MXDN Profit - Pay the riders

What makes mxdn the most special event in the entire world - fully paid pros do it for FREE to show their love of the sport to their fans.... you would Never see this in another sport... thats why it so special... one event NOT about money, but about the love of the sport...  

Then maybe the broadcast should be free? Attendance free? Infield should host the event on their dime for the love of the sport just like the teams that show up do. 

Point is, people are making bank off this event and it’s not the team or riders. If we want to play love of the sport then let’s be very open about the money and where it’s going. How about any profit be put back into winning countries local tracks? That seems reasonable. 

Exactly..

Looks like we have a handful of promoters in this thread..

I'm not saying that I don't think riders should be getting paid .  I agree that riders should be getting paid to go . 

   And while we are at it, I think its crazy that the riders have to pay to race SX. and MX too.  With the new media rules its going to cost teams a lot more to get the same promotional value from the sport. And that's the only reason that the big teams exist. Is to advertise .  Those new media rules are really just taking money out of the racers and mechanics pockets and putting it into Felds.  

From the point of view of a promoter, why would I change things up when nobody is asking?  That is all that I've seen as a counter point. Not that anybody doesn't want to see riders make more money.  

No other sport on earth operates this way,...

They are exploiting the whole “patriotic for your country”..to make money off the backs of riders.

For sure the promoters need to make money, but so should the riders. 

I don’t know if Deegan asked for money or not, but it got the necessary conversation going around paying riders..that’s a good thing. 

Yes I am very concerned ONE U.S. rider needs $100,000 to merely show up. 

Haha.

I absolutely agree. The promoters arent going to voluntarily give money away. I also totally think they should get paid too. 

It’s just crazy riders and teams get nothing. Even for winning. “Race for your country,” ok cool but your country got nothing out of it. Even soldiers get paid lol.  

Then we rip on teams like kawi and riders (of course Deegan, but others have sat out), for not wanting to go.  I totally applaud those going out to ride for free, that’s really cool of them, but I also want those guys to earn their share. That can be either paying riders/teams, or even just giving money back to local tracks or some moto charity if they podium. 

Kitchen was very close to having a very bad off-season. 

Life was simpler in 2005

Does no one get this?
The MXoN is the once-a-year sacred celebration of the fantastic sport of motocross. Racers exist thanks to the fans. So, the racers shouldn't be asking for a fee; instead, they should come to thank the crowd for their dedication. The promoter can sell tickets, but their sole obligation should be to reinvest all profits into making the sport even better and more spectacular. They could consider supporting financially struggling federations to help get their riders into the paddock.
Above all, it ought to be a sacred celebration where the global motocross community truly lets loose and experiences the best weekend ever, year after year.

I don’t really see the downside to paying the riders, unless you’re Infront, of course. It’ll just be more motivation for the best riders to go which is nothing but a positive for fans.

Oh yay! A celebration of the sport of motocross so let’s charge the fans, pocket the profit, and not pay the riders or teams! You win the event at least you get to celebrate! 
 

Lol I’m just messing, but this does sound like something infield would post in response to this thread. “Well, we could consider helping struggling federations but…. Nah.”

Herlings: “It’s still like kind of an Olympics for motocross,.kind of. Even though there’s nothing on the line, we all do it. I don’t know about other countries, but we kind of always do it for free. So it’s just a race we do for the country and for the team.

“And as you can see, regarding the fans, it’s quite impressive because there were like, well, 50, 60,000 people today. Everything was full. So you can still see it’s the biggest race of the year. The whole industry, you see the bigger hospitality over here. All these brands, so it’s just the biggest race of the year. So I think to do, you know, we’re doing, I mean, the Americans do over 30 races. We do over 20. So to do one extra race at the end of the year, I think, yeah, it’s quite good.

And it’s just a tradition, you know, because of Nation for me, it’s kind of a traditional race. And yeah, we should keep it in. And like I said, for all of us, financially, we don’t get really better from it. It’s just pure passion race.” 

Prado: “It’s obviously a very nice event. The atmosphere, it’s incredible. And it’s, I think, a race we do with a lot of passion because we want to represent our country and that’s the main thing. Even for me this year, racing over 30 races and still wanting to come over. It’s just because we love the sport and we love the country. And I really wanted to put Spain on top of the box if possible.

“So we do it just because of the passion. For example, in my case, I’ve been racing all year long. And I also want to get some rest before I start again in January. We don’t have time. I say in America, everything is very tight and we don’t have time to rest. But I do a little effort on my part to come over and race for the team Spain. So in my case, it’s full passion. And hopefully one day we can put Spain on the very top of the box.” 

https://gatedrop.com/herlings-and-prado-on-the-importance-of-the-mxon/

Hot take: millionaires don't need more money.

Some top riders love the event, others can't be bothered, that's fine, if they'd rather sit on their couch so be it. Many teams, large and small, make it happen, with or without budget from their national federation but if anything help the little guys, the small federations who can't make it happen yes absolutely.

Very noble of them.  Now interview the teams that had to fork out the money, do the work, and the bottom 15 riders. The countries that can’t make it every year too due to funding.

Meanwhile sommmmme people are profiting very nicely.  

As long as we play fair and the money was transparent and going to a good cause after costs are factored in, then I’m 100% down with riders not getting the payment directly. Otherwise, pay the riders and teams

Just another BS excuse knowing nobody would pay it. Consistent excuses for his non-US MXdN participation.

If the STAR reason "we don't want to spend money unless we can win" will hold up at the next MXdN if we don't have a strong team. Even though less expensive for STAR to compete in the US, you still have to spend money on the support team and bikes. Not a contracted race wherever it is held. 

You missed the whole point. 

 Millionaire riders, or more to the point ONE millionaire rider is not the focal point. It's a worldwide celebration of the sport. One of our most cherished traditions. 

If one family wants to shit on it, demand money so they feel more important, don’t want to potentially get smoked by the Euros, or as some have started guessing dodging FIM/WADA drug testing so be it. Just don’t pretend you give two shits about the money for any other reason. If you did you would have said something about FIM/Youthstream and the GP’s for the past 20 years.

High level teams and riders have been sitting out mxon for some time now. It’s one of the sickest events yet it hasn’t felt as hyped as it has in the past. 

USA has sent “b team” it feels like for the past 10 years lol. Either someone is on kawi and Kawi won’t go, rider feels they want to heal a bruised ass, or whatever number of reasons. It’s always something. There’s no incentive to go. Hunter could have went this year instead of doing smx, but why would he? He could have even went after smx, but why when it’s better to just take the 1 extra weekend to heal after that long run of racing.

We all agree the event is so sick, but man it could be way better. Let me also say I do not agree with deegans $100k demand if that was true. That’s not the type of money I’m talking about (unless they literally won then I could see it).
 

I was wondering how much the prize money was now.  Years ago I remembered them paying out a purse and providing travel funds for teams. 

 About $2284. US for team travel sure went a lot further years ago.  It really looks similar to what they were paying out way back 20 years ago . I have a printed copy of the MXON rulebook from 2007. I should dig it up and flip through it and see if the numbers are the same. 

Roughly $3800 USD for the winning team.  So around $6k for the winning team total.  

It doesn't seem crazy to up the travel amounts. There is no way that $2284 even covers the shipping of bikes and parts, never mind the travel.  

Screenshot below of the payout from the 2026 rulebook.   

 The other thing is , the MXON is run just like every other race. Other than the purse.  While AMA purses are not that great either, they are all still higher than the numbers offered for the MXON. 

The bigger teams like the US team, Belgium, etc. are going wild and spending a ton.  How about some sort of spending cap, AND providing more travel and a decent sides purse. I really think that giving the race a giant purse would give the race even more credibility.  If they were able to put together a $1m prize for first, $750K for second, $500 for 3rd.  And then start really dropping down past the top 10 or so.  Just imagine what publicity that could help drive towards the race! And it would  direct the funds towards the teams spending the most money. 

 The other thing is that the biggest amount of money that riders get paid is from sponsors. The MXON is way bigger in other countries compared to the US . So it has been said that US companies do not want to spend marketing money at the MXON because of it being outside of the country and not as big of a deal as far as exposer for them. 

Getting some better coverage in the US and growing the spectator base in the US would  be an incentive for the US brands to step up and fund bonusses etc. for going to the MXON. 

The value of the streaming rights for AMA MX and SX has recently gone from paying to get the races shown live, to the promoters getting paid for the steaming. That happened because of a growing demand for viewing the races.  If Infront did more to increase the viewership in the US that would help make it more valuable for the us brands that are already shelling out big bucks for US based race bonuses.  And the money from streaming rights that has come into  AMA racing was able to fund some really good  payouts for the SMX series.  Infront  should put more effort into growing the US audience.  The international fans want to see the US riders, So growing the audience in the US and helping fund the US teams getting to the MXON would help  make sure that the best US riders showed up. 

Riders shouldn’t get paid to go.

Riders should, however, compete for prize money. And at this event, lots of prize money. 

I’m glad people put their foot down. The world isn’t a charity, in front can afford to help the teams out. 

Some points I haven’t seen mentioned.

This is an FIM event much like a GP, nobody gets paid prize money to ride MXGP

Nobody really cares if Deegan comes or not

USA keeps sending B Teams which means they don’t win which everyone else is in favour of

If the only rider missing to make it an A Team is Deegan, then USA still wouldn’t have won

The event is the biggest on the calendar for Europe, it will still be that even if the USA don’t send a team at all

These may be controversial and some may not agree, but after years of complaining about lack of prize money in MXGP it hasn’t changed, it won’t change because 1 guy wants paying. The biggest stars in AMA aren’t even American at the moment either, they just chose to sit out for surgery and other reasons.

Let’s say they start paying teams to come, a few short years later the teams decide that’s not enough and up their ransom. Like I said earlier in this thread, my view is they can suck it up or stay home, not everything in life has to be all about money.