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Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
I'm very aware of that...but WSX acted like they had the money and as I said the investors pulled the plug after 3 races.....pretty sure not being able to do more than two races last year and all the cancelations this year are a big part of the investors pulling out...I'm not sure we can call them cancelations as I'm still waiting on the official announcements from last year and the French round this year...
Being a short after-season series didn't fit AT ALL in their original strategy.
WSX was supposed to be the "preeminent and first truly global supercross championship, featuring the sport's elite riders in stadiums around the world". That's the promess that got them their money from their investors.
You can't blame them for being ambitious and "dreaming big", but to say they bit more than they could chew and failed to deliver is an understatement.
Just to refresh memories, here's the provisional schedule they put out in may 2022.
I'm genuinely interested, not looking to poke holes, but can you post where you are seeing these figures? Specifically outdoor TV viewership?
My anecdotal evidence is that everyone I usually talk about the outdoors with isn't watching this year. It's a lonely island ☹️
I've kept up on results but I've only watched a couple motos . I'm normally out doing stuff in the summer so it's not unusual for me to miss the live broadcast but this season I haven't bothered with replays. For whatever reason my interest has waned .
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👍 damn 😳 and they've got three races in doesn't sound like good math lol
$100k to own one of the ten spots, but the teams were supposed to receive $1m a year in subsidies so I'm sure the owners planned to pay themselves back first before spending anything on riders or operations. That $1m subsidy was based on 8-12 races a year though, so who knows how much subsidy they actually received for only 2 races last year.
In theory if WSX was successful those team spots could be worth significantly more than $100k for other teams wanting to partner or buy in. On the other hand if the series folds they're worth nothing.
I wholeheartedly agree, I don't want to see our "hick" sport go mainstream. Big money ruins everything. Look at NFL,NBA, MLB, NASCAR etc etc etc.
Fewer kids in Pop Warner doesn't bode well for footballs future. Same goes for our sport.
To be perfectly honest, the NFL (and pro ball sports in general) are a pathetic joke and I wouldn't care if they disappeared off the face of the Earth.
Today especially, the attention span of the average person has declined. We're all guilty of it, scrolling our feeds, just stopping to look at something for 10-15 seconds, then becoming bored with it and moving on the the next clip. Any series, to be successful needs to be able to string together some type of consistency in their offerings, to even have a chance at building excitement. Hype and expectation are what make people care. Who can really get that psyched about a series that has one round every couple months, even when things are going according to plan? There's no continuity, no storyline, everyone forgets way to quickly to even care about the next race.
What does WSX really have to show their primary investor to convince them to continue to throw money at a racing series that barely races? They needed to come out swinging and they haven't even climbed into the ring.
What are the chances we get a refund for the tv pass? 0.0% or 0.0%?
So the change from participant sport to spectator sport is good? Whose going to make the bikes if manufacturers aren't selling them? Maybe Jawa and Westlake like speedway? The promoters of SX/MX adhere to the nobody would go to the circus if there was an elephant in every neighborhood theory. They want the sport unaccessible to the average person, it makes it more of a spectacle. Meanwhile quads and sidexsides keep our dealers afloat.
You already haven't received what you have paid for....
Oh im well aware lol. The first broadcast was sounds with a big wsx logo on the screen. It was shit lol.
Uhhh it wasn’t ever quite that much money.
Teams receive 50k per race.
In year one, they recieved larger seed payments (I believe it was 300k and 150k or something close to that)
While in years two through five, the seed payment was reduced to around 125.
So in year three, if the series was ten rounds, a team would receive around 625k.
One team did tell me that they way payments were recieved was changed this year. Instead of lump sumps, it was broken down monthly. Which wasn’t what they were told.
ML definitely hit the nail on the head. Simple math says that, over five years, a $50M budget probably equates to approximately $2.5M quarterly, provided certain metrics are met. As I stated in my earlier post, when that $2.5M every quarter is 95-98% of your revenue stream and then your investors suddenly turn off the tap, you will quickly run out of capital. Especially when you contracted one rider for a 3-year deal worth $2-4M. Ken's deal alone probably takes away more than one of those quarterly payments over the course of his contract. Not hating on Ken at all; if I was in his position, I would have signed that contract in a heartbeat! Let's say Ken is also being paid quarterly, and his deal is closer to the $4M mark. That would be $333,333 per quarter, which is almost 13.5% of the quarterly payment gone right away. I would assume that WSX has only received one quarterly payment for this year, so after paying Ken, teams, FIM, stadium rent, administrative costs, production costs, etc., the money bag WSX is holding is likely close to empty by now. It's just a failed business model with a focus only on the financial aspect. Once again, I really feel for all the riders who were counting on that payday. Unfortunately, riders in this sport are all too used to people "over-promising and under-delivering".
Its funny that nobodys like us on vital can do the basic math and figure out that the wsx business model was so flawed. Yet they said it was the future. You cannot keep spending investors money and not give them any return. I bet the 3 races they ran cost them 8 to 10 million and they were giving away tickets to get people in the seats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkCa49I6_xw
I thought I remembered hearing originally $1m a year for 5 years for each of the 10 teams = $50m. That was from one of the promoters when it was first announced, maybe I heard wrong or they changed the model.
$625k doesn't seem like it would go very far considering the equipment, personnel and travel expenses for a 4 rider team. The teams don't appear to have much sponsor support.
Pit Row
All the articles I remember were written like you say. $50 millions designated for just teams and riders over the course of 5 years.
Stevie Wonder coulda saw this coming.
It will be interesting how it all shakes out. If the cash is gone do the teams get paid? Riders?
I am the minority I guess, but I was in favor of it. More racing on TV is always a positive. The series created jobs for additional team staff and gave a chance for some guys to make some pretty good cash.
If it sounds too good to be true it's a government plan.
Funny you say that: for a long time, the french Craigslist had one of its users advices that said "If something looks too good to be true, well, it probably is too good to be true".
I thought about it since the first day I read how much money WSX was planning to pour on second tier teams and riders...
If wsx does go tango uniform, i wonder if so of those teams/riders will come back to smx? They have an investment on some level, why not do something with it.
Of the teams:
MCR - Still racing in the US, but backed down to just 250 West...maybe they would grow their US program back to 450s in Supercross.
PMG/HEP - Still racing in the US, but split up efforts for Nationals and WSX, is doing SMX with Chiz, Noren, and Roczen.
Club - Was mostly running different riders in WSX, they have a US team that operated separately (other than Enzo Lopes doing US SX and WSX)
GSM - French Supercross team, would just go back to doing French races
BUD - French team, would just do French Supercross, Nationals, and EMX stuff as they're still going
Firepower - Has a US Supercross team and the factory Honda team in Australia. Maybe they could start doing US Nationals too but that would take additional sponsorship.
Craig Dack Racing (CDR) - Yamaha Australia team, would likely just go back to doing Australian Supercross and Nationals, which they still do.
So of the seven of the teams, WSX going away wouldn't really affect what they do that much.
Three teams it would have a huge impact on are:
Rick Ware Racing - Built just to do WSX, I think they might pivot to US Supercross and SMX (doubt they would touch outdoors)
MDK - Same response as RWR above.
NILS Honda - This was the 114 Motorsports Honda MX2 team. They left MXGP to do this series and rebrand, it's owned by Gariboldi, the man who owns the HRC Honda MXGP team already. I'm not sure what he would do. Their MX2 team that this was originally wasn't doing too great and wasn't attracting much support, so I don't think they would go back to that.
Yes, I've already requested the evidence for these figures from Donald. Haven't seen it yet.
When WSX was announced I think it had a chance to succeed. It would have been at the expense of talent in the US Nationals. Then, the SMX plan was announced that brought US Supercross and Nationals into a combined, or linked, series leading to SMX. They say SMX was not a response to WSX, but whether it was or not is irrelevant. SMX was announced after WSX and in my opinion it effectively pulled the rug from under WSX. I do not believe there were ever enough marquee riders, dates, sponsors, manufacturer commitment, etc. to support all three series. Linking US SX and MX gave the riders a reason to not bail on the Nationals and chase WSX. If you want SX elsewhere in the world, have a few rounds of the current US SX series elsewhere in the world.
WSX will sadly soon be a bench racing stat in the beer cooler along with Summercross, the MxDN at Competition Park, and the Boo Koo AX series…
Remember people, there is a reason why Feld let this sanction go. If they couldn’t make it work outside the USA (and they tried all those years, eventually giving up), the notion some local Aussie promotors could do it is foolish.
Just so we’re all clear, are you calling him “Donald” as some sort of passive aggressive move?
https://www.youtube.com/live/g5AMVvTZAlU?feature=shared
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