Is "growing the sport" making it more expensive to park at Supercross races?

“ Growing the sport” is code for ..I need to squeeze as much $ as I can out of this before it all goes away…

Is the sport growing? I personally am fine with it how it is as long as I have places to ride. I would say that it’s shrinking if we use tracks and participants as a measuring stick. As for the parking, it’s greed. 

“growing the sport” can mean many different things. 

In this case, growing popularity of going to a SX will of course result in increased ticket and parking prices. 

"I'm just trying to understand."

It's just random neurons firing.

This isn’t just an SX parking thing. These types of inflated prices are everywhere, especially in the world of entertainment (tickets, parking, restaurant prices, etc etc etc)

I don't think that Feld has anything to do with the parking or the pricing of it....pretty sure that is the stadium/city that sets that price and receives the money. 

Well they aren’t getting a G out of me this year 

I think it was $55 at Arlington SX last year, I'm sure that money goes to Jerry.  I dont really have a problem with the parking price, I can squeeze 6 into my truck, then we will tailgate all day and again after the race, so I get my money's worth.

As to the original question. San Diego this weekend - you can buy parking from the Snapdragon official site via ticketbastard that’s right in the ballpark for parking for a regular SDSU football game . 

I don’t think it matters WHO is receiving it.

The concept would be, does growing the sport make it more expensive.

Parking at Jerry World seems to have become more expensive over the years for supercross, but I don’t think it has anything to do with if the sport has grown or not

Everything is more expensive.  A Gatorade is $5 and a cheap meal is $17.  I have several hobbies and outlets in life…every aspect of each is just absurd.  The dollar doesn’t have a lot of power and it’s been tough since the boom of Covid checks plus low supply in the market ended.  Not sure you can point at any one thing.  

Posted in another thread before. Anaheim parking for SX $50, Angel game still $20…. 

And my point is that the cost of parking and concessions have nothing to do with the growth of the sport as it is not controlled by SX and those prices are the same regardless of the sporting event that is going on in the venue. 

50 to park at A-1. Fuck me.

while I am on the topic, I never buy food at the stadium, over-priced, greasy, and poor quality.  Make or buy your own and bring it in in a clear bag.

We brought in our own BBQ chicken salads in aluminum take out containers, and bottled drinks, better than any vendor was offering at Angels stadium. 

For San Diego Supercross, park at Fashion Valley Shopping center and take the trolley to Snapdragon Stadium - $2.25 for the trolley fare. 

While everyone else is in a traffic jam to get out, you are off the trolley and in your car in 15 mins after the event.

This stuff is because of inflation. I always thought the sport peaked during the McGrath - RC,CR,JS era. It’s healthy but hard to top that 10-15 year period. 

Feld has nothing to do with venue prices. Snapdragon Stadium is owned by SDSU. They care about the success of Supercross about as much as they do any other form of entertainment at the stadium. 

I would imagine the City of San Diego also has an influence on certain venue prices especially for parking. Only a fool would park there any way. Take the trolley unless you want to be stuck in traffic forever.

Growing the sport would begin at the bottom. More places to ride, more people riding, more people buying bikes and parts. Covid was like Toradol or cortisone shot, stopped the pain for a few and it was on the up, but the same problems still exist. I believe the vast majority of normal folk see dirtbikes as dare devilish and unfortunately I think alot of people relate it to bikers and biker gangs. Also for the public eye it doesnt help with having idiots riding dirtbikes in the streets and it being in the news and all over social media. 

The main problem I believe is its hard to relate to it until you do it. The cost of entry into basketball, football, baseball, soccer etc...., makes it feasible for almost all families to experience and find out whether they like it or not, creating large fanbases of the sports they actually participate in. Even relating to automobile racing is the fact that almost every single person has driven in a car. A lot of people are timid in cars and can relate to how "sketchy" it can be and have a sense of that danger and/or excitment from it. As for MotoGP's popularity, i dont really have an answer for that and it is kind of an outlier. 

There are many other factors too, but from all my years of riding, from before kindergarten to this very day( as sad as it makes me ill be 40 next month), the way I was treated by most of my school teachers, doctors and even down to my childhood boyscout troop leader saying it wasnt a sport, this is what I have come up with as a big issue.

I would say I have been to more SX and Nationals than the vast majority of even people on this mesage board, but havent gone to an SX or national in the last 3 years. The pricing for myself and my family to go doesnt make sense when we can go ride on Saturday, get home and watch the replay of the race for a fraction of the cost and time invested into going to races now. I still buy new bikes (3 in the last year) parts and gear, but the pro races in person unfortunately isnt of value any longer to a lifelong fan like myself, and I dont feel that that, is helping grow the sport either. 

I would think it depends on how you define "growing the sport".

To most of us it might be measured in more tracks, trails, manufacturers, participants, etc., like you mentioned.

To the manufacturers it likely means sales of units but also support for their race teams to defray their costs, etc.

To promoters it means profitable events.

To TV partners it would mean ad revenue.

The problem is that some of these latter ones don't directly improve (grow) the earlier ones; they're self-serving since spectators and viewers aren't necessarily participants and those parties really don't have a vested interest in the number of participants increasing, only in what makes them the most money for the show. SX in particular is marketed much like Monster Trucks and how many of those spectators own one? There's no direct correlation between participants and attendance/viewership.

Do you think a pimp cares if his hoe is doing well or just how much money she makes him? He can always get another one.

Maybe the sport has been pimped out a bit too much? That's likely a personal viewpoint/opinion and not a universally held one.

I have not posted here in years, but this is my chance to shine - I have made a career out of the parking industry, and it is pretty interesting. To build a parking garage it can cost as much as 50k per space (that is definitely a high-end number) and I imagine it is around a 35-40k average. Not only are you spending the money to build the garage or maintain the facility, but that real-estate asset is also not being used for another revenue producing purpose. This ultimately drives parking rates up.

We also have the issue that many of the tech pieces used to pay for parking and also enforce parking come with steep costs that are further driven up by different integrations with hotels, municipalities, license plate recognition components, and all kinds of other variables.

The final piece of the puzzle is the density and parking availability of an area. Parking prices are purely supply and demand. If I charge $5 dollars in my lot and across the road it is $2 or free you can go there instead, but if I am the only event venue and I drive large demand (specifically in a less populated area) I have created "artificial density" and then I can charge you whatever I want to use my facility because you have no choice. We also see "dynamic pricing" where the biggest events like a Taylor Swift concert will influence parking rates in the same way they might influence hotel rates. 

It is fairly nuanced but that is the basics.

It amazes me how people on here don't understand that yes "growing the sport" increases prices. Do you think with a huge TV package and "increased" payouts to riders would come out of FELD's bottom line? People wanted more and more,  and we have it pretty good right now as a fan. So suck it up and pay for it, or stay on the couch and watch. Show me one sport that "grew" and ticket prices stayed the same. 

I love trying to visualize every car in the Anaheim as $50 bills. Mind boggling. 

Just checked Angle Stadium on Google Maps (image is from one of last year's rounds), and it looks like the pits are taking up several hundred parking spots. That could have something to do with the price increase. 

All venues are really jacking up the price for parking. There's like 80 home baseball games so parking is cheaper for them. In Cleveland or Pittsburgh the price of parking for a regular baseball game is less than a football game, in Pittsburgh the 2 stadiums are right next to each other. Cleveland Browns owner is looking to move the stadium out by the airport so he can own all the parking lots around it, now it's mostly city lots that are third party owned that get the money.

I think the hope with growing the sport is that there will be more motivated folks advocating for it and more people to patronize and work more tracks. It seems theres some other hurdles involved in making that come true besides getting people to watch supercross, but you gotta start somewhere. 

At least you can watch all 31 rounds of SMX on Peacock for the price of a parking spot or round of stadium beers.

What does 22nd pay on Sat night - shit from the promoter so what has really grown.  It’s a joke these guys go out and risk their lives for a shit purse in front of 50k people drinking $20 beers and paying $50 to park.. 

Growing the sport is just like trusting the process. 

Maybe, but doubtful since there’s no Angel game getting sold out any time soon. It’s tough being an Angel fan. At least we have the Dodgers close by 😂

Dude. Seattle Supercross. 70 DOLLARS to park. Can’t think of where exactly the garage is, but it’s right on the other side of T-Mobile arena. You leave the garage and walk down the street past the baseball arena to get over to the Seahawks stadium. I just couldn’t believe it $70. Absolutely insane.

Parking is big business. They have you by the short hairs for the most part.

Every business right now is going through the process of seeing how hard they can push their customer base financially. This began in 2020 for whatever reason but almost every industry is going through this process. They want to see how much you'll pay and maximize your expenses before the margins start backing down to. This process is ongoing and inflation is the guise.