qualifying session and was good all night. The ClubMX bikes/program are on point. 
 

It was awesome seeing more yellow on the track. The BarX bikes showed that the Suzuki can compete with the class. They had some bad luck in the main and Masterpool should’ve won the lcq, but the bikes look great and twisted development has those engines dialed. Schwartz just doesn’t look as comfortable in supercross as he does outdoors. 
 

My buddy Max Sanford killed it in the LCQ and he looks so much better than he did last year. Congrats on the main event. If you get a chance to talk to him, one of the coolest guys in the pits. Dylan Walsh was very impressive last night too. 
 

450 Class:

These guys are in trouble. Tomac looked absolutely incredible last night. It’s a shame this might be the last season we see him race. The new 450 looks great for both Tomac and Ferrandis. 
 

Kenny looks good on yellow. Made a few mistakes out there but is clearly capable of running up front. Pretty miserable night for the rest of the HEP team though. 
 

Sexton, Webb, and Plessinger look a lot more comfortable on their new set ups. Webb was the most impressive to me outside of Tomac. Was super bummed for Mookie as I thought he would win that race when he got the lead. 
 

Anderson was fast but man he made a lot of mistakes. I said it many time in the other threads, that track was brutal with how technical it was. Every single rider made a mistake at some point and on the 450, it seemed really hard to get timing down. 
 

All in all, one of the craziest main events I’ve ever seen. It was a great atmosphere and really cool to see A1 so packed. Looking forward to a great season. 

That $4.99 for Peacock looks better all the time. 😊

Random observation that the tv broadcast didn't pick up, Jett seemed to take several looks over on laps 1 and 2 to see who had gone down off the start. 

1. Entry to the stadium this year was quick and easy and I kind of dig the paperless tickets. Security was extremely relaxed not stopping many people. Except I do miss the paper tickets since I save them all

2. Don’t pay for parking at the stadium $40 is a joke. Luckily I don’t have to worry about that. Plenty of other lots off site for those wanting something cheaper

3. By later afternoon Verizon service was non existent even in the pits. It was fine during the night show but it made finding people and changing fantasy picks a real nightmare for a bit

4. During practice only certain areas of the stadium are open for viewing. Everyone sits where they want getting different views of the track on the lower levels before the night show. This is the first time in 30+ years I’ve got asked to move out of someone’s seats. Not a big deal, but what are the odds of it happening twice for both practice sessions?! We got up and sat somewhere else no biggy but one guy definitely wanted to fight after I told him it must be his first time since he gave some attitude and had to have those seats. Practice is a great time to sit in different areas to get a good different perspective of the track. 
 

5. Definitely a full house. Sold out crowd

6. Opening ceremonies weren’t that great at all. Ferrandis, Roczen, and Wilson all came out to the same electro song spun by a DJ with no real announcement of each rider. They pretty much got skipped over. Seems like they got the fireworks and rider intros all out of order and it was rushed for those guys. The other main intros were “eh” compared to years past

7. Amazing tributes to Coy Gibbs and Ken Block in the stadium. The entire stadium was silent for Coy. That was awesome and gave me the chills. Ken block segment was great and the crowd got super loud for him. Glad they incorporated that. 
 

8. You can’t beat CA. Fun winter waves being in the same line up with Kelly Slater on Friday to watching Supercross on Saturday 20 min away in shorts and a t-shirt with snow covered mountains setting behind the stadium. 

 

A1 yesterday was great. Even with all of the rain California has had the past few weeks, the Dirt Wurx crew did a great job to get the track ready for the night show. Practice was a bit soft and soggy but the track during the night show was much better and allowed for great racing. The opening ceremonies seemed underwhelming in comparison to years past, I've been coming to A1 since 2001 and this one felt a bit rushed/un prepared.

250 Class

Jett Lawrence - Jett did Jett things, he looked in control all day through practice and the heat race and got out to a holeshot in the main event. It looked like he was on cruise control and had another gear if he really needed it.

RJ Hampshire - RJ looked fast all day, winning his heat. I think he has some speed and could challenge Jett, but that all depends on if he can hold it together at each race.

Cameron Mcadoo - Cameron is like RJ in my opinion, he has some real speed and could challenge for race wins, but will he be able to be consistent and stay off the ground. 

Other notes 

Mitchell Oldenburg - Was solid all day and night. He was strong in the main and had a great finish in 4th.

Max Vohland - It was good to see Max step up and be towards the front where he belongs. His 5th place finish was a great step in the right direction in comparison to last year.

Enzo Lopes - Can you say speed? Enzo qualified P1 and looked good all day. Had a bad start in the main but not a bad first race.

Stilez Robertson/Levi Kitchen - I expected these guys to be more in the mix, but it didn't look like they were very comfortable in the soft rutted conditions.

450 Class

Eli Tomac - Watch out, if this is how Eli is going to ride all year the class is in trouble. He played it cool and safe all day and made it happen when it counts. To go down and drop back to 6thish and come back to win was impressive.

Cooper Webb - What a charge through the pack for Coop. He didn't have a great start but just worked his way through the guys and got Sexton with a lap to go for 2nd.

Chase Sexton - Chase was fast, but too many mistakes cost him the win.

Other notes

Aaron Plessinger - Had speed all day and looked much better than last year, just had some mistakes. I think he had top 5 speed at A1.

Ken Roczen - Kenny looked "OK" all day, he had speed but it looked like he got tired in the main event.

Adam Cianciarulo - Not bad for a first race back, I think his goal was to just make it through the race. Honestly didn't even notice him all day.

Colt Nichols - Great result for Colt for his first race in the 450 class. During practice he looked way off the pace and was around 15-17th. He took advantage of the mistakes of others in the main and finished 6th. 

Unfortunetely, our sport brings out the lowlifes.   It always has, but it seems to be getting worse.