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IMO it’s not right that a mfg pays the same bonus to win a regional 250 SX title with half the competition and half the races of a 250 MX title with the increased competition and races, not to mention the grind of the summer heat. 250 MX should be 750k min if not 1 mil.
This.
Honda has tiers of ownership in each bike that comes across the showroom floor. The dealer makes something like $1200-$1500 on a 450, plus whatever they can get on added markups. They have to buy the bikes from American Honda, which is likely getting something similar. They have to buy those from the factory, you know. And the factory probably makes a smaller profit margin than that on each bike, since the scale is so much larger.
The real question is this: who pays the riders' bonuses? Is it Honda Motor Company or American Honda? My guess is that it is part of the marketing budget for American Honda. Therefore, to reclaim a profit from the pay of the riders alone, they would have to sell something in the neighborhood of 7,500 CRF450Rs.
Remember, though: They aren't just selling 450s. There are 250 guys who look up to Jett. Dads who buy a CRF50 for their kids. Some single mom might like Chase and decide to buy an Accord because of him. A guy who owns a landscaping company might replace all his lawnmowers with Hondas. The marketing value that the racing team brings extends well beyond motocross race bikes.
My first thought was who is more in the Red (no pun intended).
-Honda, selling a bunch of CRF's but paying their riders millions
or
-Suzuki, who sells 15 RMZs but hardly any payouts to riders.
About tree fiddy. Someone had to say it...
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Not as much as Honda will spend on advertising g that they won every championship in US motocross. HMC has a market cap of just north of 50 billion. They spend more on F1 than all of this combined
Yeah, the finances never seem to pencil out when I think about it. This is just the bonuses, and doesn't consider the salary for the riders, plus support salaries, transportation costs, equipment costs, etc.
The other one I can't figure out is Alpinestars. I've seen rumors that guys like Eli Tomac and Justin Barcia get fat salaries to run Alpinestars gear. I assume Jett is similar with them. Yeah, they sell a lot of boots. But do they sell any gear? I almost never see people wearing Alpinestars jerseys in the wild.
Honda doesn't sell a lot of CRFs..
Same. Here in the PNW I see a sh*t ton of Yamahas and KTMs (Husky and GG included sprinkled in), a handful of Kawis, 2-3 Hondas, and maybe 1 Suzuki each time.
Think I read it somewhere that Astars spend all of profit back into the various motorsports they are involved in.
Could be wrong though.......
They sell a ton of motorcycle street riding gear, racing suits, riding boots, driving boots, driving gloves etc ....
carting suits...
racecar suits...
But probably spending a lot to sponsor those guys as well.
Ya I've been curious how Honda can afford all that
So let’s say Jett got 3 mil in bonus money. Just curious, how much of that is going to tax in the US?
The hardest sport on earth pays chump change to top guys who risk disability or death every day.
meanwhile a 38 year old DH hitting .198 gets twice as much money riding the bench in MLB.
this sport is so fucked up by the people who run it. Moto and supercross needs better marketing people.
About 40%.
I assume this is 1099 (independent contractor) income. He would pay about $1.2M federal tax on $3M income.
If he is a Florida resident, he probably won't pay any state taxes.
Though it might get a little fuzzy with American Honda being a California company, and win bonuses being earned in various states, he might have to pay taxes based on where the win bonuses are earned.
They can have the greatest marketing team ever assembled, but moto will never have anywhere near the level of fan support and revenue that baseball has.
Also a 38 year old DH hitting .198 is likely only getting paid a high salary because he is still playing on a guaranteed contract that he earned when he was a 33-year-old first baseman who was hitting 35+ HR per season.
Thanks for that. I’m honestly surprised, I thought it would be a much lower number. Would be about the same over here unfortunately.
Pit Row
X2, tv slots. Way more fans in the stadiums. Etc.
Meanwhile most people who do actual useful work get paid a pittance in comparison.
True, dirt bike pros will never get to the pay level of guys in ball and stick sports.
BUT - If I were king of moto, I would sure as hell do a lot of things differently to bring sponsorship and attendance in.
The managerial thinking in this sport is so small - home school ex riders are in charge of a lot of stuff - and if Monster or Red Bull decides they won't put dollars in anymore it will be big trouble.
They should have done the SMX playoffs decades ago. why did it take this long?
Ill stop ranting now.
Feld/MXSports/AMA Pro Racing or whatever got pretty nervous when World SX was announced. They somehow found a couple million bucks to put into a new series. That's my cynical take on it.
You really wanna know?
Of course
or Honda may be paying him through a company, he could then take a couple of hundred thousand as salary from the company for living expenses, the company could buy company cars (Ferrari), car washes, etc and make no profit, companies pay 21% tax, but only on profit!
They could do that, but it would technically be tax evasion.
It depends on how the company is structured, contract with Honda, and what the company expenses, Jett would still pay personal income tax on any payment made directly to him.
It doesn't matter how the company is structured. If he is driving a company owned Ferrari, any non-business use of the car is taxable.
That's true, but if he's driving a company owned Ferrari for promotional purposes it isn't!
If audited, Honda would probably have a tough time justifying Jett driving a Ferrari to Subway for lunch being an expense that benefits American Honda.
Post a reply to: Any guess on how much $ Honda America paid out in SX and MX title bonuses to Chase, Jett, and Hunter?