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It had been discussed years before between the parties that part is true. It's no coincidence it came to fruition after WSX was announced though. That drove them to make this happen ASAP.
“X happened before Y therefore X caused Y” is not a valid argument lmao
There hasn’t been any evidence that shows that the announcement of WSX caused the SMX series beyond the fact that WSX was announced first
The timing was because their TV contracts didn't align...its also why we had shitty coverage on MavTV for one season...not because of WSX...now the purse for SMX may have been a reaction to WMX...
Just because it wasn't talked about publicly doesn't mean it wasn't in the works long before WSX was a thing.
Does anyone honestly think Feld and MX Sports would be able to pull off this feat in a very short amount of time after WSX was announced?
Feld and MX Sports had contracts with different broadcast partners. Those contracts needed to expire before both companies could align together to sign on the dotted line with a new broadcast partner.
Then there's the fact there were a lot meetings and follow up meetings to create and iron out every single little detail for the SMX structure, rules, finding new venues, marketing plan, TV/Live schedule, purse payouts, profit splits, more contract/legal work etc.
That all takes a lot of time.
DC had to drop 1 national this year. Does anyone think the idea was brought to the table and he just agreed to it and said: "sure, no problem."
Feld is dropping 1 SX round next year. Same thing here. Does anyone think they simply agreed to it right off the bat?
No business owner wants to lose income.
There were a lot of moving parts in order for SMX to be created. This didn't happen overnight after the guys down under announced they got the rights to FIM and World Supercross was born.
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I didn’t know about dropping a SX round next year, is that to add another SMX round?
You're absolutely right, of course.
Still, I'd'be willing to bet Tony Cochrane was the perfect catalyst to make things move faster forward.
If I remember correctly they announced they're dropping a round of SX next year at the original SMX conference, but I don't think they mentioned why. I think Weege said it somewhere.
I think it's to have an extra weekend off before the start of the MX series. That or to bring the total number of races down to 30.
Probably helps with the East/West having the same amount of races too
At this point anyone who still believes SMX was a response to WSX is never going to change their mind
When you consider what needed to happen behind the scenes to bring it to reality you are probably correct. Just my personal opinion, but there are a handful of little details and lack of clarity that make it feel a bit last minute.
Be interesting to know if the big $$$$ purse was always part of the plan. All the other stuff is nice but it’s the big purse payouts that makes this materially different from anything else in the past.
I remember it that way too...but hasn't been mentioned since...I guess we'll find out when the 24 schedule is announced.
I have no doubt that SMX was long talked about, with some planning in place, well before it came into realisation. As Mav said, you can’t organise these things overnight.
But you can say the same thing about WSX, as AusX they’d been talking about taking it international for years. It seems SMX was more advanced than WSX though.
However I think it’s highly likely that the advent of WSX helped consolidate SMX with a greater sense of required haste. Competition is a good thing.
Now if only they’d drop a few extra SX rounds, move MXGP forward a bit, move WSX back, and create a cooperative international calendar with ample time for all series and events. That truly would be the best outcome for the sport as a whole. Alas greed is hard to overcome…..
Back to Unadilla without Roczen...
Who do we actually have that maybe we didn't expect?
Stephen Rubini?
Tanel Leok?
Harry Kullas?
Not to mention that there are 19 non Americans signed up in the 450 class alone. Love it!!! That's more than the GP's get for some of their races.
And 14 in the 250 class... Should be an awesome race day if the weather holds out.
Posted it in the Unadilla News thread, but there are quite a few riders a lot of people didn't expect.
I didn't include series regular like Shimoda, Vialle, Thury, etc.
International Riders
250
101 Jonathan Von Knorring (Sweden)
108 Jorgen Talviku (Estonia)
245 Matti Jorgensen (Denmark)
337 Slade Smith (South Africa)
392 Pawel Maslak (Columbia)
430 William Crete (Canada)
435 Marcus Phelps (South Africa)
504 Gerhard Matamoros (Honduras)
584 Cameron Durow (South Africa)
711 Michael Da Silva (Canada)
450
106 Stephen Rubini (France)
107 José Butron (Spain)
347 Anton Gole (Sweden)
444 Romain Pape (France)
522 Rob Windt (Netherlands)
555 Heberton Lima (Brazil)
591 Charlie Putnam (UK)
638 Lucas Giardino (Canada)
654 Vincent Lauzon (Canada)
704 Tanel Leok (Estonia)
724 Jakub Teresak (Czech Republic)
748 Carlos Badiali (Venezuela)
906 Jay Wilson (Australia/Japan)
931 Adrien Malaval (France)
953 Harri Kullas (Estonia)
They mentioned on the Fly Moto60 show today that there ended up being prior obligations that he needs to attend to even though he fully wanted to race these couple of rounds and may still race the last round at Ironman.
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