Good, Bad and Ugly | Birmingham 2

'Good, Bad and Ugly' reflects on miscellaneous points from the first round of the 2023 FIM World Supercross Championship, Birmingham. What would you place under each subheading? Travel to the forum to join the discussion or share ideas on social media (@VitalMX on Twitter and Instagram). For now, however, read on for some thoughts on Ken Roczen, the attendance in the United Kingdom and the fact that everyone needs to chill out.

GOOD

Luring Ken Roczen into the 2023 FIM World Supercross Championship was a rather smart move and what transpired inside of Villa Park only reinforced that. It is so cool to see how much star power someone like '94' has – that really shone through when he was holding up a whole series. There are countless stars in AMA Supercross and that makes you forget how much power a single rider has, you know? Roczen moves the needle, and he did exactly that in Birmingham. It was a very important acquisition for SX Global.

Do you want to know what the real "good" from Birmingham was? Roczen in the final turn. The way that he hopped in and out of that last corner was simply brilliant. It encapsulated just how technically good he is and that should have been WSX's entire highlight package. A highlight reel of '94' in that last corner. Screw the rest of the racing! I should probably clarify that is satire, because WSX discussion can anger a lot of people. More of that at the bottom of this column…

BAD

This is not "bad" in the opinion of the scribe, but the rest of the world thinks that it is. Let's hash this out! The crowd was not spectacular at the Grand Prix of Great Britain – Villa Park was around twenty-five percent full. Perhaps it was a little busier than that? Anyway, there were a lot of fans that felt that was atrocious. I am not sure that much more could be asked of the sport in the United Kingdom because, again, it is niche in the nation. Yes, it is niche everywhere. Even more so in Britain though! It was much busier than I expected it to be and therefore I put the attendance down as a success.

If AMA Supercross had a crowd like that then it would be shocking, but that is because each market is so different. It could be hard for Singapore or Abu Dhabi, for example, to match the Birmingham attendance. More would be expected of Australia though. Germany and Canada are complete wildcards! The point is that the crowd was not that shocking at round one though. Was it incredible? No and it should not be publicized as such. It was acceptable though.

UGLY

I despise the way that the FIM World Supercross Championship has divided the fans. Discussing the series has become a taboo subject, in my mind at least, as approaching the subject feels like entering the lion's den. This is no fault of SX Global at all – I'm certain that they do not want their product to be so polarizing and the source of so much angst. The reality is that there are positives and negatives about the series, as is the case with any other professional championship. Fans can engage in mostly pleasant discussions about those competing championships without much aggression though.

There is something about WSX that lights a fire underneath fans on opposing ends of the argument. Adam Bailey, CEO of SX Global, admitted that the series is a work in progress and that is an exciting aspect to me. It is rare to have an all-new championship in any sport and that opens a door to glance at it from a very different perspective. What is not working? What could be improved? How could this be molded into a better product? SX Global would have looked at what transpired on Saturday from that perspective, as they should, and I like to join them in that.

I just cannot put my finger on what makes this such a dangerous topic. It would be so much better for all involved, no matter whether you are for or against this series, if everyone would just chill out and embrace healthy debate. This has turned into a plea of sorts. Perhaps this is naïve of me, but I feel like I have never seen anything like this in any sport. To reiterate: WSX has good and bad points, as does every other thing that exists in the world, and talking about both is fine. Deep breaths, everyone. It will be okay.