2024 Outdoor Attendance

its a mix of everything tbh. Deegans, Lawrences, SMX, and good marketing.

Yep,.sport is looking good right now. And the racing has been some of the best i ever remember this year outdoors.  Both classes. 

85%+  because of Deegan…

Sx and now Mx both have had exceptional attendance. 

On the Gypsy podcast with Bud and Lori Jace said he was told that attendance was up 20% last year and anther 30% over that this year…up 50% from 2022….

That’s awesome, love hearing how loud the fans are every weekend.

Awesome for the sport, terrible for an attendee.

I would disagree.  We go.to Hangtown every year.  The bathroom.conditions, lines for food and products has improved a ton IMO.  Plus nothing makes a live event pop like a good crowd. 🤷‍♀️

I think it's a combination of Deegan's reach and speed; and Jett's dominance. There's a reason the sport was so big in the 90's and 00's; McGrath, Carmichael, and Stewart. Same with Tony Hawk in skateboarding, Michael Phelps in swimming, Shaun White in snowboarding, Lance Armstrong in cycling, etc. These are all niche sports that saw huge spikes in popularity because people love seeing all-time greats.

Looking into tickets for Unadilla it seems like they’re sectioning off parts of the track from general admission and having different ticket options to get to places like skyshot and gravity cavity. Is this the trend at all tracks now and could that compress general admission crowds to make it seem like attendance is up? Need actual numbers ideally. 
Just wondering.

I was at Red Bud and Millville and crowds were awesome at both. Red bud was totally insane (had to be the biggest ever) and Millville seemed like another great Millville. Food lines were a little long there but nothing to complain about. All these people complaining about pricing, but we keep seeing more and more show up. Ironman is next for me.

Maybe there was a dip during that time, but I've been to Millville a few times leading up to 2009-2010ish and the crowd this year seemed the same size as back then? I've been out of the sport for a while so maybe I missed the "lull"...?

Missed the Whoop Monster as well.

IMO - All the kids that grew up with McGrath/RC/Stew days now are in their 20s and 30s, have kids and have grown the sport and are bringing their families out. Larger pool of fans now.

Been to two SXs in the last two years and was blown away by how many people were there. It's been great to experience as an adult and hope they can keep the momentum up

Viewership is up.

Edit: Format is fucked up.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C90JZxDxvC4/?igsh=c3lkeTcweW04Mmdy

Seems like an ideal to get the Netflix ball rolling if there ever was one. I know you mentioned the behind the scenes issue elsewhere, but if there's a monetary gain to be had for the teams involved (similarly to Unchained/DTS) I can't see it being entirely problematic. Either way, all are good problems to have for the sport currently.

If that data is actually correct, it would actually be a 56% increase.  Not trying to correct you, but just wanted to say you're being conservative. 

Ha! True forgot to put over...Jace said it came directly from the track owners he talked to

Netflix wouldn't touch this sport with a ten foot pole. Not enough eye balls or interest to justify the costs to produce it to their standards.

I would attribute the popularity of MX and SX to the success that the entire Moto genre has had on social media platforms and Youtube.  The two entities were made for each other, just like football and tv were a good fit for each other in the early days of television.  You have to give Peacock some credit too, they have made it easy to watch.

Other than it being mentioned on a couple Pulp shows there's possibly some interest I would tend to agree with your doubts.

Although I’d enjoy that. People complain about $75 admission. With a drive to survive following, tickets would be $100-$350 a piece. F1 is incredibly expensive since that docuseries has been released. 

I said the same thing this year at Millville. I haven't seen crowds on the hills like that for years. Then going back and noticed big crowds at the other events all year.

I agree, It is great to see close, anyone can win racing, but you remember watching the "Ty Cobb's, Sandy Koufax's and Babe Ruth's" of motocross race and their eras.

More viewers, more manufacturers, pro side of the sport entering a golden age?

Something interesting that Matthes mentioned on Pulp a few weeks ago....

We'll never get the real attendance numbers because there is a conflict of interest.  The promoter wants to inflate the numbers to get more money outta sponsors, TV deals etc. etc.

The track owners want to deflate numbers so they don't gotta pay taxes on all those ticket sales.

But it was the track owners that told Jace that they were up 20% last year and 30% more this year...at least its closer to reality than the MXGP numbers...